Ahead of schedule and set to show out at Eufaula

EUFAULA, Ala. – Lake Eufaula (the original one, on the Chattahoochee River), has given us all sorts of tournaments over the years – shallow grinders, prespawn smashfests, brush blitzes, shad spawn derbies, you name it. This week, it sounds like we’re in for a good one on the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals – warm weather has the fish headed to the ledges early, and one of the original ledge lakes (the preacher jig was invented here) could really show out on a variety of fronts.

So, buckle up for Stop 4 Presented by E3 Sport Apparel on Lake Eufaula – the bass are biting.

The move to the ledges

An expert on Eufaula (along with many in the field), Clayton Batts identified the move to the ledges early.

“Our water temperature jumped up real fast, so, you’ve got three or four basic patterns that are going on: shad spawn, bluegill spawn, brush piles and ledges,” he outlined. “To me, when that water temperature hits 81, you better be looking on ledges, and evidently a bunch of other people figured that out too.”

Recent summertime, or postspawn, MLF events on Eufaula have come at transitionary times, with fish caught up between the bank, shad spawns and brush. Generally, it makes for a tougher tournament, though plenty interesting.

Now, while there are fish to be caught other ways, summertime schools seem to be gathering offshore.

“I was hoping, when I saw the water temperature so high, they were going to stay on that pile deal,” Batts said. “But there are a bunch of guys looking for schools. All the schools, they’re on community stuff, they haven’t had time to get broke up and get on the sneaky stuff. So they’re easy for everybody to find.”

Marshall Hughes has never seen Eufaula before, and it sounds like he’s found plenty of the schools.

“When I got back today, I felt like I was kinda drunk from staring at that graph,” he said. “There’s a bunch of offshore schools now, I’ve got 20-something marked, but some of them might be white bass – we’ll find out Friday.”

Offshore game is not without challenges

While it is tempting to just lock in a banger offshore event, Eufaula is not 20-teens Kentucky Lake – the ledge bite isn’t the lock it could be on the Tennessee River.

One of the first issues is that there don’t seem to be tons of fish out deep, so, while Ethan Greene says the first ledge fish will eat “a bare hook,” they may have a real buffet. According to Jake Lawrence, Eufaula is going to fish “about as big as a fish bowl,” and even Drew Gill, who isn’t joining the party, can see it.

“Those ledges are gonna kick out some mega bags,” Gill said. “I don’t think a lot, but a handful. I’ve looked enough places to know they aren’t everywhere, so, my guess is there’s going to be a couple of boat parties out in the middle of the lake.”

Batts thinks crowding will be an issue as well, especially considering the number of very good locals in the event.

“Our schools don’t get as big as Kentucky Lake, where you have boats sharing it and it’s 50 yards long,” he said. “A lot of our schools are like five, 10, 15 fish.  The locals, we know where the big ones normally get, what schools they normally get in. We’re all going to be fighting for ‘em.”

What else is on the menu?

For pros not looking to mix it up offshore, there are still plenty of options. The backup plan for Hughes is to go punch up the river, and that’s not the only play.

“Yesterday, I went and just checked shad spawn stuff, and I had like 19 pounds, not really on stuff I plan on hitting,” said Batts.

In addition to the shad spawn, which seems spotty, there are the aforementioned bluegill beds, brush piles, and other postspawn fish still hanging shallow.

Still, even though he’s planning on fishing shallow, and thinks he can do mid- to upper-teens, Gill is high on the offshore potential.

“I don’t think the shad spawn is going to be a factor this year, if it is, it’ll be very minimal,” Gill said. “Shad spawns play at their best when bass are hardest to find and hardest to catch. Right now, on the bank, they’re not hard to find and they’re easy to catch. Offshore, they’re not hard to catch, but they’re hard to find.

“It’s either going to be won exclusively on a ledge, or a mix of a ledge and brush,” he said. “I consider myself to be pretty good at brush fishing, and I have not found enough to give any indication that somebody is going to win on just brush.”

The best route for someone to win could look a little like the 2020 event that Josh Stracner won – then, he fished ledges the first two days before shifting to brush for the win.

What does it take?

Last year’s Toyota Series event held at about the same time was a tough one – Justin Lucas won it by a pretty good margin with 51-13. This year, it sounds like the Invitationals pros are on better weight.

“I’m kind of excited,” Hughes said. “I stopped on two schools, I caught two fish, one was like a 5-pounder, and the other was a 4-pounder. So, it seems like it’s good. I think the hard part is going to be fighting the crowd, I’ve talked to a couple guys, and they said when they were here last, it wasn’t very good, they say it’s a lot better now.”

Gill agrees.

“I think mid-60s to win,’ he said. “I don’t think you’re going to see the super grinder you saw in the Toyota last year.”

Batts apparently has about 70 fish on his starting hole, and there are some recent results that speak highly of the lake.

“They had an eight-boat tournament there last week, 26 won, and 25 was second out of eight boats,” said Batts. “I think it’s going to take close to 20 a day to win. You’re going to see some real big bags. But, I think whoever wins is going to have more than one thing going, to win.”

Follow along

You can follow the action at Stop 4 Presented by E3 Sport Apparel on Lake Eufaula on MLFNOW!, My Outdoor TV and Rumble, and stay locked to the website for on-the-water galleries, daily stories and more.