By MLF Communications Staff

RICHMOND, Va. – The heat wave that greeted the MLF Bass Pro Tour field upon its arrival to the James River for practice relented during the opening day of competition, but only barely, with temperatures still climbing into the low 90s. The fishing, meanwhile, was just as hot.

Of the 39 pros who took to the water for the first day of qualifying in Group A, 27 stacked at least 20 pounds on ScoreTracker and 11 hit the 40-pound mark. It took 40 pounds, 6 ounces to claim a spot inside the cut line – the third-heaviest 10th-place total for an opening day of qualifying all season, narrowly trailing only the first two days at Dale Hollow.

And yet, despite that torrid pace, two-time Angler of the Year Jacob Wheeler still managed to put plenty of distance between himself and the rest of the field. Wheeler stacked up 78-8 on 33 scorable bass, 30-15 ahead of Skeet Reese in 2nd. Behind Wheeler, the weights are tightly bunched, with just 2-9 separating Reese from 7th place.

The 39 anglers in Group A will now have an off day Wednesday, while the 39 anglers competing in Group B will begin their first day of competition. Group A will resume on Thursday.

Seeing Wheeler’s name atop ScoreTracker won't come as a surprise to anyone. A two-time winner this season, he’s made the Knockout Round in six of seven events and the Championship Round in five of them. But based on his practice, Wheeler said he didn’t anticipate such a strong start.

“I did not expect that at all,” he said. “You’d get a bite here, a bite there in practice, and then when you really lean on things, you start to realize what you have. Some places I thought were going to be really good, they were horrible, and I didn’t catch anything. And then other places that I thought were like ‘eh’ were really good.”

Wheeler made it a point to cover water. He caught fish in multiple areas using “five completely different techniques.” While that might sound random, it’s not; he’s matching the technique to the area and the tide.

The mouth of the Chickahominy River, a popular James tributary, experienced low tide (typically regarded as the best bite) around the end of the first period on Day 1. Wheeler’s most productive stretch came shortly thereafter. Between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., he racked up more than 60 pounds on 24 scordable bass.

“There are bite windows on this body of water, and the tide dictates that,” Wheeler explained. “There are bite windows at high tide, there are bite windows at incoming, outgoing. So, it’s just slowly dialing that in, and today, everything collided and worked out well.”

As impressive as Wheeler’s opening day was, he knows he’ll need to adapt as the tournament progresses. Even though he didn’t have much trouble accessing the spots he wanted to hit Tuesday, fishing pressure could impact the bite, with much of the field crowded in and around the Chickahominy. More important will be adjusting to the changing tide, with low tide getting later each day.

That’s where Wheeler’s sizable advantage over the cut line could help him. As usual, he caught as much weight as possible on Day 1 with the hope that he can use the second day of qualifying to continue to learn the fishery. More than 38 pounds clear of 11th place, he should only have to catch a few scoreable bass to ensure himself a spot in the Knockout Round.

“I think I have some stuff that will continue, but it’s definitely temperamental,” Wheeler said. “Looking at paper, you’re like, ‘holy crap, Wheeler is going to win.’ But it’s not like that. We’re running an incoming tide on the Championship Day. I think we’re going to have a very little bit of an incoming tide on the Knockout Round. I mean, it’s just completely different conditions, and I’m going to have to make the right adjustments to have a really good finish in this tournament.”

Wheeler’s biggest takeaway from his first day of competition on the James was the fruitfulness of the fishery. He estimates he caught at least 80 bass on the day including those under the 1-8 minimum weight.

“This place is really healthy,” Wheeler said. “It’s got an insane number of bass in it. My thumbs are definitely sore.”

Keith Poche earned Tuesday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award after a 7-10largemouth bit his shaky-head rig in Period 2. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day, and another $3,000 bonus to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass of the tournament.

