“ i committed to learning as much as i possibly could in that five days .”
family vacation in Pennsylvania for five days of pre-practice on the St . Lawrence before the 30-day cutoff .
“ I committed to learning as much as I possibly could in that five days ,” Wheeler said . “ Smallmouth that time of year , you ’ re mostly projecting where you think fish are going to be when you come back in a month , which is really difficult . One of those days , though , I went looking for places where I could have some backup largemouth . Largemouth are more ‘ homebodies ’ than smallmouth ; they ’ re more dependable . Finding a zone where largemouth live was really important to me . Having that in my back pocket was huge .”
Thanks largely to that largemouth knowledge , Wheeler hammered the first few nails in the AOY coffin during the first day of qualifying . Trailing leader Spencer Shuffield by 20 pounds in the second period and not feeling the offshore drop-shot bite , Wheeler pulled out a flipping stick and Rapala CrushCity Bronco Bug and went to work in the shallow cover .
That decision virtually sealed the AOY trophy . Wheeler weighed 18 largemouth for 45 pounds to give him 74-5 on the day , a weight good enough for third place in his group . More important , it gave him a 15- pound cushion on the cut line . He maintained the deep / shallow pattern on the second day of qualifying , starting with deeper smallmouth and swapping to shallow largemouth as he had the day before but then returning to the offshore pattern late in the day and adding 22 pounds in the final period to finish with 48-14 .
Good enough for 10th place . Good enough to wrap up Fishing Clash Angler of the Year .
aoy aftermath – it takes a village
It ’ s a month after the final event of the Bass Pro Tour season , and the Wheeler home on the banks of Lake Chickamauga in Tennessee is the site of an Angler of the Year party . Alicia Wheeler has organized a 50-person celebration of Jacob ’ s third AOY win , welcoming family and friends from West Virginia , Louisiana , Indiana and Alabama to join local , extended “ Wheeler family ” members to give props to Wheeler ’ s season .
While Jacob and his new AOY trophy are the focus of the party , in Alicia ’ s mind , the festivities are just as much to celebrate the extended family members present as her husband .
“ This is not a job you can do alone ,” Alicia said of the task of raising two young children , running the Jacob Wheeler Fishing business and maintaining a family home while Jacob is traveling and competing for weeks at a time . “ We bring in people from all over because we want them to be able to celebrate – they ’ ve been a big part of all of this that Jacob has accomplished . We ’ re celebrating Jacob , but it ’ s also a thank you to everybody . Without every single person at that party , it would be so hard to make ( AOY ) happen .”
The team effort – and especially that of Alicia – is not lost on Wheeler , whose approach to tournaments and his job is evolving as Olivia and Hudson grow up . He ’ s staunch about calling and FaceTiming with them every night he ’ s away for work and dedicates as much time to them as possible when he ’ s home . He and Alicia are learning where and when to adjust schedules and make concessions between Jacob ’ s need to prepractice and maintain his skills and the needs of a young family .
“ I go into every year thinking , ‘ This isn ’ t going to last forever for Jacob ’, so my only job is to make sure that his only job is to think about fishing ,”
Having his family present for all the big moments made Wheeler ’ s 2024 AOY triumph especially rewarding .
Alicia said . “ I try to handle every aspect of our family and his business without pulling him into it , and we have a really , really good group of people around us that help me do those things .”
Wheeler acknowledges that his first Angler of the Year award in 2021 was one of the most memorable achievements of his life . The 2024 Fishing Clash AOY trophy , though , is unique and special – it ’ s more personal to him because it represents a payoff to family and friends who have bolstered him throughout the year . And , because Hudson and Olivia are getting old enough now to appreciate the Very Big Moments .
“ Winning AOY would be almost impossible without my family – and especially my wife – being there as a supporter and pushing me to succeed ,” Wheeler said . “ If you don ’ t have that support from home and your wife , and they ’ re not pushing you to be better and in full support of decisions , it just doesn ’ t work . It definitely helps to know that you ’ re on the same page and know the goal .
“ My kids got to really see it all go down , and there ’ s really nothing better than that . Hudson gets to see the trophies in our house and gets to see the hard work that goes into winning them . Olivia is older now , and it all makes more sense to her , and she gets to enjoy it all . It ’ s way more meaningful that they ’ ve been present – that makes this season special . It ’ s not even about the trophy now , but the memories and everything that comes along with it .”
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2024 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM 41