Living the Dream: Wheeler Lake, Part 5
Dave Andrews details second day of competition at FLW Series event on Wheeler Lake
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Editor’s note: This is the fifth piece in a series of journal entries from Dave Andrews, winner of the 2007 TBF National Championship, detailing his second stop on the 2008 FLW Series Eastern schedule. Entries will be published at FLWOutdoors.com throughout the course of the season. As winner of the “Living the Dream” package, offered by FLW Outdoors through The Bass Federation, Andrews had his entry fees paid to test his club skills on the pro tour with the use of a fully wrapped boat and tow package. Andrews will chronicle his adventure in pro bass fishing, having most recently competed on Alabama’s Wheeler Lake. After Andrews has submitted his journal following each FLW Series event, segments will be posted approximately weekly. (Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4) (Read his Okeechobee journal; this links to the final entry, which provides links at the top for each preceding part)
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Wal-Mart FLW Series BP Eastern Division
Stop No. 2: Wheeler Lake
March 26-29, 2008
Tournament competition: day two (Thursday, March 27)
The weather on the morning of the second competition day was much like that of the first: mostly cloudy, mild and breezy. The wind was supposed to really blow Thursday, forecast was for 20 to 30 mph out of the southwest. I went out early in the second flight, boat No. 22. My partner for the day was Robert Shufelt from Wisconsin.
I started on the Decatur Flats, not far from the launch on the milfoil bed. I worked the area fast, fan-casting with the chartreuse Rat-L-Trap. The water was still way up, and there was no current flow evident. Most of the same boats that started on the flat with me were back this morning. I stayed exactly an hour and caught only one small keeper. I didn’t see very many other fish caught either.
Considering how far behind I was, I really needed a big day to get back into this tournament, so I headed back to my bluffs. I planned to start with the Trap again, but if the water did not flow, I planned to slow down and fish a 1/2-ounce jig, hoping for the big bite. I weighed my options and decided it wasn’t worth the long run down to the dam to the over-pressured fish in the creeks. To my surprise, the section of bluffs that I had fished the day before had considerably fewer boats. Still, there were plenty of wrapped boats along this section, but it was more manageable than before.
The sun broke through the clouds, and the winds picked up as well. Waves crashed directly on the bluffs, and I was hoping that, in the absence of power generation, the waves would move the bass up tight to the bank and trigger a feed. I fished fast with the Trap for a couple of hours without a bite, so I put it down and picked up the jig stick. I slowed down and crawled the jig along the sharp drop-off of the first breakline, down into 25 feet of water. The bottom was jagged and I hung up frequently. Without anything to show for my hour spent with the jig, I switched to my finesse rod and Giggy Head.
I switched over from the ¼-ounce jighead to a 3/16-ounce. I threaded on a 6-inch June bug-colored Zoom Trick Worm. I maneuvered into a small pocket along the shoreline and worked the worm extremely slowly out from the first drop. Soon, I felt a subtle tap and set the hook. The spinning rod bent over and a nice bass fought for its freedom. A short time later, my partner netted my second keeper of the day, a solid 3-pound largemouth. I glanced at my watch, it was 11:30 a.m.
I fished the worm on a setup that included a Daiwa TD Sol 2500 spinning reel and a 6-foot, 6-inch Fenwick Techna AV rod. I used Gamma 8-pound copolymer line. The switch to the lighter jighead was key for this approach. The heavier head seemed to hug the bottom and wedge into the rock substrate. I 
broke off quite a bit the first day, and with the lighter weight, I could sort of guide the worm across the bottom. When I did hang up, I developed a technique where I would give the line some slack and then shake the rod vigorously, and it would usually free the bait without having to troll over to spot where I was hung up or break off.
As I eased out of the small pocket, I hung my worm out in deep water and shook it loose. When it came free of the bottom, the line jumped ever so slightly, and I set the hook. Again, the rod bent significantly, as I reeled quickly to keep up with the fish, which was hell-bent on getting to the surface as fast as it could. Not far from the boat, it skyrocketed out of the water. It was big and it was brown: a smallmouth, easily the biggest one I’d seen since I got to Wheeler Lake. Mindful of the light tackle, I took my time with the fish. It jumped again and then sounded under the boat. Eventually it tired, and my partner slid the net under the fish. It was easily 3 1/2 pounds and was my third keeper.
I zipped up to the next little pocket and worked my way into the back end. I pitched my worm next to a big tree limb in 10 feet of water, and the line jumped. I set the hook and saw the side of a nice bass turn as he felt the sting of my hook. He dove down into the tree, and I was powerless to stop him. It was over in a few seconds, as he wrapped me around a limb and broke off. It looked like a 4-pound fish. I second-guessed myself for a moment, wishing I had grabbed my jig rod with 30-pound braid, but the bites were coming with the light tackle and the worm, so I shook it off and worked my way back out of the pocket.
No more bites would come, and I had run out of the small pockets in this section of the bluffs, so with time starting to run thin, I ran back upriver a few miles and picked a point near a small pocket that was in the direct line of the strong southerly winds. Waves crashed onto the point, and it was hard to hold boat position and work the light worm along the point. A moment after arriving, my partner caught a decent keeper largemouth, then I followed with one of my own, again a decent 14-inch keeper. A few casts later, my partner got his third fish of the day, this time a keeper smallmouth on a Texas-rigged lizard. After netting his fish, I threw back toward the point and again felt a tap. I set the hook and flipped my limit fish into the boat. The action was fast and furious.
When it finally died down on the point, we would hop up to the next little cut and try to duplicate our success. My co-angler got his fourth fish on one point, but we had an early check-in time and a pretty long run through some rough water, so we headed back toward Decatur. With about 25 minutes left in our day, we stopped on the milfoil flat and my partner got his last keeper on the Rat-L-Trap. I caught a few small fish that did not help. We pushed it as long as we could and then checked in with a minute or two to spare.
We were one of the first boats in line, which was nice, because it gave me some time to enjoy some of the weigh-in and then get back to the hotel and change line and hooks for the third competition day. My five-fish limit weighed a respectable 9 pounds, 6 ounces, but I couldn’t help but wonder “what if” about the fish that broke off. The weights fell off a little on Thursday. I moved up about 30 spots in the standings by the end of the day.
I felt pretty good with what I had found late on the second day. Without any current, the fish were clearly moving out away from the bank and holding in water as deep as 25 feet. I made some good decisions and some good adjustments. I had also proven that some quality bites could be had on the worm and light tackle. I figured I would need a 13- or 14-pound limit Friday to get a check.
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Editor’s note: Stay tuned for Part 6 of Andrews’ adventure on Wheeler Lake, in which he’ll write about his third day of competition.
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