Top 10 baits from a grinder at Lake Eufaula
EUFAULA, Ala. – The Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Central Division event on Lake Eufaula turned out to be a very interesting tournament, but the fishing was far from easy. Many pros mixed a shallow bite with their three hours of sonar time, but some committed one way or the other, with varying results.
Here’s what worked best for the top pros.
1. Davenport mixes successfully
Earning the win, Blake Davenport mixed shallow fishing with a swim jig with some offshore brush.
Up shallow, he shook a 3/8-ounce Nomad Design Badlands Heavy Cover Swim Jig (candy grass) with a white Zoom Z-Craw trailer. When he fished brush, he used either a 17 mm Hideup Coike or a 19 mm Coike alternative.
2. Whole playbook also works for Quilatan
Knocking out another Top 10 and really getting very close to a win, Dylan Quilatan ran one of the most diverse game plans of anyone in the Top 10.
Between strong ‘Scope sessions and some shallow work, the young angler put together a consistent event and the biggest bag of the final day. Every day, a 5/16-ounce swim jig paired with the new Z-Man Octane MinnowZ worked shallow, and he also punched a Z-Man Billy Goat with a 1 3/4-ounce weight, which he slathered with BaitPop. On ‘Scope, a Megabass Vision 110 and a 110+1 played big.
“I found some fish spawning, some fish on bream beds, and some postspawn fish, all throughout the lake. From 15 miles north of where we took off, all the way down to the dam,” Quilatan said. “My game plan Day 1 was to run down to the dam and fish spawning and postspawn fish I marked on objects, and I caught those on a jerkbait.”
From there, he stuck closer to the ramp.
“Day 2, I ‘Scoped the bank and tried to get in areas with bream beds, and I culled once flipping,” he said. “Day 3, I fished new areas with bream beds, I caught a 6-pounder really quickly, I found one on a bed that was a 3-pounder, and when I turned my ‘Scope off, I caught a 5-pounder flipping.”
3. Shad spawn and brush mix key for Guy
Parker Guy rallied up the leaderboard the final two days of the event, fishing shallow and mixing in brush.
For brush, a BassMooch HC 130 jerkbait got the call, along with a Coike. Shallow, he flipped a BassMooch Cranky Craw on a 1 1/4-ounce weight and wound a buzzbait with a BassMooch Camel Toad. He used Level NGX rods across the board, going with a 6-10, medium-light, extra-fast model for the jerkbait.
On Day 1, Guy started on an offshore spot, which turned out to be a mistake.
“The first day I started off ‘Scoping, which really hurt me,” he said. “I had a pretty good-sized school offshore, and I started on Day 1 with ‘Scope, and there were giants on it. There was so much shad out there, they were all out there and I couldn’t get them to bite. During the rest of my ‘Scope period, I ran brush, and the first day I caught my big one on a jerkbait.”
Day 2 and Day 3, Guy switched it up, going with the popular game plan of shallow fishing in the morning, and then cutting his graphs on after that bite started to fizzle out.
4. Benson leans on brush
Buddy Benson didn’t mess around much with fishing the bank.
“Every morning I was swim jigging for like 45 minutes, then I was done with it,” he said. “With or without ‘Scope, I was catching them in the brush.”
A Hideup Coike Fullcast was his primary weapon when he had a full suite of electronics. In dark mode, he used a 3/8-ounce Texas rig with a Zoom Ol’ Monster, which accounted for a number of key culls on Day 1 especially.
5. Stalnaker mixes and matches
Like many others, Brad Stalnaker ran a shallow game plan and then fished targets.
“First thing, I would run up the river a little ways; I was fishing main river grass, just trying to follow a little shad spawn,” Stalnaker said. “It seemed like every day it was less and less. Day 1, I had a limit by 8 o’clock. Day 2, I only caught two, but I caught a 4-pounder. It’s hard to believe, usually when that river gets a stain to it, you can catch them.”
From there, Stalnaker burned down the lake.
“I was taking the glide and the Prickly Pear and running brush piles and points, a lot of main lake stuff,” he said. “I had a couple key docks – I had one dock I caught a 5-pounder on in practice on Monday, and on Friday I hit the same dock and almost the same exact cast, I caught that 6-9. I was trying to hit as many spots as I could possibly hit.”
A 1/2-ounce Dirty Jigs No-Jack Swim Jig with a Zoom Super Speed Craw did work shallow. For his ‘Scope sessions and other target fishing, he used a Clutch Baby Boss and a 19 mm Hag’s Prickly Pear. Stalnaker relied heavily on Scenko Stix rods, and he fished the event over his and wife Keri’s 22nd wedding anniversary, as well as several other notable family events.
