The Wheeler Bassmater Elite Series was a pretty wild affair. The water dropped all through practice, held steady on day 1, then came up about 2 feet while the field sat on the bank for a canceled day 2.
Day 3 presented the field with a vastly different lake, and things changed again the final day when the water dropped several inches.
Winner Tommy Biffle flipped ultra-shallow, newly flooded cover. Here's how the rest of the Top 5 caught their fish.
2nd: Casey Ashley
> Day 1: 5, 12-11
> Day 2: Canceled
> Day 3: 5, 13-14
> Day 4: 5, 19-11
> Total = 15, 46-04
Casey Ashley made a huge move on the final day to finish 2nd. He fished a mix of a jerkbait and jig.
He had a stretch of jerkbait water that accounted for all of his day-1 weigh-fish. During the day-2 cancellation the area muddied significantly, so he needed to use a jig there on day 3 when competition resumed. The water had cleared enough overnight, however, that the jerkbait was back on for the final day.
"I guess they pulled some water overnight because it cleared up (on the final day)," he noted. "I caught 13 pounds in 30 minutes, which was about the best I was going to do in the place, but with that limit, I was able to relax and fish the rest of the day. I just picked up a jig and went to some real muddy water and started pitching. That's how I caught that big 6-04."
He noted his jerkbait fish were on the first break away from the cover. Some were post-spawn and some were pre-spawn. "I was right in the travel path. It was a sort of bluff wall that had a ridge on it where it dropped to 6 feet, and then to 23. They were holding right off that ridge."
> Jerkbait gear: 6'6" medium-fast Fenwick Techna AV Triggerstik rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel (7.1:1), 15-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 97 (misty shad).
> Jig gear: 7'6" Fenwick Elite Tech flipping stick, same reel, 20-pound Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, 1/2-ounce E&L jig (handpainted brown/green-pumpkin with some orange), Z-Man ChunkZ trailer.
> He caught one big fish on a black-and-blue version of the same jig when the water was extra dirty.
Takahiro Omori fished behind people, but would put down his Power-Pole and cast different baits to the same target.
3rd: Takahiro Omori
> Day 1: 5, 17-08
> Day 2: Canceled
> Day 3: 5, 16-01
> Day 4: 5, 12-01
> Total = 15, 45-10
Takahiro Omori fished with the crowds in the back of a creek on the dam-end of Wheeler. He routinely fished around 15 other boats. His approach was to throw a wide variety of baits to the same cover elements.
He did make a change the final day and fished a different creek in the afternoon, and that produced a 3-pounder and a 2 1/2.
About the baits he threw, he said: "I was cranking, and (using) a lipless crankbait, spinnerbait, flipping, Senko – doing a lot of different stuff. I was trying to adjust to whatever the water (was doing) – coming up or going down, or getting colder.
"I was in a creek – basically in a backwater," he added. "It was 4 to 5 feet (deep) at most. I caught them in 1 to 4 feet."
Asked which particular baits he threw, he said: "Unnamed lipless crank, Lucky Craft R.C. 2.5, 5" Yamamoto Senko, Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver, Trixie Shad and Shock, which is like a Horny Toad, and my homemade TO spinnerbait."
He noted that he changed out his crankbait hooks for red No. 2 Gamakatsu round-bend trebles.
Brent Chapman junk-fished with cranks and a jig.
4th: Brent Chapman
> Day 1: 5, 13-10
> Day 2: Canceled
> Day 3: 5, 13-00
> Day 4: 5, 18-10
> Total = 15, 45-04
Brent Chapman cranked for most of the tournament, which is one of his strengths. He fished both shallow- and medium-divers, but also threw a jig now and then.
"I was just fishing bluffs and main-lake points and secondary points from 1 to 10 feet of water," he said. "Then I'd jig-fish if there was any type of cover like brush or docks. It was just junk-fishing at its finest."
> Crankbait gear: 7' medium-action All Star Brent Chapman fiberglass cranking rod, Ardent XS 1000 casting reel, 12-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon, unnamed square-bill shallow-diver (chartreuse/black-back) and Storm Wiggle Wart medium-diver (brown crawdad).
> Jig gear: 7'6" medium-heavy All Star flipping stick, same reel, 20-pound Gamma Edge, 1/2-ounce Terminator jig (brown), Zoom Super Chunk (brown).
Mike Iaconelli dialed in a specific pattern that involved flat areas along bluffs and points.
5th: Mike Iaconelli
> Day 1: 5, 17-01
> Day 2: Canceled
> Day 3: 5, 12-12
> Day 4: 5, 15-06
> Total = 15, 45-03
Mike Iaconelli focused on the main lake to avoid the crowds and ran a specific pattern. He specifically targeted bluffs with a "table top or flat" in front of them and threw a jig and shakey-head.
"On Wheeler, if you go down the main lake, there's like 2,000 bluffs, so you can't get caught fishing just any bluff," he noted. "Everything I tried to key on was main-lake bluffs, or sometimes a point – but they all had flat spots before they dropped down. Typically, if I pulled up to a bluff or point, I'd put the boat in 20 to 25 feet and cast up into 5 to 10 feet. It had to have that little flat ledge before the main drop into deep water.
"And on top of the table top it would have to have scattered rock. If it was smooth gravel or sand, there wouldn't be any fish."
He added several good fish by cranking any little indentation in the bluff he could find.
He also noted: "Another thing that was key was covering new water each day. Every day I found a new place that produced most or all of my good fish."
> Jig gear: 7'2" heavy-fast Team Daiwa Mike Iaconelli rod, Daiwa Steez casting reel, 17-pound Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, 1/2-ounce Berkley Ike's Finesse jig (green-pumpkin), unnamed craw trailer (green-pumpkin, tips dipped in chartreuse Spike-It).
> Shakey gear: 6'8" medium-action Team Daiwa Mike Iaconelli rod, Daiwa TD Sol spinning reel 10-pound Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, 3/16-ounce Tru-Tungsten Ikey Head, Tru-Tungsten Dart worm (green-pumpkin).
> Crankbait gear: 7'8" medium-action Team Daiwa Mike Iaconelli Longcast cranking rod, Daiwa Steez casting reel, 15-pound Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, LaserLure shallow-diver (custom Beat Down color, which is black/blue, to be available soon).
