Jacob Wheeler enters the day officially in ninth place but he cannot be counted out as a contender to remain inside the cut for Championship Monday. This morning he made a believer out of me as we talked about the keys for the day. What is more, much of what he said explains why the bite gets better as the day goes on.
“It takes a bit of time for the smallmouth to get positioned on those key offshore places,” he explained. “What I mean by that is the sun gets up and positions the fish on the rocks to make them active.”
With that in mind he is prepared to maximize how, when and where the fish position on his key areas.
“Today it’s all about making a key rotation, getting to a fresh place and being able to catch them quick, catching those fish that aren’t already busted up by someone else,” he continued. “They’ll eventually set back up on the spot but you have to give them time to do that.”
Thus, the reason for keeping a rotation of areas in play throughout the day.
Wheeler went on to explain that much of the fishable water has been eliminated for the very reason of the smallmouth keying on specific places, which of course explains why boats gather in concentrated areas.