MITCHELL FORDE
Before making a cast in the Championship Round at PowerStop Brakes Stage Three Presented by Mercury, Jacob Wheeler knew he was about to send Dale Hollow Lake’s bass into a feeding frenzy. He even warned MLFNOW! viewers not to expect much commentary from him, as he planned to be too busy boating bass.
It took less than two minutes for Wheeler to make good on his promise with a 3-pound, 7-ounce largemouth. That sparked a bass barrage for the ages.
Wheeler followed that fish with another 3-pounder, then a 2-3 and a 2-8 — all in the first 10 minutes. In the opening hour, he stacked 14 scorable bass for 43 pounds, 3 ounces on SCORETRACKER®. By the end of the first period, he’d amassed 70-6, all but burying the other nine anglers on the water.
Wheeler would cruise to a 116-6 total on 39 scorable bass – more than 30 pounds clear of Michael Neal in second place. The victory marked the second of the season for Wheeler, who also took home the title at Stage Two on Santee Cooper. He also added to his Bass Pro Tour-best win total, hoisting his eighth trophy since the inception of the league in 2019 and doing so on one of his favorite lakes in the country.
“This is like my lake; this is my home away from home,” the Harrison, Tennessee, native said of Dale Hollow. “My wife literally jokes that we should have moved to Dale Hollow, you like it so much, like giving me crap about it. And I just love it, man. … First big, national tournament on the lake, to get that win, it means a lot.”
Here’s how the Top 10 anglers finished up the Championship Round. Complete results can be found here.
- Jacob Wheeler — 116-6 (39 bass)
- Michael Neal — 85-10 (28)
- Spencer Shuffield — 85-5 (29)
- Drew Gill — 78-8 (27)
- Alton Jones Jr. — 74-0 (23)
- Marshall Robinson — 61-14 (21)
- Dustin Connell — 60-14 (20)
- Justin Lucas — 38-4 (13)
- Keith Poche — 36-12 (14)
- Alton Jones — 20-7 (7)
Capitalizing on an epic morning bite
Wheeler sowed the seeds for his Sunday morning blitzkrieg days earlier. As noted above, he spends quite a bit of time fun-fishing on Dale Hollow, so he knew to check the area during practice — which he described as a flat, main-lake drain protected by an island cluster. The islands act like a funnel, concentrating baitfish, and the flatter topography serves as fruitful spawning territory, making it a bass magnet.
