Lake Wheeler Story

March 16, 2009

By: Lance Granger

 

 

The club hosted a tournament at normally beautiful Joe Wheeler State Park on Lake Wheeler on March 14th-15th.  Bo and Lance arrived early to do a little pre-fishing and some smallmouth fishing.  Weather was a big deal at this one.  A week before the tournament they were predicting 70 degree days with a chance of rain.  That forecast changed every day for the next 7 days.  By the time we arrived winds were high and the rain was coming.  We fished Wednesday afternoon in high winds but found ways out of it.  Thursday brought the rain coupled with high winds.  Jason and Benson arrived as well as Shawn.  It was not a great pre-fishing day but it the fish seemed to be biting.  HEAVY rain and cold took over for Thursday-Saturday night.  We just know how to call tournament weather.  Who wants to know how to catch fish in perfect conditions????  We want to throw the worst at you.  So everyone got ready for a rough morning Saturday.  The cabins at Joe Wheeler were shaking all night with wind and rain.  The bite for Bo and Lance was mainly found in shallow water on Saturday.  We got off to a hot start and had our limit by 8:00.  The fish were of a higher quality than we had seen all week.  We spent the day trying to catch a few bigger fish.  We hit a long drought of no bites for several hours.  We ended the day on a bluff wall.  Bo was wanting an “Ike moment” and we had to go.  Bo put his rod down and got ready for a rough water run.  Lance threw one last cast down the wall and WHAM…… a 4lb 1oz bass took the crankin shad.  It was on my top 3 fishing moments ever.  So we had a bag of 2+lb fish anchored by the 4. 

 

Weigh in Saturday:

 

Bo went into crazy mode Saturday night.  We all knew the fishing was going to change Sunday with the rain moving out and wind changing direction most of the day.  Bo retied rods for like two hours.  Changing line, laying out every box of tackle he owned and picking just the right stuff to put on his limiting number of rods.  Shawn also had a problem with his partner backing out on him leaving Shawn solo.  Sunday morning was like a warm tropical breeze.  It was probably low 50’s and the rain was very light.  Bo and I headed to our honey hole while Jason, Benson and Shawn headed for the Nuclear Plant choosing to launch closer to their spot.  Bill and Russell stayed on the West end of the lake across from the cabins.  The bite for Bo and Lance was tough Sunday.  Much smaller fish.  We were stopped by the Marine Police at one point and he made it like there was a bass all you can eat buffet at the Nuke Plant.  We considered moving but that is just not what we wanted to do.  Our hopes were that Benson, Shawn and Jason were having a good time and just slaughtering the fish.  Bo clued in to a special little lure and caught enough decent fish to keep us alive.  He started throwing a Shad Rap with some red.  Bo caught another nice fish to give us the needed boost.  Wind started picking up again at the end of the day but it was the best day we had seen all week weather-wise.

 

Weigh in Sunday – Everyone caught 5 fish

 

We did have a crazy weigh in at this one.  Weather just had everything soaked.  Shoes and clothes didn’t have time to dry out before the next morning.  Lance’s brand new HDS depth finder got water in it  And it appears the scale got too wet.  The scale wasn’t working at weigh in and we had to resort to a backup plan of weighing with the handheld.  Bo is looking into fixing the problem.  Hopefully it will dry out after a few days and start working.  We’ll see.  We were able to catch some nice fish and some records will fall.  We also will add a few smallmouth to our records.  Thanks to all for a great tournament and thanks to those who stuck it out in such bad conditions.

 

Full Results / Pictures

 

 

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