Another top professional fisherman now lives in southeastern Tennessee.
Joining some of the annual top contenders in the Fishing League Worldwide organization is Jacob Wheeler, already an established star in the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society although he doesn't turn 27 until next month.
Wheeler, tied for second in the 2017 point standings in the top Bassmaster series, recently moved to the Wolftever area in Harrison from Indianapolis, where he grew up.
And why?
"It's right in the middle of bass fishing country," he said. "I won a big tournament here in 2014 (the BassFest on Chickamauga Lake), and one of my best friends lives here in Harrison as well. I have always said I would eventually move here, and I finally did in June."
The friend is Seth Davis, a TDOT engineer who still fishes a lot. He's a top competitor in Chattanooga Bass Association tournaments, for instance. When he was growing up in Meigs County, he was the Tennessee state champion in the Bass Federation's junior program the same year Wheeler was the Indiana state champ. They met at the nationals in Syracuse, N.Y., and quickly became friends to the point that Wheeler regularly visited the Davis family in the ensuing summers.
Wheeler is getting married in October, and his fiancée just started working as a second-grade teacher at Arts & Sciences. She's from Columbus, Ohio, but "was all about it" when he decided to move.
"It just made sense. The area has so much good fishing, and the weather is great but still has four seasons," Wheeler said. "There's only one other guy in the B.A.S.S. top 100 from Indiana, and he didn't grow up there."
Wheeler won FLW's BFL All-American championship in 2011 and its prestigious Forrest Wood Cup in 2012.
"That jump-started my career," he said, "and I've still got a lot of friends in FLW. There's about 30 guys in FLW I would put up against anyone in B.A.S.S., but overall I think Bassmaster has the best competition and it gives us more tournaments."
He specifically mentioned legendary Kevin VanDam from Michigan as the best of the best, so the fact that VanDam is eighth in the Bassmaster Elite point standings and Wheeler is tied for second is an indication of the new Tennessean's talent and drive. Knoxville's Ott DeFoe, well known in the Chattanooga area, is tied for sixth, by the way.
Wheeler's FLW friends include Rhea County residents Andy Morgan, Wesley Strader and John Murray. Murray is a relatively recent Arizona transplant.
Wheeler's new state has been good to him this year. He won the opening Bassmaster Elite tournament of 2017 on Cherokee Lake northeast of Knoxville, and in his first tournament as a Harrison resident he finished fourth on Lake Champlain in upstate New York two weekends ago.
Two days after driving back from Plattsburgh, N.Y., he drove to Minnesota to get in some practice on Mille Lacs Lake for the Sept. 14-17 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship. That will be the 10th Bassmaster Elite event of the year, following the Aug. 24-27 tournament on Lake St. Clair in Michigan.
"I haven't really been able to enjoy the move yet," he acknowledged before heading to Minnesota. "I'd like to stay in Chattanooga and hang out, but my work ethic won't let me do that."
Wheeler started fishing when he was "2 or 3," began bass fishing within a couple of years and was a regular in junior tournaments by "8 or 9," he recalled. As his junior career began blossoming, he also entered some open tournaments with adults, often with his father.
"My dad never had been a tournament fisherman, but he was big into fishing," Wheeler noted.
And big into subsidizing what became an expensive passion.
"I wasn't very good at that point, but I had parents who really supported me," Jacob said. "I mingled in a lot of sports - basketball, tennis, soccer, even football. I was decent but not great in any of them - because my focus was fishing. I always wanted to be a tournament fisherman.
"I was a state (junior) runner-up at 14 and a state champ at 15, but I was 17 when I really started to get it. Everything started to click."
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.