Jacob Wheeler's April "Top Baits of the Month" is usually one of the most technical monthly breakdowns from a working pro, and the 2026 edition — filmed shortly before his REDCREST win at Table Rock Lake — is no exception. The core argument this April is that the spawn is the story, and the bait selection follows directly from what phase of spawn the bass in your lake are in.
"April is one of my favourite months," Wheeler said at the top of the video. "Whether you're in Tennessee or even in where I grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, typically April was the month that kicked off when the fish really pushed up and started spawning."
The first and, by his own telling, most important bait of the month is a chatterbait.
"Let's talk about a little bit about what goes on in April. Typically for me, that means the spawn is here. We're going to talk a little bit about that spawn, the first couple weeks of the spawn, and then we're going to talk a little bit about what those fish do after that spawn."
Wheeler's chatterbait set-up is specific. A ZMan Jackhammer in green pumpkin or black-blue, paired with a Z-Man Crush City Freeloader trailer in green pumpkin magic, fished on a Duckett Jacob Wheeler Select 7'4" medium-heavy rod with a 7.3:1 casting reel.
"When the fish are shallow like this, they're going to be protective of their beds and they're going to be wanting to push away bluegill," he said. "This is why I'll typically pick up a bluegill-coloured chatterbait when they're shallow."
He also keeps a white chatterbait rigged for the shad spawn that tails the main spawn.
"The shad spawn starts to happen towards the end of April. A lot of probably 50 per cent of the bass have already spawned in some of these lakes and there's still 50 per cent left, you're going to have half post-spawners and half spawners still getting ready to go up."
"Typically those are going to be your two time frames when the fish are going to pull up the biggest — like the biggest wave should pull up. Not always. A lot of times around that will be where the biggest wave pushes up."
The second cluster of baits on his deck is finesse — wacky-rigged stickworms and Neko-rigged worms, both on spinning tackle. Wheeler singled out the wacky worm as the entry bait for less-experienced anglers in April.
"This is going to be if you're a beginner and you're just trying to understand how to get a couple bites in the month of April, this is going to be the number one rod that I'm going to have on the deck for you or in your boat on the shoreline."
The bite requires a particular hookset.
"When a fish does bite it, make sure you let them have it for a second. One, two, three. And then you don't snap set, you pull set."
For spawners sitting a little deeper, or for anglers casting to specific laydowns and docks, Wheeler swaps to a Neko-rigged worm with a 1/16-ounce nail weight and a number-two weedless wacky hook.
"A Neko I can fish a little bit deeper. So in this situation I can throw this bait in 3 to 20 feet of water, but I'm able to skip it around docks. If the fish are spawning a little bit deeper, if I'm casting around specific targets and I want to get it down there a little bit faster, a Neko is a really good bait to do."
The underlying framework Wheeler laid out is classic spawn fishing, but his time-of-year detail — bluegill-colour chatterbaits for bed fish, white chatterbaits for the shad spawn tail, wacky worms for new anglers, Neko rigs for the deeper holdouts — is a practical April starter kit for any US bass angler who can't read bed sight-fishing. The fact that he then went out and won MLF's biggest event of the year, at Table Rock, with a similar shallow spawn approach should give the breakdown some weight.