Hopes high on Day 1 of the Toyota Series Championship on Wheeler

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Fall on the Tennessee River is never a guarantee – lake to lake, there are a bunch of patterns going, and year to year, the amount of grass and current varies considerably. So Wheeler Lake isn’t necessarily an easy nut to crack for the Toyota Series Championship Presented by Bass Boat Technologies competitors. Still, there’s good opportunity there – enough pros reported big practice days to have hopes pretty high on Day 1. Though everyone is not going to smash ‘em, and the weights won’t look like they would if the event was up the river a little at Lake Guntersville, it sounds like we’re in for a highly competitive and interesting event.

Here’s the lowdown from a few possible contenders.

Lawrence likes the look of things

An obvious pre-tournament favorite anywhere on the Tennessee River, Jake Lawrence is looking forward to this one in a big way. Obviously, you never know how derby day goes, but it’s been a good practice for the Tennessee pro.

“I had a decent practice, I really did,” he said. “I had 22-something one day and 18 the next, not trying to catch them. They’re there.”

Opened in 1936, Wheeler Dam is one of the older dams on the system, with some of the other powerhouse lakes on the chain coming online shortly thereafter. According to Lawrence, the age of the reservoir, and how it lays out and has silted in, makes it a unique challenge.

“There’s a lot more silt and a lot less hard bottom, shells and rough patches out there,” Lawrence said. “You know, the standard TVA stuff. It does fish differently, and it’s always one of those lakes where it is very, very hard to pattern fish and kind of run that pattern throughout the lake, which is what the TVA is known for.”

With that being the case, Lawrence expects a few key zones to play big.

“To me, there’s going to be four main players in in this tournament,” he said. “You’ve got the tailrace, you’ve got Decatur Flats, you’ve got the Elk River, and you’ve got, call it, the lower 2 miles of the lake. And those are kind of the four main areas. It’s funny, you’ll run for 10 miles in between those areas and you see a boat or two and you get to one of those four zones and there’s a boat every 200 yards. So, it’s certainly not any secret where things go down here on Wheeler.”

Notably, Lawrence doesn’t plan on duking it out on the historically productive Decatur Flats.

“The Flats are a Mecca for largemouth,” he explained. “The population is certainly way more dense in that little stretch than it is anywhere else on the lake. However, this week, the weather was just not conducive to being able to find those fish. With the high winds that we’ve had, rolling right over the flats, it’s really muddied it up, and a lot of those fish will reposition when it happens.

“Because of my history with New Johnsonville and, you know, late fall at Kentucky Lake., when you’ve got high winds, those fish will reposition off of those shallow flats and those high spots, real shallow spots up on top of those bars. They’ll reposition and pull off to the sides, which is fine for the day that you found them. But the first day that it settles back down, they’ll spread back out. So, I really avoided that just because I felt like I was gonna set myself up for failure.”

Big expectations for Falardeau

A guide on Lake Chickamauga and on a roll this summer, Dillon Falardeau seems to have had an excellent practice.

While Wheeler doesn’t fit the bill as a pattern lake for Lawrence, Falardeau thinks it is, or, he’s going to try to make it one.

“This is a big-time pattern lake unlike, say, Chickamauga, which is not a pattern lake at all,” said Falardeau. “Nickajack is an awesome pattern lake. Guntersville is a great pattern lake and Wheeler sets up the same way. Once you figure out a pattern of big fish, you can run that pattern and see them. I haven’t been fishing with hooks the last three days, so I’m not a 100% sure, but I’m good with the LiveScope now, I can get a gauge on them.”

Falardeau is planning on burning a lot of gas, as are most folks not committed to fishing the tailrace, and he’s going to have a variety of things in play.

“You’ll definitely have to switch it up,” he added. “You know, some rocks here for a minute and then some grass here and then some wood here. But the biggest thing is just getting around the right quality fish.”

Notably, he expects big weight to come to the scales, or, he at least hopes he’s got it.

“It’s not a play it safe tournament, you know, this is for everything,” he said. “You don’t want to go out and catch 13 or 14 pounds, you want to go out and catch 22 or 23 pounds like the ABT guys just did.”

It’s all in play for O’Connell

The Central Division Fishing Clash Angler of the Year, Matt O’Connell has put together a heck of a season at a variety of levels with MLF. However, he’s not super experienced on Wheeler, with only a few tournaments under his belt on the lake. So far, the lake is giving him hope, but not really a locked in gameplan.

“I had one of those practices where I’m not catching keepers, but I’m catching quality,” said the Georgia pro. “I think only two days out of the four days of practice, I actually caught a limit. But, but I’ve seen some pretty big fish.

“I wouldn’t say it’s been good or a great practice, but it’s definitely not been horrible,” he added. “I like piecing together things each day, but at the same time, you know, it’s not like I’m sitting here anxious to get out there because I’ve got a feeling I will catch a 20- to 25-pound bag for sure.”

Like many, the wind in practice made it hard to effectively dial in the main lake.

“The wind made it an interesting dynamic for practice, because you could tell a lot of the main lake, you had to ignore it,” he said. “I mean, there were there was one point where I rode across the bottom end of the lake on, Monday, and it was 4-footers. I was going about 18 miles an hour just trying not to spear a wave. So, it definitely threw a little bit of a wrench, I’m sure, in a lot of people’s plans.”

