For nearly every event on the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit presented by Bad Boy Mowers schedule, there is a corresponding local favorite. At Lake Murray, it’s Anthony Gagliardi; back at Okeechobee, the McMillan brothers led the charge. At Smith Lake, the favorite is unquestionably Jesse Wiggins.
A pro on both the Bass Pro Tour and the Pro Circuit, Wiggins hails from Addison, Alabama, and has an intimate knowledge of and sterling record on Smith Lake.
As such, Wiggins is of prime interest, and most figure he’ll be interesting all the way through Sunday. Happily, he let me hop in the boat for his final morning of practice to see him in action.
We meet at a dock in Rock Creek, just a bit after 6:00 a.m., and immediately roll out for a 20-minute run in the cold. Wiggins has a creek he wants to check early, and with only two days of practice, now is the time to do it.
Double Checking
After a brisk run, Wiggins sets down, idles back a little more into his chosen creek and drops the trolling motor.
“I found a ton of fish in this creek yesterday, but I couldn’t get them to bite,” Wiggins says. “I want to see if they bite in the morning. I need to know if these fish are big or not.”
Pretty quickly, it’s apparent that the fish are still there. They’re also biting – Wiggins’ first comes on a jerkbait, and he catches another and another in short order.
“I gotta throw it back out there, I love catching them too much,” he exclaims. “Man, look how many there are. I gotta catch one more, they’ve got a day off.”
Between casting to fish on Lowrance ActiveTarget and fish actually breaking, Wiggins is having a great time. He’s not an all-business guy on an ordinary day, but it’s easy to see why he appreciates Smith so much – the man just likes catching bass.
As a local on Smith, which is theoretically an amazing lake for forward-facing sonar, I wonder if he thinks that technology has made things too easy.
“I have a buddy that’s had a Garmin forever, he always talks about how many fish he sees with it,” Wiggins says. “There’s no such thing as too easy in my opinion, I wish we could use minners.”
After a couple more fish, including one truly chunky spot, it’s time to roll. Idling out, I ask him how he likes fishing at home, and if he feels any extra pressure.
“I like it,” says Wiggins. “I wanna win, and it’s a good feeling knowing you’re sleeping in your own bed.”
History is Key
After another brisk run, Wiggins sets us down at the mouth of another smallish creek. Making a short idle into the middle of it, he cuts the motor and begins poking around with ActiveTarget, looking for fish and alternating between a Ned rig and a shaky head as he works his way back.
This creek has absolute wads of bait and fish in it according to ActiveTarget, but Wiggins is struggling to buy a bite so far.
“That bait out there gets me excited,” says Wiggins. “There will be schools of them in this one pocket, I don’t know why this is better than the others, but it can be. I gotta figure out how to get these to bite, some of these are decent fish.”
After working to the back and rotating through a cast of baits with no size to show for it, Wiggins is getting a tick frustrated at his home pond. The next bite will probably cure it, but for now, he’s again convinced that the fishing is a bit tough.
“If someone gave me 15 [pounds] a day without fishing, I’d take it, with how tough it seems to be fishing,” Wiggins says. “Yesterday was mind-boggling tough. The fish are there, they just aren’t biting. But, they’re gonna get caught. There are too many fish in this lake for them not to.”
After slipping into the back of the creek, Wiggins picks up a vibrating jig he last fished at Lake Guntersville to work his way out of the pocket. In short order, he sticks a plus-sized spot.
“I can probably count the fish I’ve caught on a ChatterBait here on one hand,” he recalls. “I remember the first one I ever caught on a ChatterBait here. I threw up by a trash mat, I thought I was hung, but it was about a 3 1/2 pound largemouth. It won us $10,000. He had to have got it when it hit the water, but he didn’t make a swirl.”
Shortly thereafter, it’s time to roll.
A short run takes us to the next creek, and Wiggins sees fish on ActiveTarget as soon as he stops.
“I’ve been catching them off this point since I was a boy,” he says.
Not catching them this time, Wiggins works his way back, casting at the occasional ActiveTarget fish without success, and never really getting close to the actual bank.
“I practice like this because I’m trying to find a wad of them,” Wiggins says. “If I don’t find a wad of them, I can just go down the bank in the tournament. I know the good banks and where to fish if I need to.”
That he already knows where to fish seems like a guaranteed fact based on his knowledge. Today, he’s already called out multiple one-cast places that only work with an umbrella rig, his cousins’ old dock, a house his dad’s friends live in and more.
Running and Gunning
The next stop is surprisingly not a narrow creek – setting down on a point on the main drag, Wiggins starts whipping around a jerkbait. After about 15 minutes he decides the time is right for another move.
Our final stop is a quick one – he fishes about a 20-yard stretch with just a few small nibbles and then decides to roll. It’s not even the best-looking stretch in the creek, but I’m not trying to get in the business of second-guessing Wiggins on Smith.
Wrapping the Morning
Heading back to drop me off, Wiggins gives us a few minutes of his time for another dose of content. Then, with the media crew watching from the dock, he makes a few casts in the pocket, notes that we’re standing on top of one and then rolls out.