We are just hours away from the Day 1 blastoff for the St. Croix Bassmaster Open Series at Wheeler Lake. This is stop two of Division 1 in the Opens, and the fourth opportunity for Opens EQ (Elite Qualifier) Pros to gather points as they claw their way towards one of the 9 qualifying spots for the 2024 Bassmaster Elite Series.
After three events, Georgian Matt Henry sits in second in the Bassmaster Opens EQ points race, 32 points behind leader John Garrett. We caught up with Henry to see how his strategy for the year is playing into how he’s practicing for Wheeler.
“I don’t really want to think about the points side too much,” said Henry. “I just want to go fishing and catch every bass I can catch.”
He’s trying not to overplay his hand, while also not playing it too safe. This mindset will serve Henry well on the Elites, if he can continue the pace he’s on. But getting a limit is definitely on his mind after three days of practice on Wheeler.
“I will say that it’s been so much a grind for me that I did start thinking late yesterday, trying to figure out how I’m going to be consistent or just catch a limit.”
Though Henry sits in second in the points race, he actually failed to bring a limit to the scales on Day 1 of the last Open on Buggs Island. This slip-up is fresh on his mind, and even more painful on account of what might have been.
“I weighed in four fish that day. And I had the bites to have 19 pounds and should have been leading it. It was just one of those days.”
Henry rallied to finish that event in 39th place, moving up from 79th on Day 1. Now he’s trying to focus on jogging his way through this one, and not on not stumbling. But there’s a lot going on on Wheeler right now.
“It’s a diverse fishery. You’re going to have people on the flats (Decatur), you’re going to have people on the bluffs (middle to lower lake) and you’re going to have people up in the tail race (under Guntersville Dam). I think the shad spawn is probably going to carry some people too.”
Threadfin and gizzard shad are spawning everywhere on Wheeler right now. According to Henry, it’s actually too much of a good thing. The shad are spawning in the pockets and creeks along any cover they can find. And they’re spawning on the hard spots and shellbeds along the ledges of the main river too.
“It’s just a matter of finding places where the bass are actually on them. I’ve been hearing of everybody catching them on a shad spawn and that’s not really been the case for me. It seems like I have to grind until about 12 o’clock, and then the bite picks up for me.”
Henry reported catching fish in as much as 16 feet of water and as shallow as a foot, crediting the high water for the number of bass that are still along the banks shallow.
“It was 556.3 for several days, about .2 or .3 (feet) over full. They’ve been pulling 22,000 cubic feet per second for I guess about 3 or 4 days consistently, all day.”
Though the water has been high, Henry noticed that it had dropped “about 3 or 4 inches” on Monday. But with strong storms predicted for Tuesday, and water continuing to be pumped out of Guntersville and into Wheeler, it’s looking like the lake will stay a little high. Or will it?
“If they keep moving it like they’re doing, I would think it’s going to fall some. But it still says, as of a couple hours ago (Monday night), they were still moving the same cubic feet per second. But it looks like we’ve come back up another inch and a half or two inches.”
The guessing game on water level will make the shallows a bit of a gamble. But any one thing is starting to feel like a gamble to Henry with practice winding down. His plan, play as many cards as he can.
“I’m probably going to be junk fishing. You can mix some things up and maybe do two or three or four different things throughout the day and just try to hit a little bite window and put together a bag.”
Henry is well aware of the shad spawn, and is still trying to locate a good bite related to that to start on. But he’s also seeing a few bass left on bed, signs of a bluegill spawn starting up and he’s keeping an eager eye out for a potential mayfly hatch as well.
“There’s some kind of bug hatching happening. Little tiny, gnat looking things. Hundreds of them will come off a limb when you hit it. But I haven’t seen any actual mayflies.”
Along with the shad and bluegill spawns, mayflies often hatch out as the bass spawn winds down, keeping some bass shallow while others head offshore.
“I think it’s a little early, but I’m still keeping my eyes out for it, just in case. Usually those mayflies will come up after a thunderstorm. And we had one today (Monday) and we might have a couple tomorrow.”
Though the wide variety and abundance of forage bodes well for the future of this fishery, the combo has the bass really spread out according to Henry. And not only the food is doing this, but also the recent resurgence in aquatic vegetation.
“There’s a ton of eel grass in the lake, and it’s honestly kind of frustrating. It limits a little bit of what you can fish effectively. And I think it scatters the fish out and they’re kind of using it all.”
Though the grass is alive and thriving in places, it’s also broken up and floating in others, making it hard to fish certain stretches. In other areas, the eel grass that is growing is so thick that the anglers can’t plow through it on their trolling motors.
“I’ve see a little bit of milfoil and a little bit of hydrilla. Haven’t been around a lot of that. Seems like that’s a little bit harder to find, but the eel grass is prevalent.”
Though the fish are spread out, they are the right quality when a bite does come. Because of this, Henry is expecting good weights.
“I think some people are going to catch some big bags. The lake is fishing really well, a lot better than it has in years. Wouldn’t surprise me for the winner to have somewhere around 17 or 18 a day.”
Henry wagers 14 pounds will be a pretty strong bag. And if an angler can catch that consistently, he’ll do really well this week.
“I may be wrong. But there was a high school tournament on Saturday and there were a lot of boats, and I think the top 15 in that was 13.7 (pounds). I think there were two 18-pound bags and the top 5 were all high 16s and higher. And it was a grind that day.”
Though generating bites on Saturday was tough, Henry did catch quality. He estimated he could have had 19 to 20 pounds that day, showing the potential Wheeler has to offer. But it’s hit or miss for sure right now.
“I didn’t get many bites, they just happened to be the right ones. I don’t feel like anything I did was repeatable either, that’s the problem.”
Henry expects anglers to do well from dam to dam. So, he’s planning to settle into an area and make the most of it by, “keeping a line wet,” fishing for bass all sorts of different ways and not wasting his time running around.
“I think the whole lake is going to play. That’s the cool thing about the timing that we’re here, and where everything’s at in relation to the spawn. There are so many things going on. I think you could see guys in the Top 10 doing a lot of different things.”
