PHOTO BY ROB MATSUURA was competing in his final regular-season professional tournament . Wheeler finished the Knockout Round in third place with 17 pounds , 15 ounces , and left the ramp on the final day trailing VanDam by 3 1 / 2 pounds in the event ’ s two-day cumulative championship format .
Becker would go on to catch the biggest five-fish bag of the week ( 22-11 ) to win the tournament while Wheeler fell to eighth , just 1-1 out of fourth place ( which would have been good enough to win AOY ). Becker claimed the AOY trophy with 461.5 points , Wheeler finished second with 457.5 .
“ I just couldn ’ t catch a big one that last day at Saginaw Bay ,” Wheeler said . “ I had the followers that could ’ ve made the difference , but I didn ’ t catch them . It was definitely an irritating moment – I had worked really hard to give myself the opportunity to control my own destiny , and it just didn ’ t happen for me .
“ I came back home and tried to analyze my mistakes and bad decisions I had made , and Lake Murray was the one that stood out . I tried trick play after trick play there , over-extended myself and didn ’ t stick with the fundamentals of bass fishing . It cost me the AOY . That one killed me . I went into 2024 thinking , ‘ That right there can ’ t happen again .’”
toledo bend — starting off 2024 strong
The first event of the 2024 season at Toledo Bend Reservoir in Many , Louisiana , turned out to be the Dustin Connell Show , as Wheeler ’ s “ Ding Team ” housemate blistered the
Wheeler ’ s decision to pivot from targeting smallmouth to flipping for largemouth on the St . Lawrence River helped seal his AOY victory .
Championship Round field by more than 44 pounds to pick up his fourth regularseason Bass Pro Tour win in three years . Wheeler finished third at Toledo Bend , though , winning the Qualifying Rounds with 151-7 and staying within range of Connell on the final day until he fell into a 90-minute lull in the second period . Connell , meanwhile , added over 70 pounds to SCORETRACKER ® in the second half of the day .
Nonetheless , Wheeler ’ s fourth-place finish was an improvement over 2023 , when he started the season with an 11th-place finish on the Kissimmee Chain .
AOY race : Connell got out of the blocks first in the 2024 Fishing Clash Angler of the Year race with 80 points , followed by Spencer Shuffield ( 79 ), Drew Gill ( 78 ) and Wheeler ( 77 ).
santee cooper — making the right moves
Stage Two at South Carolina ’ s heralded Santee Cooper lakes showed off Wheeler ’ s diversity and ability to identify , build ( and stick with ) a winning pattern that ’ s a little outside the norm . Early in the three-day practice period , Wheeler noticed that a large majority of the field was focused on a handful of well-known , cypress-filled creeks and scrapped that approach . Instead , he moved offshore , got on his graphs and spent the balance of practice and the first three of his four competition days developing a milk run of 40-plus waypoints where he could fish alone .
That approach – which flies in the face of conventional Santee Cooper wisdom , which points you straight to the bank and cypress trees – paid off handsomely , as Wheeler racked up 53- 8 his first day of qualifying , 34-1 in the Knockout Round and 47-4 on the final day to beat Dean Rojas by 5 pounds . “ I didn ’ t pre-practice for Santee Cooper , and I think that actually turned out in my favor ,” Wheeler said . “ Whether you think you do or not , sometimes you can go into a place with preconceived notions of how it ’ s going to fish based on pre-practice . At Santee , I was able to just take it as it came . I could see it for what it was every day I was out there . I think that made a huge difference at that event .”
AOY race : Wheeler took over the AOY lead after Stage Two with 157 points , leading Jesse Wiggins by 7 .
dale hollow — going back to ‘ home away from home ’
Following a two-month break for REDCREST 2024 ( Wheeler finished sixth ), Bass Pro Tour competition resumed on a fishery that Wheeler describes as his “ home away from home ”: legendary Dale Hollow Lake in northern Tennessee . Wheeler ’ s fondness for Dale Hollow stems from the innumerable days he ’ s spent on the Obey River impoundment in the wintertime , honing some of the skills that have contributed to his success .
Wheeler finished practice with multiple patterns in mind and continued to develop his game plan through the Qualifying Round , in which he finished fifth . He topped the Knockout Round with 25 fish for 79-13 and then let loose on the final day , blasting 14 fish for 43-3 in the first hour alone . Wheeler ended with 39 scorable bass for 116-6 to outdistance Michael Neal by over 30 pounds .
“ I ’ ve fished Dale Hollow a ton ; it ’ s one of my favorites ,” Wheeler said . “ Things were changing a lot there , though . We had a bunch of rain , it was warmer than usual , some fish were wanting to move up ( to spawn ). These BPT events , you have such a long duration of time between practice and the championship , and so many things change . You have to adjust every single day , because the fish move so much . It was an honor to hoist the first trophy there in a national-level , professional event .”
AOY race : Wheeler extended his AOY lead to 17 points after Dale Hollow ( 237 to Connell ’ s 220 ).
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2024 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM 39