Wheeler Lake FLW Tour Open

Jay Yelas – Competition Recap
Saturday, September 22, 2012

> Day 1: 5, 8-03
> Day 2: 5, 6-04
> Total = 10, 14-07 (63rd place)

I think I just fished the wrong end of the lake. I fished up the lake near the Guntersville Dam and the upper part of the river and in some creeks. Not only did I not catch them, but all the guys I bumped into, none of them caught them either. I wish I’d have spent more time on the lower end, but I thought I could catch them up the river. There wasn’t really a whole lot of boat traffic up there and it just didn’t pan out.

In years past, I’ve fished the lower end a lot – Elk River, First and Second creeks – and a lot of the top weights are coming from down there, but I opted not to fish there and it was just a bad decision.

I just wasn’t around them. Otherwise, I’d have done a lot better. I do that a lot, though, where I’ll commit to a section of the lake before we get there and I’ll just spend my whole practice there. Most of the time it works, but it didn’t work this time. It was just one of those stinkers. It just confirms why Wheeker Lake is my least favorite lake. It’ll remain that way my whole career and nothing’s going to change that.

Sometimes you’ll go to a tournament and every decision you make is wrong and it doesn’t happen often, but this is easily my worst tournament of the year. I just didn’t have a good performance. It was embarrassing to finish that low. If it’d been a full field, I’d have been in the 120s. That was pretty darn close to the bottom and that’s not like me at all. The good thing is there’s another tournament next week (Toyota Texas Bass Classic) and then we finish up at Sam Rayburn so hopefully I can finish the year strong.

Luke Clausen - Practice Recap
Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Tuesday was just confirmation that things are going to be pretty random. I’d go down a stretch and get bit on this and then I’d move down a little further and get bit on that. I think it’s going to be a case of we’re just going to go fishing because things are changing a lot.

Hopefuly I’ll be able to put something together throughout the day. Wheeler’s not that huge of a lake as far as fishable water goes and I’m sure things are going to change from what we saw in practice. I’m not going to fish real deep.

Three-pounders are going to go a long way in this thing. I only know of maybe a half-dozen 3-pounders caught amongst everyone in practice. It’s going to be a grind.

Luke Clausen - Day 2 Practice
Tuesday, September 18, 2012

It rained pretty much non-stop (Monday) and they’re saying we could get 4 to 5 inches by the time it’s done. It’s going to change things. I don’t know if it’ll be good or bad. It’s been pretty tough. It’s possible it could get tougher, but it’ll create some opportunities.

(Sunday) and (Monday) were about the same. I caught a few fish and ground it out, nothing too spectacular. I could catch some throughout the day, but didn’t really figure anything out. I used about 10 different rods and tried a lot of different stuff. Hopefully, things will be more solid on Tuesday.

On Sunday, I fished from Decatur down and (Monday), I ran up the river and at this point, I’d say the river looks better to me. I need to keep trying to see if I can figure out something a little more solid. It’s a lot of junk-fishing and that’s probably due to it being September, too.

I would never count (the Alabama Rig) out. It’s so situational that if we were to get some current, it could definitely play a factor. There’s enough bait and the bait’s grouping up and the fish are getting to where it’s getting right for them to feed like that. We’d need some more current and this rain may do that.

Part of the problem is you can catch one in 2 feet of water just as easy as you can in 22 feet of water. It’s really scattered and the fish are spread out and that lends itself more to junk-fishing, so you’re going to have to bounce around and fish areas where the fish are.

Jay Yelas - Day 1 Practice
Sunday, September 16, 2012

It’s not a lake I forward to coming to, that’s for sure, and I think a lot of people in Alabama feel the same way because nobody fishes this lake. They all fish Guntersville or they fish Pickwick, but Wheeler’s always had a lot of bass, just not a lot of big fish, at least since the grass has gone away.

I don’t understand why there’s no grass. Guntersville has more grass this year than it’s had in years and you see milfoil floating down the river all day long from Guntersville and yet it doesn’t take root. There’s got to be a reason why.

I was just trying to find some fish and trying to find some baitfish and see what’s going on. I haven’t fished here in a long time. I’m just trying to find something good. I really don’t know what to expect here. I went back and looked at some old tournament results from September tournaments and gosh, 12 pounds a day back then won those tournaments. I don’t know how the lake has changed since then, but it’s surely a tough time of year. It’s a lake that has tons of fish in it, but the big fish in September are pretty tough.

I don’t know what it’s going to take to do well here. I don’t have a lot of comparisons other than some 10-year-old tournaments where it took 12 pounds a day to win in September. I think it’ll be pretty tough.

Today, I could’ve caught 11 or 12 pounds. I didn’t catch a lot of fish, but I did find one spot where there was a school of fish and I could’ve caught several there if I wanted to. I fished for several hours and didn’t catch anything today also. I’m just going to keep looking for similar stuff to where I found that school today and see if I can find something else like it.