6. ‘Scope sessions power Mueck
Kaden Mueck had an up-and-down event, leading on Day 1, falling flat on Day 2, and then rallying back with the second-biggest bag of Day 3.
Having lost his last Hideup Coike Fullcast in practice, Mueck did most of his damage with a 19 mm Coike-ish bait, and he fished a SPRO Bronzeye Poppin’ Frog shallow. He used Pride Rods Advance Series sticks, going with a 7-foot, heavy for the Coike, and a 7-4, heavy for the frog. He used 20-pound Seaguar Tatsu for his urchin and 50-pound braid for the frog, and Shimano Curado reels in both circumstances.
“I caught a few the first day on the frog, and one the last day that helped a little bit,” Mueck said. “I really didn’t catch them without ‘Scope very well. I tried every morning to get a decent bite without ‘Scope, it only happened the last day. I had a stump that I found a big one on way up the river; I counted it down, twitched it twice and she was on it. When I turned my ‘Scope on, I had one area, any kind of stump or structure had a big fish on it. There weren’t a whole lot of fish, but I caught four over 6 there in the tournament, and two 7-pounders in practice.”
7. Shallow fish and brush fish carry Smith
Michael Smith is a Eufaula local, and he ran the same sort of mix that many others did with success. A swim jig, and then brush, was the attack of choice.
“That shallow bite was going away, it was really good in practice when the shad were still spawning,” he said. “The colder mornings in the tournament really hurt that bite. But, I caught a couple fish each day to get started. The brush deal was really the main thing.”
Shallow, Smith used a 3/8-ounce 6th Sense Mineral Swim Jig, trailered with a 6th Sense Bongo. On brush, he used a 24 mm 6th Sense Abstract or a 6th Sense Provoke 97DD when he had full sonar capabilities, and he dragged a 6.7-inch 6th Sense Bounce Worm on a 5/16-ounce 6th Sense Masterclass Shakey Head when he went dark. Across the board, Smith used Fitzgerald rods, Lew’s Custom Pro reels and Seaguar line.
8. Malone runs the usual mix
Finishing well, Tyler Malone was very much in danger of dropping out of the Top 10 with a few minutes left on Day 3.
“Every morning I started out throwing a Coike in brush, I was building my foundation on that,” he said. “At 1:40 on Championship Day, I only had three fish, one was a spotted bass that probably didn’t weigh a pound. I idled over a hard spot I know about, and they were dotted up on it. I turned around with that Neko rig, and caught them back-to-back-to-back and then had to snatch the trolling motor up to get in.”
Mixing brush and river fishing for the most part, Malone used a 17 mm Hideup Coike, a plum Zoom Magnum Trick Worm with a 1/8-ounce VMC Neko Weight and a SPRO Bronzeye Poppin’ Frog. He used Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon when applicable, which he thought helped him land a few extra fish.
“It was a simple week, a grinder of a week, but it was very simple,” Malone said. “I’d go down and fish brush, and then run up the river and flip and frog.”
9. Doing it all puts Barnes in the Top 10
Probably the preeminent local in the field, Justin Barnes did a little of everything.
“The first day I started on brush piles, targeting the shad spawn,” he said. “I caught some doing it, but I knew that bite was going away. The past three tournaments I won out there, that’s how I won, fishing shad spawn brush. If the shad spawn would have stayed prevalent, it would have been won in brush, 100%. That was the deal.”
Unfortunately for Barnes, that offshore shad spawn died fast, and he had to adjust. He ended up catching fish cranking deep, fishing brush in the afternoons, and fishing shallow. His best baits were a 1/2-ounce 6th Sense Divine Swim Jig, a 1/8-ounce 6th Sense Shindo Shad and a 6th Sense Crush 500 DD. For the swim jig, he used a 7-1, heavy, fast Fish Xtreme Angler Series stick.
10. Hard-headed Marbut makes it work
While almost everyone else in the Top 10 did a little of everything, Hayden Marbut emphatically did not.
“I fished schools the entire tournament,” he said. “I was just stubborn, I never made a cast in practice, I scanned for three days. I really didn’t find much. But, I found six or seven places I thought I might catch one, and I think I caught fish off of three of them.”
Fishing from 12 to 22 feet, Marbut used a 1/8-ounce Neko with a Reaction Innovations Fat Flirt Worm and a Nomad Design D-Trak 80. Cranking, he used 12-pound P-Line Ultimate Fluorocarbon, and he used 15-pound P-Line EndurX Zero Fade Braid with the same line for a leader for his Neko.
The post Top 10 baits from a grinder at Lake Eufaula appeared first on Major League Fishing.