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Savvy Navvy 2024

Top 10 baits from Toyota Series Championship on Wheeler Lake

by Major League Fishing 13 Nov 19:14 UTC
While a variety of baits produced high finishes at the Toyota Series Championship on Wheeler Lake, the jighead minnow accounted for yet another big win © Rob Matsuura / Major League Fishing

While the infamous jighead minnow proved to be the winning lure for rising star Hayden Marbut at the Toyota Series Championship Presented by Bass Boat Technologies, it was far from the only way to catch bass on Wheeler Lake.

The top finishers used a healthy mix of baits and patterns while targeting both smallmouth and largemouth bass on the storied TVA fishery. It was a little bit of everything for the Top 10 at this year's finale, and there truly was something for everyone.

1. Marbut continues minnow mastery

The 21-year-old already proved he can compete with his Lake Guntersville Toyota Series triumph earlier this year, and now he's $235,000 richer thanks to his dominant win on Wheeler. While Marbut's weights dropped each day, he had the fish dialed and used the hottest technique in tournament fishing to win by more than 5 pounds.

"I was targeting fish suspended around bait on the obvious stuff like channel swings and points," he said. "I also had a key brush pile and caught two fish on it the last day."

Marbut started near Wheeler Dam but progressively moved closer to the Elk River as the event continued.

"Those fish down the lake were getting smart with all the pressure, and the area closer to the Elk was more stained, and the fish were easier to catch," he said. "I caught my fish on a 3/16-ounce Picasso tungsten jighead with various 4- and 5-inch minnows. There wasn't one bait that was better than the others."

Marbut wielded his minnows on a 6-foot, 10-inch, medium light G. Loomis NRX+ spinning rod, which he paired with a few Shimano spinning reels.

2. Day 2 mega bag keys runner-up finish for Poche

Alabama's Keith Poche made the biggest splash of the event with his massive 27-5 bag on the second day to vault to the lead before eventually falling to the runner-up spot. As disappointing as second place can be, Poche was happy about the $50,000 consolation prize.

"Second place is hard, but I can't complain because I had one of those days that just don't happen," he said. "The best I thought I could catch in the area was high teens or maybe 20 pounds, so I must be very thankful. I think I caught every big fish in the area the second day."

His area was far up the Elk River, and it took him an hour to reach it. It featured a ditch running through dying lily pads in shallow water with close access to the deeper creek channel. His bait of choice was a Berkley Swamp Lord frog in the Potomac color.

"The area was maybe 50 yards wide, and the water in there was just a little deeper, and it made a saddle, and all the fish funneled into that spot," he said. "They were only in a foot of water, and I could see the fish whenever they moved — they made a wake and showed themselves. The bass were grouped in there eating bream; it was the perfect scenario."

3. Howell dials in fall topwater bite

Although he lives just one lake away on Guntersville, Laker Howell had fairly limited experience on Wheeler. He found some similarities in how the two reservoirs fish and stayed consistent all week with three bags in the teens.

"I was looking for the grass that had close access to deeper water, which is the same thing that's happening on Guntersville now for the bigger fish," he said. "They were only in a foot of water, and you'd see them blow up on a shad and bomb over there. You'd sometimes sit in one spot for 20 minutes and wait for them to come up again."

Howell credits a switch in topwater baits for his success. He rotated through several walking baits before settling on a smaller version, which elicited a few vicious blow-ups on the MLFNOW! livestream.

"The Livingston Lures Walking Boss Jr. was the best, and I think the smaller bait played a big role," he said. "They weren't eating anything else that I or my co-anglers were throwing at them."

4. Swindle adjusts with the fish

Austin Swindle had bookend 17-pound bags on the first and third days and cashed a $35,000 check for his efforts. His pattern evolved from practice and then changed again as the event progressed.

"In practice, I wanted to find a way to 'Scope them because I thought that'd be the way to win, but I never got on anything," he said. "The only way I could catch them was on a jerkbait on the grass edges. That was good the first day but changed the second day, and I started running down the bank with a buzzbait and throwing a jig at a few rockpiles I had and laydowns I came across while working down the bank."

Fishing the downriver section of Wheeler, Swindle began the event catching his fish on a translucent shad pattern Megabass Vision 110 jerkbait. Once that bite fizzled, he used a 3/8-ounce Boogerman Buzzbait with a white Zoom Z-Craw instead of the skirt and utilized a 3/8-ounce Backwoods Custom jig in green pumpkin blue with a twin-tail grub as the trailer.

5. Fields finds minnow, bluff wall bite

Ethan Fields started strong with 18-5, then posted two more bags in the teens to secure his top-five finish. He made a long run down lake toward the Wheeler Dam and focused on bluff walls, targeting bass that were suspended and chasing bait.

