Wheeler Finds Quality and Quantity on Lake Travis, Leads Group B
AUSTIN, Texas – A hazardous-weather-shortened day cut off Group B’s first Qualifying Day of the Berkley Stage Two Presented by Mercury, but it was still an impressive day on the waters of Lake Travis for the 40 anglers. MLF officials called for a stoppage due to lightning in the Lake Travis area at 1:35 p.m. CT and after a two-hour delay, decided to end Group B’s round early. However, this round will officially count and all weights will carry over to Group B’s second day of competition on Monday.
Jacob Wheeler ended his day with 16 bass for 52 pounds, 11 ounces to grab the lead heading into Monday. Zack Birge will be in second place after catching 18 bass for 42-2. Wheeler and Birge were the only two anglers to register more than 30 pounds of bass to SCORETRACKER®, but all 40 anglers in Group B ended their day without a zero next to their name for the second day in a row.
Wheeler Whacks ‘Em on Travis
It’s beginning to feel like more of a surprise if Jacob Wheeler’s name isn’t near the top of SCORETRACKER® at the end of the day. The two-time Bass Pro Tour champion jumped out to an early lead in Period 1 and rode a wave of consistency all the way to the No. 1 spot. Wheeler had nine bass for 30-10 at the end of the first period, with his best five weighing 21-2.
“I was fortunate to catch some really good ones early to give me an idea of how I wanted to fish today,” Wheeler recapped. “I didn’t really get a good feel for things in practice, so today was really huge for me figuring these fish out.”
Add in a thunderstorm and it was quite an eventful day for Wheeler. The Tennessee pro snapped his braid and had to hand-reel a 4-pounder, had to shake a snake off of one bass he caught, and brought in eight bass that weighed 3 pounds or more. The Googan Baits pro spent the majority of his day focusing on the plentiful docks surrounding Lake Travis mainly using swim jigs and vibrating jigs.
“With the water being low, I knew docks were going to be a major player here,” Wheeler said. “Doesn’t matter what kind of docks they are, there’s going to be fish on them. It’s all about finding the docks that have quality fish on them. There’s fish on probably 90 percent of these docks, but there’s not scorable fish on that many. Some of it’s random, some of it’s from figuring the right stuff out for a pattern.”
Wheeler will begin Monday’s second Qualifying Day with a 10-9 advantage over Birge and nearly a 25-pound lead on third-place angler Ish Monroe. Although the day ended early, Wheeler was still surprised to see the distance he and Birge had created for themselves. It reminded him a little of what we saw on Friday.
“Today was really similar to yesterday if you look at SCORETRACKER®,” Wheeler said. “Chapman and Rose seem to have it figured out better than everyone else in Group A, and that’s what it feels like right now with me and Birge in Group B. It’s going to be tough to keep catching the quality of fish I’m catching and hold Birge off, but I’m definitely going to keep trying.”
Top Marks and Notes in Group B
- Jacob Wheeler had the most weight of scorable bass (52-11) while Zack Birge caught the most scorable bass (18).
- The big bass of the day belonged to Fletcher Shryock with his 8-4 he caught in Period 1.
- No anglers ended the day without a scorable bass for the second straight day.
- Kevin VanDam is the 20th-place angler on SCORETRACKER® with 9-12. VanDam will begin Monday with a 3-ounce lead over Luke Clausen and the Toro Cut Line.
What’s Next
Group A returns to Lake Travis for their second qualifying round. Their weights will carry over from their first day of competition. After three periods of fishing, anglers in second through 20th place on SCORETRACKER® will move on to the Knockout Round. The pro who ends the day in first place will move on directly to the Championship Round. Local weather calls for sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s for Sunday.