Lake Wheeler Story
October 17, 2005
Bo Crawford
TMTanglers fished their fall tournament on Lakes Wheeler and Wilson October 15-16. Reports from practice indicated that fishing was moderate on Thursday and tough on Friday. For the tournament the bite remained tough on Saturday and Sunday and only one 7 fish limit was weighed in during this tournament.
As usual, Bill Greene and Russell Fackler won the tournament. Their weight on Saturday was 12-2, giving them an 11 lb lead over the next closest team. They left the door open for a comeback on Sunday as they only weighed in two squeaker fish for a total weight of 1-9. However, the 11 lb deficit was too much to overcome and the second place team (which yours truly was part of) was only able to weigh in 6 fish that weighed 8-1. Bill and Russell clinched Angler of the Year honors for four years in a row with this win. We would have never let them in the club had we known that they would be so merciless in their consistent whipping of us. ;-)
The winning pattern was fishing watermelon red finesse worms on points and ledges across from 1st and 2nd creeks on the south side of the lake. Our tournament launched out of the cabin area of Joe Wheeler State Park and according to Bill’s GPS they only went 20 miles in four days of fishing. Wow! Talk about being patient and grinding it out. Big fish was won by yours truly on a Carolina-Rigged fluke on the upper end of Wilson. I also won the trash fish prize catching a 6-1 drum using a black and blue jig in the current under Wheeler Dam.
Basically, the weather was pleasant and the accommodations were nice at Joe Wheeler State Park. But the fishing was flat out bad and four days is a long time to fish when they are not cooperating better than that. I did catch a nice 6 lber in practice and lost a nice smallie on Saturday. I will be back this winter with a box full of jerkbaits because am still in search of that photo worthy smallie. Also, be aware that the $14.95 Friday Night Prime Rib special advertised on Joe Wheeler’s website is no longer available.
Our next tournament is February 18-19, 2006 at famous Lake Guntersville. We will be staying at Goose Pond Lodge and have room for a couple of more boats. We’re not greedy, we only want to catch a couple of those fish Zell and George showed us the last couple of years.