The Starting Spot: Wheeler and Daniels get the W, Wagner Wins the EQ, and Fall Shallow Bass Tips

The Starting Spot Daily Bass Fishing Headlines are the perfect way to start your day with some of the top bass fishing articles on the internet. It’s the quick, informative, how, where, and who you need to know. So, rub the sleep from your eyes, pour that first cup of the day, and head to your Starting Spot.

Today on The Starting Spot: Wheeler and Daniels get the W, a Wagner Wins the EQ, and Fall Shallow Bass Tips | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

In this edition of The Starting Spot:

-Wait, let me see if I have this right! Jacob Wheeler is going home from a bass tournament with a Champions trophy? Shocking. Obviously, I’m kidding. That guy is an absolutely amazing angler. Congrats to him and his teammate, Mark Daniels, Jr.

-Emil Wagner won the first Bassmaster EQ event on Lake Champlain with a record setting 3-day weight that averaged 4.6-pounds for his 15 fish. Crazy! Also, now he’s double qualified for the Classic, so John Crews, who was the first guy out, is now in.

-In this article, bass pro Brian Snowden shares a bunch of great tips for catching bass shallow in the fall. And he makes a point to say it’s not for numbers of bass, it’s for big bass.

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Wheeler, Daniels complete comeback in final minutes to win Heritage Cup

by Joe Opager

From a story on MajorLeagueFishing.com: With a little more than 1 hour left in the Championship Round of the Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Bass Boat Technologies, Jacob Wheeler and Mark Daniels Jr. trailed by nearly 11 pounds. Representing Team O’Reilly Auto Parts, the duo had been clawing all day to erase an early deficit to Drew Gill and Marshall Robinson of Team Star Tron, and while they’d pulled within 5 pounds a few times, the lead looked to be slipping away.

But over the final 70 minutes on Tomahawk Lake, Wheeler and Daniels caught fire, boating 13 scorable bass for more than 20 pounds to bring their total to 65 pounds, 8 ounces on 43 scorable bass. That proved enough to edge Gill and Robinson by 4-12 and earn Wheeler and Daniels the trophies at the second Fishing Clash Team Series event of 2025.

The third win in as many rounds of Heritage Cup competition for Team O’Reilly earned both anglers their first victory since MLF revamped the Team Series with two-angler teams fishing from the same boat. It also made for a sweet present for Wheeler the day after his 35th birthday…MORE.

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Wagner claims EQ title at Lake Champlain

by Andrew Canaletto

From a story on Bassmaster.com: Before the Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifier at Lake Champlain presented by Bass Pro Shops even started, Emil Wagner was telling anyone who would listen how much he loves this lake.

Now that the tournament is complete, he can shout it even louder.

Wagner, a 27-year-old Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series pro, topped the 105-angler field with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 69 pounds, 2 ounces. That’s the heaviest three-day winning total on Champlain in B.A.S.S. history, which is saying a lot given how frequently B.A.S.S. has visited this 278,000-acre mammoth fishery that forms a large portion of the New York/Vermont border…MORE.

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Brian Snowden’s Early Fall Bass Secrets – Shallow Water, Big Bites

by John Neporadny Jr

In an article on BassResource.com: Several bass remain deep in early fall on clear-water reservoirs, but some quality bass make a quick move to the shallows then. 

Former Bassmaster Elite Series pro Brian Snowden knows a combination of cool nights and lack of oxygen content in deep water triggers early fall bass into moving shallow on the clear Ozark highland reservoirs he fishes.   “A lot of times when that water gets really warm, the best oxygen content is actually shallow," Snowden says. Baitfish and bluegill also seek the better oxygenated waters of the shallows in the early fall.

Bass are scattered in the shallows during the early fall, although some of the fish will travel in wolfpacks roaming in search of baitfish and bluegill.   “You have to cover some water, and you are going to get one or two bites, and then you might go an hour and then get two or three bites,” Snowden says. “It is not going to be where you are going to catch a whole bunch in one little area.”…MORE.

Thanks for starting your day with Fishing On SI. Lines in!