Jacob Wheeler has been working his way back north from Chester Frost Park. He stopped briefly and fished "the Hammer Hole" again. Nothing. And he's made several other brief stops on the way past Possum Creek. In fact, these stops were so brief – one cast here, two casts there – that we thought he might be "spinning out."
But Wheeler is a man executing a plan today. His last stop came at 2:00, and it resulted in a 4.90-pounder that allowed him to cull up 2 pounds. That puts him at 21 3/4 pounds today.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!," yelled Wheeler as he held the fish in the air. "One more like that and it will be lights out."
I think he's catching these deep fish on some type of hair jig and a soft plastic trailer, but he's not talking about it. The bait is white, I know that. The fish he caught shallow this morning in the Hiwassee River came on a bladed jig (white), I think. Usually we can get these guys to talk about lures on the last day of an Elite Series tournament, but Wheeler is keeping his game face on all day today.