Steve Nelson and I made the adventure to fish the Bass Pro Championship on Wilson and Wheeler Lakes in Alabama. We prefished and caught bait for 3 days. In prefishing we decided to focus on Wheeler Lake because on the final day of competition everyone has to fish Wheeler.
Practice at Wheeler - Steve and I looked at the map on the graph and marked areas we thought would hold fish on the entire lake. You never really know how big a lake is until you get on it and let me tell you Wheeler is a a very, VERY long lake. We would go to a spot, mark it, and then if it had something worth fishing we would fish it. FYI, the lower half of the lake was holding all the bait and fish that we found. The first day of practice we ran my 50 gallon tank dry about 10 miles from the boat ramp. I did find out that when my gauge is on half....it's really not half but more of a quarter or less. We totaled it up and we ran the boat about 90 miles that day. Sure am glad we decided not to head farther north than we did.
The second day of practice we decided to stay on the lower half since that is where we found all the bait and fish. Let's just say we found one spot that we caught fish on and that was it! Not at all what we expected from a lake known for it's blue catfish population.
Day 3 of practice we made the decision to try our luck at Wilson since we had fished it the following year in the Cabelas Classic. We started out fishing several areas Steve thought would hold fish....nada. Fished other areas that looked great and showed fish....nada. So now we are really not feeling good about this tournament, but decided to head to different area and try drifting/toodlywhooing/spider rigging etc. Fifteen minutes into fishing like this on a deep flat and my pole gets a small tap. Waited and tap again, then the rod tip bent 2 inches down and just sat there.....another inch and I reeled down on that sucker and it was a 34 pounder. Another ten minutes goes by and one slams Steve's pole and twists the rod holder around the rail....42 pounder. Okay, now we are on to something! We caught a total that would have been 109 for our 5 fish and decided to spend the rest of the day catching bait getting ready for Day 1 of the tournament.
Day 1 Tournament:
Head to our area on Wilson that is producing and wait for time to fish. Poles in and 5 minutes into it Steve's pole slams down to the water, Steve reels down and the reel handle shaft snaps off! I quickly take the handle off the rod next to it and slide it on the other one, but it was too late. We just looked at each other in disbelief.....and.....the rod I took the handle off of went down! Put the handle back on it and managed to get a 8 pounder in the boat. Not what we were looking for, but get's us on the board. Fill up the 100 gallon live well and catch a couple others in the 5-9 pound range to have 3 unders. Now we really need to catch our overs to get our numbers up there.
We decided to go fish a couple different areas and scratched out 42 pounds on the first day to finish the day around 32nd place. Not where we want to be, but still in the running to make the cut for the top 25.
Day 2 Tournament:
Made a decision that would make or break us and fish Wheeler instead of Wilson. We didn't do well there in practice, but did find several promising areas and we didn't feel like the area on Wilson was going to get us to the top 25. Started out the morning on a did depth drop off and put about 30 pounds in the boat by 7:30, but the bite stopped so we moved down the along the dropoff about 200 yards. We continued to catch fish and get our weight up. Later in the morning we decided to go to another flat across from the ridge and finished out the day there. We were nervous at the weigh in, all we needed to do was get in the top 25 to fish the final day. On the final day everyone's score goes back to zero, so we have a chance to win it all if we can get to the final day. We weighed in 101.8 pounds on Day 2 to bring our two day total to 149 pounds......we made it to 21st place and would be fishing the final day!
Day 3 Tournament
Started out fishing a lower lake deep hump and get getting small bites, but nothing in the boat. Moved to a deep ridge.....nothing! It's now ten o'clock and we started feeling the crunch time setting in. Decided to make the 45 minute boat ride to the dropoff we fished the day before but knew with the wind we had today it would be tough to anchor. This dropoff is nothing but really slick rock and not much to grab on. We tried to hold, but couldn't with 3 anchors. Decided to fish an adjacent dropoff and got an anchor to hold. The wind picked up more and started drifting us a little. One of my poles tightens up and I think its the boat drifting....nope hung. Pulled on it and pulled on it, but it wouldn't break...come's loose and has an 8 pounder on it. Guess we are finally on the board.
Made a move to a flat and set there for about 20 minutes without a bite. Decided to move and Steve pulled the front anchor up while I reeled poles in....back rod slams to the water! Steve hauls in a 32 pounder. Get the hook out and the pole next to it slams down 26 pounder! Okay, we decided to reanchor and try this again.
Waited for 30 minutes no bites. Started pulling rods in and a pole slams down, 19 pounder. All these fish came on Steve's rods that were in one particular area. We decided the fish were traveling that spot and we'd move a little closer.
Anchored up and caught another 5 pounder to get us a limit. Decided to wait it out until time to go in to see if we could get a big one. My front pole slams down and the drag starts singing! Fish on! Get it in the net to measure....34.75 inches long :( We already had our two over 34 inches that were bigger, so we had to let it go. Caught one more small fish and had to head in.
We were the last boat in line and it seemed like an eternity. We weighed in 101 pounds and got 16th in the nation this year. Steve and I had a blast, learned a ton, and were only a couple of pounds from a top 10 finish. Looking forward to next year.
Below are the pics from Day 2 of practice at Wilson.
