DECATUR, Ala. – Practice for Stop 3 Presented by Suzuki Marine of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech saw measurable snowfall on Wheeler Lake, and the high for Day 3 of the tournament is in the low 80s. So, there’s a good chance that some fish and some fishermen are pretty confused. But it’s still spring on the Tennessee River, and this field is perfectly tuned to make the most of it, regardless of the conditions.
Standards are definitely in play
Wheeler Lake is not an easy Tennessee River fishery, but the highs can be very high, and there are some staple patterns that we know will work. There are also a lot of options that are higher risk or maybe not as easy to translate from one fishery to another.
The most obvious pattern in play this week is targeting isolated cover for individual prespawn and spawning fish. A pattern that was popularized and defined by Jake Lawrence on Kentucky Lake, it’s a play that works from March through April, and it should be game on in this one.
“It’s going down,” said Ethan Fields, who finished third in last year’s College Fishing National Championship on Wheeler. “You know I like my brown bass, so that’s what I’ve been chasing around. They’re doing the deed – some are spawning, some are ready to be spawners, and then you’ve got some early prespawners still. The only thing that scares me is the format – three hours of ‘Scope, I have no clue what can be done in that time. But we’ll figure it out tomorrow.”
Fishing for bass on isolated cover, or even small groups holding in small areas, is not very efficient without modern sonar. So, expect pros to pile up the pounds when they’re using their three hours of screen time.
“There’s going to be a lot of people catching them in the three hours,” Hayden O’Barr said. “It’ll be interesting. I do think you can catch some fish winding, like winding a ChatterBait around the flats, maybe a spinnerbait in the backs of creeks. But I don’t think you can catch big weight doing it. I think it’s going to be another tournament where maybe you catch one without forward-facing but four with it. The guys who always catch them are probably going to catch them again.”
Beyond targeting isolated fish, there are other options. Fish can be caught shallow, there should be some fish in groups offshore on the Decatur Flats, and the tailrace of the Guntersville Dam is very much a factor. But, true to form for Wheeler, none of those other options are easy or consistent.
Plenty of complicating factors
“It’s super tough to be consistent up at the dam,” O’Barr said. “For the most part, it will be one key spot. If a bunch of people go up there, it might be one person catching them. And it’s very specific on the flats. I think the bottom end will have a lot of people on it; it’s one area where if you don’t know the lake, you can go catch fish. But I don’t know if they’ll be big enough to do anything. You could have a good tournament, but probably not win.”
Also, don’t expect clean screens in this one – pollen mixed in the water is one of the best protections bass have from LiveScope, and it’s a factor right now.
“This place is not your normal TVA lake, and it’s tricky if you’re not used to the TVA,” O’Barr said. “It has so many more trash fish in it than any other TVA lake. If you’re not dialed at knowing what fish are, it’s hard to tell. The first day I was here, I probably caught 30 drum, and I should know what drum look like at this point. But with the pollen, you couldn’t really tell the difference between fish. So, that could hurt weights – if you’re catching trash fish in your three hours, that’s not good.”
Keep your hopes high
Wheeler may not be in the top four when it comes to a ranking of the Tennessee River reservoirs, but it should still look pretty great this week. The smallmouth are accessible and not swimming around over nothing, and the largemouth are biting – it’s the time of year when everything wants to be shallow.
“It’s probably the best I’ve ever seen this place to be honest – I think we hit it at a really good time,” O’Barr said. “In my opinion, it’s better than it was last year. People are for sure going to struggle; weights might be kind of low on the bottom end, but I think the top end will be close to what (Brody Robison and Peyton Sorrow) had. And I think the Top 50 will take about 13 pounds a day. There’s definitely a good bite for both species right now – you can pick and choose what you want to target.”
Though the reachable highs are complicated by the rules, Fields also thinks we’re in for a good one.
“There are a lot of brown ones up shallow,” he said. “As far as the largemouth bite goes, one of my buddies said he shook off about 40 yesterday, so it sounds like the bite is strong. It’s so hard to say with this format, but I would predict no less than 58, and no more than 61 pounds. After what I saw yesterday, I think if you had ‘Scope all day, you could do 68 pounds.”
For the record, Fields has also decided to call his shot.
“I’m going with the Dylan Nutt strategy this tournament,” he said. “I’m saying I’m winning. That’s what he said for the Classic, so I’m saying I’m winning. I’m not going to try to play it safe. I’m going to try to catch five giant brown ones in three hours and then throw my crankbait. It’s a run-and-gun deal, but the good thing is, we’re not going to have giant waves, so we’ll be able to get around.”
Follow along
You can follow the action from Stop 3 Presented by Suzuki Marine at Wheeler Lake every day, March 19-21, on MLFNOW! and stay locked to MajorLeagueFishing.com for on-the-water galleries, daily stories and more.