It’s the midway point of the season for the 2023 Bassmaster Opens EQ series. We recently wrapped up our event at Eufaula Lake (not to be confused with Lake Eufaula, AL) in Oklahoma. As expected for June in Oklahoma, it was a fairly hot one and filled with Tarantula sized surprises – did you know Oklahoma is a major migration path for Tarantula’s this time of year? Cause I didn’t (laughs). The goal is always to be consistent and around the upper quarter of the field or better in every event. While I’ve hit or been right around that mark all season, less a middle of the pack finish at Toledo Bend, I am still waiting to once again knock on the door of winning a big one this year and take it up a notch. I feel like that’s coming.
I arrived in Eufaula late Thursday evening after a relatively easy 17.5 hour drive from the shores of beautiful Lake Erie. I’ve only fished in Oklahoma one time, being a 2014 Bassmaster Central Open out of, you guessed it, Muskogee, on the Arkansas River. On the ride there, I got to pass over the old stomping grounds where I had a really good event catching some Okie bass almost a decade ago, while I was still fishing the co-angler side. Having gotten to travel so much for the past decade, it’s really cool getting back around areas where I would never probably go, had it not been for fishing. We get to see so many interesting places in the country that few would ever venture, if not for chasing our finned friends.
Friday, I spent recovering, catching up on some DuraEdge work and dotting our i’s and crossing our t’s with our boat organization, tackle, and creating a gameplan for Saturday, which began official practice. After studying the weather, I knew the fishing would be changing on the daily.
PRACTICE
The first day of practice greeted us all to some nasty Okie thunderstorms off and on for a good portion of the day. I started off quickly catching a couple solid fish, before hiding under someone’s boat house while lightning crashed all around me and the wind kicked up drastically. Back to fishing. Nope. Back to the boat house again as the storm rolled back through. I played that game until about early afternoon and got back out for good after that. The bite was pretty tough for me, but I spent most of my time graphing and familiarizing myself with the Triangle area of the lake. Eufaula Lake is over 100,000 acres in size and with five days to fish, there is absolutely no way to see it all effectively. The best thing I’ve found in these situations has been to sample a few areas and evaluate the state of fishing, as each section is usually different based on water color, temperature, etc. From there, I’ll spend more time in the section that best suits the way I like to fish or which I’ve had the most success in, feeling there is better quality and/or more willing biters.
The next few days I did just that and sampled a few sections. I wrote two off, one having extremely dirty water (isn’t necessarily a bad thing) and the other just not having the caliber of fish I felt like I needed to contend. I settled in on a couple areas near takeoff that I both got numbers of bites, but also the best quality. The water color in each was clear to stained and I like the way they both fished. On the Tuesday of practice, I had my best practice day, seeing a number of 3.5-4.5 lb largemouth. Practice started slow and improved slowly, which is generally what I want heading into the event. I found that a good bit of them were fairly shallow, in less than four feet, especially in the morning, but my most consistent bite was a tick deeper in that mid-range later on. I had caught some quality fish off rock, docks and brush piles and figured it’s always best to have a few areas and ways to pattern the fish, as things always seem to change.
DAY ONE
I hoped for an early draw to fit in on the good spot near takeoff to catch what we call, retreads (fish that have been released from other events and stick around fairly close by). There are a ton of events out of that marina basin and it’s a natural migration path out where you can intercept them.
I did not however get an early draw and fit in where I could on a very crowded long bank area. There were definitely a couple key areas where I had gotten more bites and I saw a few guys get on them and do well. It didn’t take too long to get our first keeper as I went down a stretch of bank with a biffle head and caught a fish just long enough to be a keeper spotted bass. It was a start and I’m always very grateful when we break the ice and get things started.
I bounced around to a couple more areas close where I’d caught them and tried fitting in the best we could with not much luck. I did catch another just barely keeper spotted bass near one of them, but that wasn’t going to cut it, so I ran into the creek I’d had the most success and seen the most quality largemouth in. The clarity was very good and I could put my Active Target back to work. After hitting a few areas that I’d gotten my best bites out of, it was evident, as expected, things had changed, as they had every day prior. As I worked my way back in the creek, I began fishing deeper and off the grid more.
