By MLF Communications Staff

In a crazy finish that had bass-fishing fans watching the MLF NOW! livestream on the edges of their seats, Jacob Wheeler of held off a late charge from Bobby Lane to win the Lake Travis MLF Bass Pro Tour event in Austin, Texas and capture the top prize of $100,000.

Wheeler, the No. 1 angler in the BassFan World Rankings for nearly 2 calendar years now, caught his last fish of the day at 2:19 p.m., a 2-02 bass that gave him a total of 13 bass weighing 28-13 and a 9-04 lead with just under an hour left in competition. Then Lane caught fire.

Lane boated five scorable bass in the last hour to rally to within 2 ounces of the lead with just three minutes remaining in competition. But Lane never caught another fish, and Wheeler walked away with the win – a new record for the closest margin of victory in Bass Pro Tour history.

“Wow, that was unbelievable,” said Wheeler, who earned his unprecedented third career Bass Pro Tour victory. “I knew that I was going to have to have a good first and second period, and I just didn’t know how long I could prolong it. I grinded all day long.

"I felt like the best chance that I had was just to keep a topwater bait and a vibrating jig in my hand, so I threw those all day long and just fished for big ones. I never got a real big bite today, but I got more bites today and it was enough.”

Wheeler’s combo pattern with the vibrating jig and the topwater bait centered around the docks. Wheeler would pick apart the dock with the vibrating jig, then throw the topwater bait in between while making his way to his next dock.

“The big key with the docks was that there was only a certain zone of the lake that had a little bit of dirtier water. The water clarity was the key more so than anything,” Wheeler said. “I couldn’t catch them on the flatter docks, it needed to have a channel bank or deeper bank adjacent to it. If it didn’t have 10 feet of water or more, I wouldn’t get a bite.

“The little ones would stay on the outskirts,” Wheeler continued. “I realized the big ones were in the top 5 feet of the water column and that was the key with the vibrating jig.”

Wheeler said that he threw a 1/2-ounce vibrating jig and caught them on four different colors. He fished it on his own Signature Series Duckett Fishing Jacob Wheeler Casting rod with a Duckett Paradigm Jacob Wheeler baitcasting reel, using 20-pound Sufix Advance fluorocarbon line.

Despite coming up 2 ounces short, Lane was still very optimistic after a red-hot start to his Bass Pro Tour season. After two events, Lane leads the 2021 Angler of the Year race.

“I fished hard today, stuck with it, had a positive attitude and kept my confidence,” Lane said in his post-game interview. “I love Lake Travis, and I love the way I was catching them today. But congratulations to Jacob Wheeler, he out-fished me today and he earned it.

"Two ounces shy, it just wasn’t meant to be this week. It’s been a great start to the Bass Pro Tour for me this year and I couldn’t be more excited. I’m ready to go for the Harris Chain.”

Ninth-place finisher Stephen Browning won Wednesday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award, weighing in a 4-09 largemouth that bit his bladed swim jig in Period 2. Fletcher Shryock won the $3,000 Berkley Big Bass award for the largest bass of the event with his 8-04 that he weighed in on day 2 of competition.



Championship Round

(Figure at far right indicates weight of angler's heaviest fish)

1. Jacob Wheeler -- 28-13 (13) -- 3-05

2. Bobby Lane -- 28-11 (15) -- 2-14

3. Mark Daniels Jr. -- 23-11 (10) -- 3-11

4. Brent Chapman -- 22-04 (9) -- 4-00

5. John Cox -- 22-00 (10) -- 3-06

6. Zack Birge -- 20-10 (11) -- 3-01

7. Casey Ashley -- 17-01 (7) -- 3-08

8. Brent Ehrler -- 12-03 (7) -- 2-01

9. Stephen Browning -- 10-01 (4) -- 4-09

10. Cody Meyer -- 9-00 (4) -- 2-13