From the sounds of it, O’Connell expects a variety of fall standards to play.

“I think there will be a few ‘Scopers,” he said. “I think there’s definitely going to be guys that throw topwater, if not all day, a lot of the day. And I could see a single swimbait, an umbrella rig, that kinda deal, and maybe even some big baits. But, it’s seemed day-to-day to me. And it’s one day you can get a bite doing one thing, and the next day you can get a bite doing another thing.”

One thing he’s not planning on doing is duking it out in the tailrace.

“I went up there Sunday when I saw the wind forecast for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday,” he said. “I hadn’t planned to go up there because I just knew with how close it was to takeoff compared to everything else, I had a feeling it would be getting pretty hammered.

“But, Sunday, I put in up at the tournament ramp and just kinda worked my way up to the tailrace and all the way back down to Decatur. First or second stop, I caught a random good largemouth, like, a 4-pounder. And that got me slightly excited. And then I think in the next 3 or 4 hours, I didn’t catch a keeper. I had a couple bites around the dam, but, it’s not really something I’m experienced with. So, it was more of an experiment for me than it was something I really thought would be part of my gameplan, and the experiment failed.”

Atkins riding high after ABT

A lot of times, anglers try to save fish in practice – they don’t want to put a hook in something that might bite when it counts. Sometimes though, it can pay to fish a tournament in practice, which is what Justin Atkins decided to do. Sacking up 20.44 to finish third in the Alabama Bass Trail event on Saturday, the Alabama pro instantly put a target on his back in this derby.

His pattern from Saturday sounds good, but unproven.

“I have learned a little bit of something to look for, and I fished a club tournament out there in March, “he said. “That’s when I kinda figured it out. Saturday was the second day I’ve ever done it and I caught 20 pounds. Sunday, I tried to expand on it. I probably caught 16 or 17 pounds. Obviously, I didn’t do it Monday or Tuesday. I don’t know at this current moment if I just got lucky or if it’s a deal or if everybody will be doing it.”

Though Atkins doesn’t plan on spending much time on the Flats, he doesn’t want to discount the potential, especially for someone who may have had a bummer practice.

“We got that first day to practice when it was calm and cloudy, and some guys probably found some fish on the Flats or maybe saw some areas where some people were fishing but didn’t get to fish there,” he said. “The last three days, it’s been blowing. And that can dirty the flats up, it makes it hard to fish. Your bait gets in the trough of a wave, gets a bunch of grass on it, you know, the whole nine.

“Last time I looked, the forecast didn’t show as much wind,” Atkins expanded. “Guys will be able to get out in the flats and fish more, and I will not be surprised if a guy that really didn’t have a good practice ends up doing really well just from being able to finally fish a little bit.”

Atkins thinks that with a little luck, there’s a high probability of someone doing well below the Guntersville Dam, in the tailrace. But, it’s risky.

“The only issue with fishing at the dam is it’s a numbers game,” he explained. “You’re a good boat number the first day, you get your hole. If you’re a bad number the second day, you may not get your hole. So that one’s always interesting, but the dam’s definitely gonna produce some big smallmouth.”

As for a winning weight, based on the ABT weights and his experience, Atkins thinks this event will take fairly high weights for fall on Wheeler.

“You’ll have to have over 20, I believe, to lead the first day and maybe 20 again to back it up,” said Atkins. “And then you’re fishing on the weekend on the Tennessee River, you know, everybody likes to go bass fishing. I just think when it’s all shakes out, I think about 18 pounds a day will probably win.”

Critical factors

In every event, there are a few things that could really change the outcome. With mostly good weather in the forecast for the first couple days, big wind shouldn’t be a huge issue, but it doesn’t mean there’s nothing else of note going on.

Avoiding the fog

With a good chunk of the field planning to burn some gas in this one, the specter of a fog delay is a real thing.

Lawrence is cautiously optimistic.

“That’s kind of the problem in the in these rivers, this time of year, a fog delay is almost imminent,” he said. “I’m really hoping that we don’t have fog, you know, as humid as it is. I think it’s gonna be fine, but, boy, a lot of us are fishing on the lower end of the lake, and it’s really going to factor in if we’ve got a fog delay. I’ve been worried about that all week.”

Take a number

For folks looking to capitalize on the tailrace, getting on their spot is going to be key. While it sounds like plenty of anglers are buckled up for the run down the lake, the tailrace is a known winning area, and there probably won’t be miles of productive water. While Day 1 might go well, Day 2 with flipped boat numbers could be real curveball for some.

Catching smallmouth?

According to Atkins, there’s a great chance the winner has more smallmouth than largemouth in this one. At the very least, it sounds very fun.

“On the flats, you’ll have a good mixture out there, but they catch a lot of largemouth,” Atkins explained. “I just don’t know if there’s one place that’ll hold up. And in my opinion, the smallmouth are so nomadic that they reload a lot better.

“And I just personally think they will end up winning the tournament, just because there’s there’s more potential for them to show up on your spot every single day, back-to-back-to-back. I think if you get out in the flats, and you’ve got a school of largemouth out there on a hard spot, if you’re not careful, you’ll you burn them up by Day 3. I’ve just seen this time of year, smallmouth are king.”