A Trip to Lake Wheeler

Most of my weekends are booked solid. When I am not fishing I am doing honey do's around the house and or spending time with my two girls and that usually involves swimming. Due to the extremely hot August we had, the swimming was just fine for me. A couple of weeks ago my wife decided to have a yard sale and the girls were going to sell lemonade and popsicles. I helped the entire night before getting tables ready and yard sale items out. My assistance was not needed however on Saturday so I gladly volunteered myself to stay away from Saturday’s event. So I packed my gear and headed down to Lake Wheeler in Alabama. This is the site for the last B.A.S.S. Southern Open for me coming up in October so I thought I better take advantage of a little practice while I can. I drove through the night to reach a Wal Mart about day break to grab a license and a map. I drove to the nearest boat ramp and was in the water by about seven a.m. The lake did not appear that big until I opened the map to discover that it was around 70,000 acres. WOW! It may take longer than a couple of days to figure this one out. I fished around several grass flats before boating my first keeper. The three pounder ate a Strike King Red Shad worm. Minutes later I caught my second keeper around the same area and began to think that this was going to be easy. Then I went the next three hours without a strike to bring myself back down to reality. I spent the rest of the day idling from spot to spot just looking and trying to learn the lake as muck as I could. Plus the 102 degree heat made it easier to moving instead of fishing. That evening I met up with one of my good friends, Charlie. He just so happened to be coming back from vacation with his girlfriend’s parents and was going right over Lake Wheeler. They dropped him off and we spent the rest of the evening watch bass bust through the grass and not going after our lures. The next morning we got an early start. We fished around several different areas before finally catching some fish. I located a small drop with some current flowing and began catching them on a Strike King half ounce jig. By then the heat was almost unbearable and we decided to go on a boat ride and look at the lake. We eventually called it quits and put the boat on the trailer. The air conditioning never felt so good. We got home around eight that evening. The girls were happy to see me and I was happy that I had my garage back. Heidi had sold almost everything she put out and the girls even made a couple dollars. I was glad to be home but I was also glad I went. It was a great learning experience and I hope it pays off in October.