Wheeler Lake FLW Tour Open

I have been gone from home for exactly a month today!  Tomorrow is the start of the final FLW Tour Open of the year at Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Texas.  I'm having a great time but I'll be happy to get on the road home when this event is done.  Here is a report from the Wheeler Lake tournament back in September.  
I had a decent tournament and ended up with a 33rd place finish, which I was pretty happy with.  It was tough fishing and stout field.  I got a check, so all good!  

My buddy Mike Reid from came down to Wheeler with me a fished the tournament as a co-angler.  He ended up getting a 30th place and a check as well.  We had a good time!  The week went by pretty quick.  

Wheeler has some smallmouths in it...not a ton, but there are some good ones.  This 4-11 fish was the biggest one that I caught there and I was very fortunate to catch it on day two of the tournament.  It saved the day for me!  

I caught all of my fish at this event on one bait - a 3/4 oz Rapala Rippin' Rap.  I threw it on a Shimano Crucial 7'11" medium action crankbait rod, a 7.0:1 Shimano Curado reel and 12 lb Sufix fluorocarbon.  I literally wore the nose off a couple of these baits...they were a hot bait there.  

Here is Mike with a couple of white bass...they are loaded in Wheeler and when you find them schooling you will catch two at a time on your crankbait.  They are very aggressive!  

I did get one big fish in practice off a dock...this one was on a 1/4 oz  Northland Jungle Jig (white) that I was pitching around the docks.  There are a ton of shad in this lake so that was my reason for throwing a white jig.  

August and I spent last week at Lake Fork in Texas and caught a few big bass.  I'll post some photos from there next week, as well as photos and a report from Rayburn.