Wheeler arrived at the James leading the Angler of the Year race, and he’s not showing any signs of slowing. The two-time AOY winner started the event 14 points clear of Alton Jones Jr., with Dustin Connell another 10.5 back of Jones. Jones and Connell will take the water with Group B on Wednesday.

After each two-day Qualifying Round is complete, the anglers who finish 1st through 10th from each group advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining 20 anglers compete to finish in the Top 10 to advance to Sunday’s Championship Round, when weights will again be zeroed and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.

Anglers launch at 7:30 a.m. ET each day from Osborne Landing, located at 9530 Osborne Turnpike in Richmond. Due to long boat runs, tides and high temperatures, MLF has enacted the Trailering Policy for the entirety of the event, meaning pros can trailer their boats and drive them to any ramp on the fishery closer to where they plan to start fishing. Pros taking advantage of the trailering policy will leave Osborne Landing at 6:45 a.m. ET daily and will begin fishing at 8 a.m. ET (Lines In) with the full field.

Takeouts are held at the landing, beginning at 4 p.m.

The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on the final four days of competition (beginning Thursday from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. MLFNOW! will be livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.

The tournament features the MLF catch, weigh, immediate-release format, in which anglers catch as much weight as they can each day, while also feeling the pressure and intensity of the ScoreTracker leaderboard. Anglers are competing with a 1-8minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scoreable.



Qualifying Group A – Day 1

(Figure at far right indicates weight of angler's heaviest fish for the day)

1. Jacob Wheeler -- 78-08 (33) -- 5-03

2. Skeet Reese -- 47-09 (21) -- 3-13

3. Andy Morgan -- 47-05 (21) -- 4-03

4. Gerald Spohrer -- 47-00 (21) -- 3-07

5. Michael Neal -- 46-06 (21) -- 3-15

6. Justin Cooper -- 45-03 (22) -- 3-08

7. Bobby Lane -- 45-00 (20) -- 4-13

8. Matt Becker -- 43-10 (20) -- 4-07

9. Jeff Sprague -- 41-09 (21) -- 3-03

10. Keith Poche -- 40-06 (15) -- 7-10

11. Edwin Evers -- 40-04 (20) -- 3-08

12. Zack Birge -- 39-06 (15) -- 3-12

13. Adrian Avena -- 37-00 (18) -- 3-07

14. Ott DeFoe -- 34-10 (17) -- 3-09

15. Andy Montgomery -- 33-05 (14) -- 3-10

16. Marshall Robinson -- 33-01 (14) -- 4-10

17. Jared Lintner -- 31-01 (15) -- 3-03

18. Cliff Crochet -- 30-09 (13) -- 4-03

19. Todd Faircloth -- 29-07 (13) -- 4-09

20. Grae Buck -- 28-08 (13) -- 3-04

21. Drew Gill -- 28-08 (14) -- 3-02

22. Shin Fukae -- 26-04 (13) -- 2-12

23. Britt Myers -- 25-11 (11) -- 5-01

24. Takahiro Omori -- 24-07 (11) -- 3-13

25. Dean Rojas -- 23-02 (11) -- 3-06

26. Keith Carson -- 22-02 (8) -- 6-00

27. Ryan Salzman -- 20-02 (9) -- 3-03

28. Josh Bertrand -- 19-13 (8) -- 4-02

29. David Walker -- 19-08 (9) -- 4-05

30. Matt Lee -- 19-04 (9) -- 3-11

31. Brandon Coulter -- 18-11 (9) -- 3-08

32. Jacopo Gallelli -- 18-06 (10) -- 2-15

33. Cole Floyd -- 17-03 (7) -- 3-08

34. Kelly Jordon -- 16-11 (9) -- 2-07

35. Alton Jones -- 16-07 (8) -- 3-02

36. Casey Ashley -- 15-15 (9) -- 2-05

37. Brent Chapman -- 15-13 (9) -- 2-01

38. Ron Nelson -- 14-00 (6) -- 2-13

39. Fletcher Shryock -- 12-14 (6) -- 3-09