Day 1 on Wheeler - Bassmaster

Randy Howell works hard near the take-off in early action of Day 1 of the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Elite at Wheeler Lake.

Out on the main river, Justin Lucas runs by looking for places yet to be hit by any anglers.

Howell lives upriver near Lake Guntersville and was hoping to put some of his local to use on Lake Wheeler.

While Lucas was going one way, Scott Rook was headed the other. The early morning bite was critical during the shad spawn and many of the anglers were running and gunning early.

He tried several angles, including on his knees, which was actually a cast made while he was coming up from getting a new rod.

Lucas would settle into a little hidey hole in plain sight.

While Casey Scanlon fishes close by.

Both of the anglers were hitting the low-hanging fruit, knowing that for the most part those areas would be toast by Day 2.

They were still productive for Yusuke Miyazaki, who caught this small keeper behind Scanlon and Lucas.

Even though, Miyazaki would follow that up with a snag, that forced him to get unhung by sliding his rod and reel down the line and to the bait.

in other places, Marty Robinson would be kneeling under barge cables to get a cast into a tight spot.

He had the added distraction of a crane unloading grain from the barge he was fishing close to.

Robinson would eventually move to the quieter end, and hold his boat away from the industrial pillars.

A few moments later he would hook up.

It was obvious Robinson was babying the fish as he reeled it in.

Taking great care that the fish didn’t jump and throw his lure.

As he began pulling it in, it was revealed as a smallmouth bass.

Smallmouth will make up a part of the weights of several anglers in this event. They share Lake Wheeler with largemouth and spotted bass.

But the fish would be too short to measure as a keeper.

Robinson would continue to look for bites along the banks of Wheeler.

Nearby, Gary Klein would be working his own stretch of bank.

He was catching them too.

When he hooked this fish, he already had more than 17 pounds in his livewell.

Klein a true veteran of Bassmaster competition with more than 30 years of experience worked the fish along side the boat.

And pulled it aboard, hoping to cull with it.

The fish was a chunk, weighing over 3 pounds.

But as Klein reached for it, he immediately regretted catching the fish.

That fish would not help his weight and it could have been an important fish later in the week.

Klein made the decision to look for new areas, practicing for the remainder of the day in hopes of finding more to go with a good start on Day 1.

He picked up and moved on in hopes of finding some back-up places.

John Crews was in the proverbial “same boat” as Klein with about 20 pounds caught early on Day 1. He was practicing too and made an errant cast to the top of tree.

After a few tugs he retrieved his lure and a branch, but played it off saying he was “trying catch a squirrel.” He needed it’s tail to make some bucktail jigs he said.