ing a current outflow with a 2.8-inch Jackall Rhythm Wave swimbait on a darter head and a Jackall Flick Shake worm on a 3 / 16-ounce shaky head . He then ran banks where spots were bedding , dragging the shaky head to catch them .
“ I never caught a single bass during the tournament with my ActiveTarget , just one scorable in practice ,” Wiggins said . “ I had two things going : A morning bite in the river on a pipe with water running out of it , and the rest of the time , it was fishing for spawning spotted bass in the Paint Creek area . They were spawning on 45-degree banks out of the current .” While Wiggins has tasted victory before on the Bass Pro Tour , at Lake of the Ozarks in 2022 , a return to the winners ’ circle seems like only a matter of time . His best ever REDCREST finish marked his fifth straight Top 10 dating back to last year .
Jacob Wheeler — 29-13 ( 11 )
As always , Wheeler gave himself a chance on the final day . He ’ s now finished in the Top 10 at four consecutive REDCRESTs and an astounding 30 times in 44 total Bass Pro Tour events . But he ’ ll have to wait at least one more year to add a REDCREST trophy to his seven BPT wins and two Fishing Clash Angler of the Year titles .
Wheeler primarily chased schooling spotted bass with a Rapala CruschCity Freeloader and Mooch Minnow , scanning three different mile-long stretches where the baitfish and bass would move around . He mixed in a bit of sight fishing , too .
“ The water clarity and current flow changed every day , and the fish moved , of course , so you had to relocate them within those areas ,” he said of his offshore fish . “ The main deal was finding where the baitfish were each day .”
Gerald Spohrer — 29-9 ( 11 ) Spohrer notched his first
Top 10 since 2021 with a unique pattern . Starting the event among the forward-facing sonar crowd , he ran upriver to escape the pressure and ended up cycling between a few spots that featured flats adjacent to drop-offs .
Spohrer ’ s primary tool was a 1 / 2- ounce Nomad Design Swimtrex Max lipless crankbait in the red craw color . He also rotated through a handful of other baits , including a Missile Baits Spunk Shad on a jighead .
“ That ’ s a special bait for spotted bass because it ’ s small and compact for its weight with a lot of vibration , almost like a vibrating jig ,” he said of the Swimtrex Max . “ I focused on small flats with direct impact from the current and would fish it on top of the flats or the sides . I also had one island head where I could catch them quickly and then explore more areas if I felt I was safe on SCORETRACKER ®.”
Cole Floyd — 25-5 ( 10 )
Floyd kept his approach simple , riding one bait to the Championship Round in his RED- CREST debut . One of several anglers chasing schooling fish in the same main-lake zone , Floyd used a Strike King Baby Z-Too in blue glimmer on either 3 / 16- or 1 / 4-ounce jigheads to catch all his weight .
“ It was a one-rod deal ,” he said . “ I was targeting those spotted bass at the mouths of creeks . That section of the lake had tons of baitfish , and the bass were congregated everywhere , feeding up before the spawn .”
Nick Hatfield — 24-2 ( 9 ) Another REDCREST rookie , Hatfield narrowly snuck into the Championship Round , nudging Emil Wagner by 1-8 for 10th place in the Knockout Round . He , too , leaned on the popular main-lake eddy where schools of bass chased shad .
While Hatfield caught a few fish on a Neko rig , his primary tool was a jighead minnow — either a Scottsboro Tackle Co . Sniper Shad or a Strike King Baby Z-Too , both of which he affixed to Hellfire Finesse Swimbait Heads from Scottsboro . Hatfield was one of several anglers who noted that , while bottom depth didn ’ t matter , the bass seemed to suspend unusually close to the surface .
“ All week , I never caught one down deeper than around 12 feet of water , but the boat was always in 20 , 40 or 60 feet ,” he said . “ The main deal was following around the bass and baitfish .”
Michael Neal — 18-1 ( 7 )
While Neal never got on track on the final day , he represented the biggest threat to Connell for most of the event . Fishing the community area on the lower end of the main lake with a Big Bite Baits Scentsation Slim Minnow on a Big Bite Baits Swimmer Head , Neal appeared better in tune with the fish than anyone else . He stacked up 52-9 on Day 1 and 42-0 in the first two periods of the Knockout Round before switching to practice mode .
Neal believes it was a combination of a current change and fishing pressure that caused the bite to shut down during the Championship Round .
“ In practice , the baitfish were very concentrated because of the current , but it got less and less as the week went on ,” said Neal . “ The fish also got pressured so much that they were terrified of your bait the last day . Instead of going towards it to look at it , they ’ d swim away the other way as fast as they could .”
“ the main deal was finding where the baitfish were each day ” — jacob wheeler
36 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | APRIL-MAY 2024