Wheeler ’ s Angler of the Year campaign included wins at Santee Cooper and Dale Hollow . |
The 2024 season saw Wheeler notch Top 10s on multiple deep , clear reservoirs , a cover-filled swamp and a tidal river . |
Wheeler is now one of 10 anglers all-time to win at least three national-tourlevel Angler of the Year titles . |
setting the stage for aoy no . 3
Throughout his 14-year career , Indiana native Jacob Wheeler has made a routine of being the first / youngest / fastest / etc . at virtually every level of tournament bass fishing : v He was the youngest-ever winner of the Phoenix Bass Fishing League All- American at 20 years old on Louisiana ’ s Cross Lake in 2011 and followed that up a year later by becoming the youngest Forrest Wood Cup champion , winning at age 21 on Lake Lanier in Georgia . v He won the inaugural BASSfest on Lake Chickamauga , Tennessee , in 2014 . v He won the first Bassmaster Elite Series event he competed in – on Cherokee Lake , Tennessee – in 2017 . v He owns the highest round-winning percentage in MLF Cup / Select history and finished first or second in 21 of the rounds he fished . v He became the first Bass Pro Tour angler with two , three , four , five , six , seven and eight wins . v He was the first angler to win backto-back BPT tournaments . v He became the first two-time BPT AOY when he claimed the trophy in 2022 . v He ’ s held the No . 1 spot in the Bassfan World Rankings for six years , the longest stint in the top spot since Bassfan ’ s rankings started in 2001 . And most recently , on Aug . 10 , 2024 – following the Knockout Round at Stage Seven on the St . Lawrence River – Wheeler earned his third major-tourlevel Angler of the Year title , a career accomplishment that elevates him to a tier among the all-time greats of the game . Only nine other anglers in the 57- year history of the sport ( Roland Martin , Kevin VanDam , David Dudley , Clark Wendlandt , Bill Dance , Mark Davis , Aaron Martens , Andy Morgan and Jay Yelas ) can claim three or more AOY titles on their resumes . Six of those are in the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame , and three have been on the Hall of Fame ballot .
Wheeler ’ s four-year Angler of the Year run ( wins in 2021 , 2022 and 2024 ; second in 2023 ), though , puts him in even more rare air .
As Bass Fishing magazine assistant editor Mitchell Forde reported in Wheeler ’ s AOY-winning story on MajorLeagueFishing . com , Wheeler has six wins and 26 Top 10s in 36 events
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since 2021 , a win rate of 16.6 % and a whopping Top-10 percentage of 72.2 %. He ’ s collected just shy of $ 2 million in earnings in that time ( counting his MLF5 tournaments ).
The only four-year streak in the past 40 years that surpasses Wheeler ’ s current run is VanDam ’ s dominance from 2008 to 2011 , a period in which the consensus G . O . A . T . wrapped up four straight Angler of the Year trophies , won two Bassmaster Classics and banked eight wins .
Wheeler ’ s surge isn ’ t far behind , though . He ’ s won at a comparable rate ( VanDam won 18.2 % of his events over that span ) and finished in the Top 10 more often ( VanDam was at 54.5 %). Plus , when considering that two of VanDam ’ s wins and five Top 10s came in postseason events with 12-boat fields , you could justifiably add Wheeler ’ s 2022 Summit Cup and 2023 Team Series victories to his tallies .
“ You have to seize the moment ,” Wheeler said . “ In every single sport , [ people ] are going to have their time , and right now , I realize that I ’ m living in that time where everything is clicking .”
setting the stage for 2024
Wheeler made no secret about the fact that he entered the 2024 Bass Pro Tour season with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder . Five months prior , he started the final tournament of the 2023 season on Michigan ’ s Saginaw Bay in a four-man battle royale among himself ( 384.5 points ), Alton Jones Jr . ( 391.5 ), Ott DeFoe ( 382.5 ) and Matt Becker ( 381.5 ) in the Angler of the Year points race , confident that he could close the gap between he and Jones and claim his third straight AOY trophy .
Wheeler had spent the previous four month furiously making up ground following one of the worst tournaments of his career – a 75th-place finish at Lake Murray that dropped him from third to 25th in Angler of the Year points . He won the next Bass Pro Tour event on Lake Guntersville , finished third at both Cayuga Lake and Lake St . Clair , and had made up an astounding 36 % of the AOY points deficit in just three tournaments as action got underway on Saginaw Bay .
Wheeler fished Saginaw Bay in classic , strategic Wheeler fashion , quietly finishing 10th in his group in the Qualifying Round as the media spotlight burned brightly on VanDam , who
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