ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MAHLER fishing innovation found in the 500-mile stretch of the Tennessee Valley provides a potent bass fishing education for those who live there .
Neal was born in the Tennessee Valley and his family eventually settled in Dayton , Tennessee , on the shores of Lake Chickamauga . There , he received a master ’ s degree on the mysteries of Tennessee River bass from his uncle , Rogne Brown .
Wheeler was born in Indiana . After experiencing financial success in pro fishing , he intentionally moved south to Harrison , Tennessee , near Chickamauga , in 2017 to be in the heart of the Tennessee Valley . With that , both anglers have quick access to prominent bass fisheries to hone their skills and ultimately stay on top of their game .
One game , in particular , that both anglers have honed to perfection is the use of electronics to find pelagic groups of bass that live offshore . Wheeler and Neal are similar in age , separated by only a year . Just into their 30s , they grew up during an era of advanced electronics like laptops , tablets and smart phones providing a constant flow of information from portable screens . They simply have an inherent grasp on utilizing a screen to access information quickly . Hence , when the electronics boom hit tournament bass fishing in the first decade of the 2000s , they were naturals at harnessing the power of technological fish-finding with advanced transducers and electronics .
I believe both of these young anglers are at the very top of their class when it comes to reading electronics and catching bass using screens . Whether it ’ s largemouths in Texas , spotted bass in the southeast or smallmouth up north , both have a remarkable knack for tapping populations of unpressured bass that roam open water like nomads .
That ’ s not to say that all of their success comes solely from new technology . Both are incredible anglers in techniques that have nothing to do with electronics . They have multiple Top-10 finishes in places like Florida and Louisiana , on tidal fisheries and in shallow swamps where a transducer drags through the mud all day .
multitasking and support
In addition to being of similar ages , Wheeler and Neal have an immense
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2022 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM 19