Long-time bass fishing enthusiast Bill Wiles crowned 2021 Winner of Rapala® Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing.
Simple question: What would you do if you won Rapala® Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing? We mean, the whole enchilada? Would you buy a new boat? Would you buy enough Rapala lures to last you a lifetime? Would you buy fishing gear for all of your closest friends and family members?
Well, the second year of Rapala Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing recently concluded and we have a winner! It’s Bill Wiles, 52, a resident of Edmond, a suburb of Oklahoma City. Wiles is married, has two stepchildren, a grandson.
A longtime B.A.S.S. member, Wiles scored 11,316 points over the course of the 2021 season, 95 more than his closest pursuer, according to Bassmaster. Wiles will be awarded a grand prize of a $15,000 Bass Pro Shops gift card, $5,000 cash, one autographed Rapala and Bassmaster co-branded 3-foot giant lure, and a Rapala prize package.
Leveraging a Passion for Bass Fishing
Did Wiles just get lucky? Well, sure there’s a little bit of luck involved in Rapala Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing, but Wiles took after his fantasy fishing like his real-life bass fishing and won big time! Wiles owes his success to his passion for bass fishing, his knowledge of the nation’s top bass anglers, and a unique strategy that set him apart from the estimated 40,000 anglers who play Rapala Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing throughout the season, from February to August.
“I guess you could say I’m an avid bass angler,” said Wiles. “During the fishing season, I probably fish four out of every five weekends. I love tournament fishing. I follow fishing, too — my DVR is full of fishing shows, whether it’s Jimmy Houston or its Bassmaster coverage. There are very few shows on my DVR that are not bass fishing related. So, yes, I’m kind of obsessed with it.”
The director of finance for a company that owns restaurants, Wiles fished for fun as a kid growing up in Kansas but started to get into competitive bass fishing in his late-20s. He fishes a number of different trails, including the BFL and the ABA series. “I’ll jump into jackpot here and there, or if a friend calls me and needs someone to fish with them. I just fish wherever.”
While he tends to fish Grand Lake and other nearby bass lakes in Oklahoma, Wiles’ favorite lake is Table Rock, located in southern Missouri near Branson, a five-hour drive from his home. “I will go there any chance I get,” said Wiles. “I absolutely love that lake.”
Over the course of his years fishing for fun and in tournaments, Wiles has studied a number of bass pros, who have helped him with his own bass fishing…and in making his selections for Rapala Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing.
We have a guy close to home here, Jason Christie, that I like watching a lot, and I took him a lot this year in my fantasy fishing. I also follow Brandon Palaniuk, too.”
Building on his passion for bass fishing, Wiles started playing Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing about 10 years ago, when he first learned about it. While he did well several years ago, this year was different.
Building a Winning Fantasy Fishing Season
“I’ve never even come close to doing this well, for the entire season,” said Wiles.
In recalling the season, Wiles said he started off slow. “After the first tournament, I was probably in 6,000th place. In playing in previous years, my highest finish, I think was in the mid-400s,” said Wiles.
While Wiles never won an individual tournament during the season, by sticking with it from one Rapala Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing tournament to the next, Wiles gradually started rising in the standings. For one particular tournament, the Bassmaster Classic, Wiles selected a local pro angler that he knew a lot of other players didn’t select. “I selected Chris Jones because I thought he was going to do well, and he did really well. Because he had a very low owner percentage that jumped me up quite a bit in the overall standings,” said Wiles.
“Even after that tournament,” said Wiles, “I was still probably in about 2,000th place. And then towards the last few tournaments, I jumped up, with about three or four tournaments left, to 600th place. Then, going into the last tournament, I jumped up to 12th place.”
Then came the final tournament:
“Going into the last tournament,” said Wiles, “I was in 12th place overall and after day one of the last tournament, I was in third place. I couldn’t believe I had jumped up because I didn’t think I had that good of a day, but I jumped up to third place and I called my buddy and I told him, ‘If Garrett Paquette does not do well tomorrow, I win everything.’ And my friend said, ‘Oh really?’ And I go, ‘I’m telling you, if he doesn’t catch them tomorrow, I’m going to win this tournament. I’m going to win Fantasy Fishing.’ And he went out the next day and he didn’t do well, and I was driving to a fishing tournament to meet my buddy, and it popped up that I was in 1st place.”
“And I could not believe it.”
Sitting at a campsite that evening, Wiles realized that there were still two days left to go in the last Bassmaster fishing tournament. So he refused to get too crazy. But as he talked about his Fantasy Fishing pro picks and weighed one scenario against other scenarios, Wiles declared to his friends, “I don’t think I can lose. Unless one of my guys doesn’t catch a fish tomorrow, I don’t think I can lose.”
Of course, needless to say, Wiles’ mind was not on winning the actual, in-person, real-life fishing tournament in which he was participating that weekend. When he returned home after his fishing tournament, he checked the Rapala Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing standings for possibly the millionth time – “I was in first, and I celebrated!” said Wiles. Several days later, Bassmaster contacted Wiles to validate his win.
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