After running a few spots, I ran into a couple good keepers on a drop shot with an owner cover shot and ¼ oz Angler Tungsten weight. The first would be our biggest, just over three pounds, the other, around two pounds, another spotted bass on the same set up. I threw a drop shot and a shakyhead with a Rabid Baits Shaker worm mostly, with the calm, sunny and high pressure conditions. After catching them on the more fun stuff in the practice: topwater, crankbait, big worm, etc, I knew it was a finesse type day. I culled a little here and a little there, to ultimately get to 11.3 lbs for our day one weight, which I believe had me in 62/225. It wasn’t ideally what I wanted, but in my mind, I knew eleven pounds a day in this event would be very solid, so even despite not having any of our big bites, we were very much alive in a Central Opens type grinder event. By the way, I love those types of tournaments.
DAY TWO
I had a slightly earlier draw on day two and was able to get on one of the closer spots I wanted to hit. It paid off quickly with a three plus pounder on a topwater (a choppo to be exact). I stuck around there for a while mixing in the choppo with the biffle head, crank, drop shot and shakyhead with no more luck other than shorts, so I kept moving.
The bite was definitely much tougher in that area after 225 boats unleashed the fury on them on day one. I made a move back to the clearer creek, but it seemed like either they were moving off what they were holding on or not really holding on anything with the cloudier, slightly windy conditions. I ran into fellow competitor, John Garrett, mid-morning and he echoed that sentiment, saying he was leaving as it wasn’t happening. I probably spent a little too much time in there, hoping to get that kicker bite before hunting and pecking around to fill our limit. I ended up having one jump off that was probably a keeper, but not much more while also catching a couple shorts. My co-angler caught one keeper on our way out and we decided to get on the move.
I ran back to where we started. I had culled a fish or two near the ramp day one, but it proved very difficult with the pressure to elicit any bites in that area anymore, so I decided to leave in search of less pressured fish. The fish seemed to be more concentrated in certain places, so you really had to hunt and peck in less pressured areas to find a few. It didn’t take long before picking up a DT6 (thanks to my buddy Craig, for letting me borrow the juice color), to connect with one that looked like a keeper. Alas, another one that was ¼” short. I decided to go around the corner on the rip rap stretch I was fishing and thank God we did. I connected with a dang stud. Quickly after realizing it wasn’t a catfish or sheepshead, a big headed postspawn Eufaula bass starts taking my line to the surface and does two somersaults out of the water trying to throw my DT6. I ran it around the back of the boat and thankfully, it was pinned right across the mouth where it was dang near impossible for it to throw. Scoop and score.
I had two for around 7 pounds with about 1.5 hours left to go. To more rip rap we went. To foundations we went. To brush we went. To bridges we went? Thirty minutes left, I line up my Active Target on a piling and see a few suspended high. I pick up my jerkbait and hit it from a few different angles, watching a couple fish aggressively follow it out. Boom, I hit the right angle and connect. A solid two plus pound keeper jumps trying to throw my one measly little jerkbait hook before I grab him with the paw and get him into the Phoenix 21 PHX. I had three. Thank you Lord! Even if we had three, we had three very solid ones.
I knew it’d be close, but in the back of my mind, I figured we were one decent keeper bite away from snatching a check and moving on up with some valuable points. I was right. I believe I ended up about two pounds out of a check only weighing the eight fish for two days on a tough, grinder of a Central Open. I had three fish for 9.2 lbs and stayed right about in the same spot, ultimately finishing 65/225 boats. Consistent, but just not quite our aim.
WRAP UP
There are times when you are trusting your gut and letting your instincts take over in this sport and when you do that, good things usually tend to compound eventually. I ended up weighing every fish off of spots I don’t believe I ever got a bite off of in practice, essentially, new water. That is something that comes from time back on the water and getting more confident with my decisions, being able to “freestyle” more effectively.
Part of learning and growing is controlling what you can, not complaining about what you can’t and accepting the result as what was meant to be. The biggest competition in the sport of bass fishing is you against yourself. My expectations of myself are to work extremely hard, make sound decisions, stay fully engaged and be listening to what the fish, the environment and ultimately what God is telling me, in order to catch the biggest fish I can each day. If I do that, improve on things I felt like I didn’t do as well before, I’m content with my performance, regardless of the result, win, lose or draw.
Nevertheless, I’m very excited to be back in smallmouth fishing mode for the next two and a half months. Between fishing and guiding here at home on Lake Erie or heading to the big fish factory of the St. Lawrence River, I’m happy to be back. Tightlines and have a great July 4th everyone!
