Jacob Wheeler ran into skinny creeks and employed the same tactics that have worked for him in previous Cups , including fishing topwater and flipping .
Photo by garrick dixon
For creek rat Jacob Wheeler , there really was no other program to distract him from the shallow game at the Cup .
“ My thing in August is I never bet on the deep bite . That ’ s a losing game most of the time because the [ deep ] fish are scattered out ,” Wheeler says . “ The only time I like to fish deep is May and June , when they ’ re coming to you .
“ In August there are really not many fish coming to you , so you have to fish the resident fish . It ’ s the time of year that fish are starting to move shallow and transition back into their autumn patterns .”
Wheeler says there was no bream spawn up shallow , and there really wasn ’ t a consistent pattern in terms of depth , water clarity , current or cover . So instead , his strategy was to force his Ranger into the skinniest , most tucked-away places he could find to gain access to unpressured fish . During practice he covered water quickly with an Accent Game Changer Buzzbait and a Terminator Popping Frog to determine which creeks had promising concentrations of fish .
“ Truthfully , some creeks have them and some creeks don ’ t ,” he says . “ In each creek I fished [ in the tournament ], there wasn ’ t always a resemblance of the last creek .”
In the tournament , Wheeler slowed down considerably and methodically picked apart his targets – mostly undercut banks , shade lines created by overhanging trees , lily pads and laydowns .
To improve his stealth , Wheeler set his Minn Kota on 20 to 30 percent , so he could slowly creep along without stopping and starting the prop , and so he could easily and quietly stop himself with his Power-Poles without dragging the poles across the bottom .
About 90 percent of Wheeler ’ s bites came on wood cover , but his bait selection expanded during the tournament . He caught one key fish each with a black SPRO Bronzeye Frog fished around pads and a soft-plastic creature bait , and two keepers on a walking bait . The Terminator frog and Accent buzzbait with a toad trailer combined for seven keepers , while the other nine came by flipping wood with an E . R . Lures jig in magic craw swirl with a Minnesota flash-colored Gene Larew Punch Out Craw .
“ I was really taking my time ,” he says . “ I worked from outside in , flipping the outside , flipping midway up and then to the heart [ of the laydowns ],” Wheeler says . “ That jig is not an original Arkie style . It ’ s a modified Arkie , so it goes through wood 90 percent better than the original Arkie head .”
WHEELER ’ S KEYS TO SUCCESS
Wheeler ’ s key to success was setting up his Ranger and Evinrude to run into and out of shallow creeks quickly and safely .
First , he removed more than 150 pounds worth of gear from his Ranger to make the boat easier to get on plane . He then outfitted his Evinrude G2 with a four-blade prop that provided the bite or “ traction ” needed to get up quickly and still have steering control at a high trim setting . He also relied on a fastworking Bob ’ s Machine Shop hydraulic jack plate .
To get on pad , he raised the jack plate 8 inches , trimmed the motor all the way down and hammered the throttle . Once up , he quickly lowered the jack plate to make sure the motor ’ s cooling intake was drawing in water – running it too high for too long can cause the engine to overheat – and trimmed up the motor to skirt across skinny water .
“ A lot of guys thought I was crazy , but I figured out the system in practice ,” Wheeler says . “ I tested it out on some mud flats to see how shallow I could be and still get the boat up . I could get up in 1.8 feet .
“ Time is money in bass fishing , especially in the Forrest Wood Cup , where the bite is so tough . I needed every minute of fishing time I could get . I idled those places in practice . I knew where everything was – the holes and the logs . I could get up on pad in shallow water , and I knew where the creek channels were .”
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2016 I FLWFISHING . COM 67