By MLF Communications Staff

CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. – For the second time in as many events this season, the Bass Pro Tour is visiting a new fishery. Once again, Jacob Wheeler wasted little time figuring it out.

Wheeler, the Harrison, Tennessee resident whose six wins and 28 Top-10 finishes in Bass Pro Tour competition are unmatched, is back atop the leaderboard through one day of qualifying for Group B at the Santee Cooper Lakes. He boated 13 scorable bass for 53 pounds, 8 ounces Wednesday, which was 4-11 clear of Lake Havasu City, Arizona’s Dean Rojas, who caught 16 bass weighing 48-14 to end the day in second place.

Those two separated themselves from the rest of the pack – Brent Ehrler of Redlands, California, caught 39-0 total to finish the day in third place.

The 40 anglers in Group B will now have an off day from competition Thursday, while the 40 anglers competing in Group A will wrap up their two-day Qualifying Round. Group B will finish its Qualifying Round on Friday.

Like most of the field, Wheeler emerged from practice on Santee Cooper a bit concerned about the dirty water and lack of bites. He rated his practice period a 4 out of 10. But, like many, his first day of competition left him pleasantly surprised.

“Obviously, catching 29 pounds for five and catching 50-something pounds of bass is one of the best days you could ask for,” Wheeler said.

While a small handful of the BPT anglers had prior experience fishing Santee Cooper before the spawn, conventional wisdom suggested this would be the type of tournament in which pros would be best served picking one area and combing it thoroughly. The navigational hazards and sheer amount of cover where fish could be living didn’t figure to suit a run-and-gun approach.

Wheeler turned that idea on its head. Taking advantage of the lack of wind, he hit several areas, looking for spots with the same key ingredients — a combination he figured out thanks to one clue during practice, then dialed in Wednesday.

“I constantly changed areas,” Wheeler said. “Because it was pretty calm today, it gave me an opportunity to run around. I didn’t stay in one area. I tried to run around and sort of look for that specific pattern, and that was what I did.”

While Wheeler mostly kept coy regarding specifics, he said he used a combination of forward-facing sonar and traditional, power-fishing tactics.

“I’m doing what I love to do, but I’m also sort of mixing a few things up," he explained. “I’m looking for something very specific, and when I can find it, I'm basically running a pattern on this lake.”

Nearly half of Wheeler’s weight came from one stop. During a 90-minute stretch in Period 2, he caught six bass totaling 26-11. That included a 4-4, a 5-5 and a 6-14 — his biggest fish of the day. With the chances of catching 20-plus scorable bass in a day being slim, Wheeler said triggering big bites and landing those fish is the biggest key to contending on Santee Cooper.

“I had three really big bites today,” Wheeler said. “So that, to me, is everything. I knew going into this, after seeing what happened in Group A, Day 1, I had to be very calm, cool and collected and be very methodical, because it wasn’t like it was going to be fast and furious. It wasn’t a Toledo Bend. Big bites were going to be few and far between, but when you got ‘em, you better capitalize on every single one.”

Wheeler remains unsure if he’ll be able to ride his Day 1 pattern through the weekend. He predicted that, as the weather warms and the bass continue their prespawn transition, Santee Cooper will fish differently during the Knockout and Championship Rounds than it has during the first two days. In typical Wheeler fashion, he’s put himself in prime position to figure it out. As usual, he said he plans to take advantage of his fast start by using much of Friday to explore new water.

"To me, I utilized this day to the best of my ability, to be leading right now going into Day 2 and have a firm grasp right now,” he said. “I still gotta catch a few bass, probably, to solidify my spot in the Knockout Round, but I’m feeling really confident about that.”

Fred Roumbanis of Russellville, Arkansas, earned the $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award Wednesday with an 8-6 largemouth that he caught on a lipless crankbait in Period 2. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day, and another $3,000 bonus to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass of the tournament.

After each two-day Qualifying Round is complete, the anglers who finish first through 10th from each group advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining 20 anglers compete to finish in the Top 10 to advance to Sunday’s Championship Round, where weights will again be zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.

Anglers launch at 7:30 a.m. ET each day from the John C. Land III Landing, located at 4404 Greenall Road in Summerton. Each day’s takeout is held at the park, beginning at 4 p.m.

The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on the final four days of competition from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW! will be livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.

The tournament features the MLF catch, weigh, immediate-release format, in which anglers catch as much weight as they can each day, while also feeling the pressure and intensity of the ScoreTracker leaderboard. Anglers are competing with a 1 1/2-pound minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. The MLF Fisheries Management Division determines minimum weights for each body of water that the BPT visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.



Qualifying Group B – Day 1

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

1. Jacob Wheeler -- 53-08 (13) -- 6-14

2. Dean Rojas -- 48-14 (16) -- 6-12

3. Brent Ehrler -- 39-00 (11) -- 7-14

4. Casey Ashley -- 38-09 (12) -- 7-14

5. Nick LeBrun -- 37-00 (10) -- 6-00

6. Zack Birge -- 29-04 (6) -- 8-00

7. Justin Lucas -- 28-14 (10) -- 5-05

8. Marshall Robinson -- 27-03 (8) -- 7-06

9. Fred Roumbanis -- 26-01 (5) -- 8-06

10. Spencer Shuffield -- 25-10 (7) -- 6-04

11. Bobby Lane -- 25-02 (7) -- 4-12

12. Luke Clausen -- 24-12 (8) -- 4-15

13. Stephen Browning -- 22-08 (6) -- 6-05

14. Fletcher Shryock -- 22-04 (8) -- 4-02

15. Joshua Weaver -- 21-05 (7) -- 6-15

16. Jeremy Lawyer -- 20-00 (6) -- 6-01

17. Ott DeFoe -- 19-04 (7) -- 6-15

18. Kelly Jordon -- 14-09 (6) -- 2-15

19. Alton Jones -- 14-05 (4) -- 6-09

20. Wesley Strader -- 14-04 (6) -- 3-04

21. Todd Faircloth -- 14-03 (4) -- 6-12

22. Martin Villa -- 13-03 (5) -- 3-02

23. Drew Gill -- 12-14 (5) -- 3-09

24. Jonathon VanDam -- 12-12 (5) -- 3-15

25. David Dudley -- 11-12 (5) -- 3-01

26. Keith Carson -- 11-10 (4) -- 4-03

27. James Elam -- 11-04 (3) -- 4-10

28. Gary Klein -- 9-09 (4) -- 2-10

29. Mark Davis -- 9-05 (2) -- 6-02

30. Boyd Duckett -- 8-09 (4) -- 2-12

31. Andy Montgomery -- 7-13 (3) -- 3-03

32. Bryan Thrift -- 7-11 (2) -- 3-15

33. Ryan Salzman -- 7-03 (3) -- 2-09

34. Cliff Crochet -- 6-00 (2) -- 3-02

35. Scott Suggs -- 5-14 (2) -- 3-14

36. Edwin Evers -- 5-01 (2) -- 3-06

37. Keith Poche -- 4-11 (3) -- 1-11

38. Bradley Roy -- 4-07 (2) -- 2-14

39. Justin Cooper -- 4-02 (2) -- 2-08

40. John Hunter -- 1-10 (1) -- 1-10