"I was fishing the bluff walls, and each day was a little different," he said. "The first day, they were inside the little side pockets of the bluffs, and by the last day, they were on the main lake. You could see them sitting high up in the water column around shad."

Fields used a 5-inch Deps Sakamata Shad in either electric shad or biwako wakasagi on a 3/16-ounce Keitech tungsten jighead with a 3/0 hook to catch his fish and had a mix of both largemouth and smallmouth in his limits.

6. Gill notches yet another Top 10

Another event, another Top 10 for Drew Gill, who has proven to be a threat everywhere he goes. Gill again showcased his forward-facing sonar skills and used a trio of baits: a jerkbait, glide bait and small swimbait. He fished around many competitors but made some key adjustments to get bites.

"I fished the main channel swings down the lake like everyone else, but I knew the fish were seeing so many minnows," he said. "Every time I looked up, I saw boats casting minnows, so I wanted to show them something different. I started with the 3.3-inch Big Bite Baits Pro Swimmer swimbait on light heads — 1/16- and 1/8-ounce. I also used the new stealth colors, which are clear with some glitter, since those fish were getting so much pressure."

As that bite disappeared, he switched to a cajun pearl Bill Lews Scope Stik midway through the event and relied on it the final day. Another key was a 6-inch Bucca Baits Trick Shad in pro herring. The glide bait accounted for a big bass each afternoon.

"I would start making my way back upriver in the last hour and a half and throw that glide bait around chunk rock and laydowns," he said. "You couldn't fish that stuff earlier in the day because it got washed out from the wakes from all the boats running around, and it took a few hours for it to settle down. I was able to catch one big one every afternoon doing that."

7. Lone honey hole carries Reinkemeyer

Brock Reinkemeyer milked a 100-yard stretch that would reload throughout each day. It was a smallmouth spot to begin the event and turned into a spotted bass hole on the final day. His top bait was any shad-colored Rapala CrushCity Freeloader on a 3/16-ounce VMC Hybrid jighead.

"It was a stretch up the river, and I think I was the only one there by the final day," he said. "It was real subtle depth changes and rolling contours on the backside of current. I'd pull up and use a Damiki rig and pull one up on the bottom once in a while; I didn't even see them on the graph. Then I'd have to wait another 30 minutes, drift back down and catch another one."

8. Thibodaux rides a jerkbait

Sticking to bluffs on the lower end of the lake, Levi Thibodaux did his damage with a jerkbait and had to switch up locations each day of the event. His primary weapon was a Megabass Vision 110 in mat shad, although he did fish a jighead minnow here and there.

"I was just fishing those bluffs that had a little shelf to them and 'Scoping around to find baitfish, and they were all in 8 feet or less," he said. "I'd fish one area, and if I didn't catch any, I'd move on. In some places, I'd fish more than once, but every day was completely different from where they were. On the last day, I fished somewhere I'd never been."

9. Day 3 rally boosts Parker into Top 10

Just making the final day was a win for Zane Parker, who eked his way inside the cut line in 25th place going into the final day before bringing a 15-4 limit to jump into the Top 10. The 19-year-old adjusted each day, changing his primary presentation and area during the course of the event.

"The first day, it was all about a drop-shot with a 6th Sense Glitch in 4k shad, and I caught one over 6 pounds to give me a good 'Wheeler bag' of 15 pounds," he said. "The second day, I caught them on the flats with a shad-colored popper, and the final day, I decided to run toward the dam to try to catch a really good bag, but also tried to stay away from some of the guys who had been there all week. I ended up catching them shallow on the popper again and was able to move up."

10. Steverson ventures way up a creek

Florida's Kennie Steverson found a sneaky area in Limestone Creek that was difficult to access but had enough water to hold a bass population once he made his way into the approximately 300-yard-long area.

"I practiced 'the flats' and all of the community stuff but couldn't figure them out, so I started going as far back into every creek I could," he said. "I saw this area on my Lowrance C-Map, and it was the deepest water I found in the very back of a creek, but it was hard to get to. My boat got stuck and everything trying to get in there. Then, there was a deeper trench with stumps in 3 to 5 feet of water that I caught everything on."

Steverson rotated through three baits: a buzzbait, a chartreuse Head Hunter Lures Nasty 50/50 Colorado spinnerbait, and a 3/8-ounce 6th Sense Divine Hybrid jig in PB & smoke jelly with a craw trailer.

"I'd throw the spinnerbait and buzzbait around the stumps, and then I'd pitch the jig if I didn't get one," he said. "I knew I could get a limit each day fishing that spinnerbait around stumps and would then throw a buzzbait or pitch the jig to them."

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