Holy sow!
Co-angler lands largest bass in EverStart history; Morgan maintains pro lead at Sam Rayburn
JASPER, Texas – Gary Peck has seen a lot of bass over the years. A veteran FLW Outdoors staffer who spends a lot of time checking in fish for size and health before anglers weigh them in at tournaments – or “bumping” fish, as they say in the business – Peck has pretty much seen it all. Little ones, medium ones and many, many big ones. It takes something special to make Peck’s eyes light up at the sight of a bass.
But that’s just what Jeary Wheeler did Thursday at Texas’ Sam Rayburn Reservoir. The second-year EverStart Series co-angler from Batesville, Ark., caught a record-size largemouth bass that tipped the scale at an enormous 12 pounds, 11 ounces.
Not only did the monster fish elicit gasps and cheers from the appreciative crowd at Twin Dikes Marina Thursday afternoon, it barely fit into the official bumper’s tub.
“I have been here (at FLW Outdoors) for six years – and that means I’ve been to every (four-day) tournament in the last six years – and I have never seen a fish that big,” Peck marveled.
Wheeler’s fish is an unofficial record for the EverStart Series and likely beats anything ever caught on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour as well. At 12 pounds, 11 ounces, it fell under 6 pounds short of the Texas state largemouth record of 18.18 pounds and crept up on the Sam Rayburn Reservoir largemouth record of 16.8 pounds.
Records aside, it was the biggest bass Wheeler has ever caught – certainly his biggest in a tournament. And he already has some big ones under his belt.
“I’ve got a 10-15 on the wall at home and I’ve caught an 11-4 before, but this is definitely my biggest,” Wheeler said.
The catch: He got it on the last cast
Here’s how it happened:
Wheeler, who competed from the back of pro George Jeane Jr.’s boat Thursday, fished with a Rat-L-Trap for three hours in the morning. He caught a beautiful 6-pound, 7-ounce largemouth on the Trap early, but then the bite stopped. So they decided to go flipping for about four hours, but that didn’t work either. With just Wheeler’s 6-pounder in the livewells and running out of time, they decided to work their way back toward the weigh-in point.
For the last hour and a half of the day they worked some grassy points not far from Twin Dikes Marina where Jeane, who was in third place in the Pro Division after Wednesday, landed a pair of keepers weighing about 6 pounds total. Whatever Wheeler was throwing wasn’t working, and, with a weight of just 2-6 to work with from Wednesday, he began resigning himself to the idea of missing the co-angler cut.
Then, with about two or three minutes left until their 4 o’clock check-in time, Wheeler picked up his rod baited with a Rat-L-Trap and made one last cast.
“I said, `I’m going to pull a Shaw Grigsby,'” he said.
He hooked into something big.
Wheeler explained: “I said, `(Darn), George, I’m hung up.’ He looked and said, `You’ve got a big one.’ I thought maybe I had a good-sized fish with some grass on it. But when it came to the surface and I saw it, my knees almost buckled.”
It was huge, 12-pounds-huge. After muscling it into the boat and pulling it free of his line, Wheeler found that the hawg had completely straightened out one of the hooks on his bait and the other was buried in its mouth.
“At that point I didn’t know if I was shaking because I was cold or because I was excited,” he said. “Right then, I put my rod up and we came to the weigh-in.”
After checking in at the bump tub, trembling from both the Texas winter chill and from excitement, Wheeler mounted the stage and weighed in his two bass for a total weight of 19 pounds, 2 ounces.
Remember that nice 6-pounder from earlier in the day? Held up together, the 12-pounder made it look like a guppy.
“I was hoping to catch 20 pounds today,” Wheeler gushed, “but I wasn’t expecting to do it with just two fish.”
Those two fish compiled the biggest stringer of the entire Co-angler Division Thursday and launched Wheeler into the semifinal round in ninth place with a two-day weight of 21-8.
Morgan maintains control of the pros
In other news, Trey Morgan of Goldonna, La., held onto the Pro Division lead in a big-bass battle atop the leaderboard. Morgan, who dominated Wednesday with a five-bass weight of 24 pounds, 5 ounces, added another five bass weighing 17-9 to his total Thursday, pushing his two-day weight to 41-14.
On Wednesday, Morgan relied on just a couple of key fishing spots where he can work his Rat-L-Trap, but he chose to avoid them Thursday. He caught his biggest bass, which weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces, by flipping, then filled out his stringer while exploring “a few backwater areas.”
For Friday’s semifinal round, he plans to return to his Rat-L-Trap honey holes.
“I’m going wide open tomorrow,” he said. “If it isn’t going to happen for me there, it just isn’t going to happen.”
David Truax of Beaumont, Texas, had the heaviest catch Thursday with five bass weighing 20 pounds, 5 ounces and moved up to second place behind Morgan with a two-day total of 39-10.
His biggest bass of the day weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces, and he said the key to his success Thursday was an adjustment he made as the already-cool temperatures dropped slightly in east Texas.
“Yesterday, I used a 1/2-ounce-rigged Rat-L-Trap and fished it fast,” he said. “Today, I went with a ¾-ounce and fished slowly. I changed the color, size and retrieve.”
Alfred Williams of Jackson, Miss., finished the opening round in third place with a two-day weight of 39 pounds, 4 ounces. He also stayed close to home Thursday to catch his five sizable bass.
“I’m staying down on this end of the lake. I’m fishing really close,” he said.
Rounding out the top five in the Pro Division were James Davis Jr. of Ferriday, La., in fourth place with a two-day total weight of 34 pounds, 11 ounces and Clark Reehm of Russellville, Ark., in fifth place with a weight of 30-0. Reehm tallied a kicker bass weighing 7-3 Thursday.
The $750 big-bass award in the Pro Division, however, went to David Cochran of Hot Springs, Ark., for a Sam Rayburn largemouth that weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces.
McKnight mac-nails them again on the co-angler side
He only had six bites Thursday, but Jerry McKnight caught all of them. The fish were of high-enough quality to send the co-angler from Wells, Texas, into the division lead with a two-day weight of 29 pounds, 8 ounces.
“It was good today, but it was tough,” he said. “You’ve got to catch them on every bite you get.”
McKnight, who caught a 10-pound largemouth himself Wednesday (only to be edged out of the limelight by Wheeler’s 12 1/2-pounder), said he’s just looking for a five-bass limit in the semifinals, regardless of their size.
“I just plan on following my pro partner’s lead tomorrow,” he said.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers were second-place Barry Goen of Hartsburg, Mo. (eight bass, 27 pounds, 11 ounces); third-place Joe Rasnick of Brookville, Ind. (nine bass, 23 pounds, 6 ounces); fourth-place Doug Caskey of Madisonville, Ky. (seven bass, 23 pounds, 2 ounces); and fifth-place Dean Morgan of Port Arthur, Texas (seven bass, 22 pounds, 15 ounces).
Without question, Jeary Wheeler won the $250 co-angler big-bass award Thursday for his 12-7 kicker.
The semifinal round commences at 7 a.m. Friday as competitors take off from Twin Dikes Marina in Brookeland. All anglers’ weights will be reset to zero. The top 10 anglers in both divisions following tomorrow’s fishing will advance to Saturday’s final round. Friday and Saturday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 800 W. Gibson in Jasper beginning at 4 p.m.
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