EUFAULA, Okla. – As you’d expect from Lake Eufaula, the fishing wasn’t easy. But the weights wound up looking solid after Day 1 of Stop 5 Presented by K&N Filters. The Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech pros racked up more than 20 bags over 15 pounds, caught from all over the lake and all sorts of ways.
In the lead by a solid margin, Cal Lane of Grant, Alabama, pounded out 22 pounds, 2 ounces – the only bag over the 20-pound mark. In second, Ty Faber of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, tallied 19-8, and 7 Brew Angler of the Year leader Carter Nutt of Nashville, Tennessee , stayed hot, putting 19-3 on the scale for third.
Lane has markedly improved since he started fishing nationally in 2021, and this year is shaping up to be one of his best yet – he led for two days at Wheeler Lake and finished third at Santee Cooper already. Once again fishing how he likes to fish, Lane is off to a big start in Oklahoma.
“I had a couple stretches where I got five or six bites pretty quick,” Lane said of his practice. “I saw a couple of them – I never saw anything like I had today. I saw some 2-pounders; I figured that was good enough.
“I started on what I thought was my best stretch, and I caught two 1-pounders,” he said. “I thought ‘Well, this isn’t going to be good.’ I started working little milk runs, and I figured out the deal they were on. Every time I set the hook, it seemed like it was a 4- to 5-pounder.”
Cracking 4-pounders at will is great, and it’s especially great at Eufaula, where a little can go a long way. Still, Lane is far from confident that he’ll wallop a big bag again tomorrow.
“It’s a new day; I don’t know what to expect,” he said. “I might catch them, I might not. I don’t know how many more fish are down there. I’ve got some other areas I think I can do some damage in. Nothing like today, but I think I can catch 15 pounds or so.”
Lane is in this one to swing big. A couple Top 10 finishes to end the season might put him on the Bass Pro Tour, and with six Top 10 finishes at Pro Circuit events without closing out his first national win, he’s had enough of being close.
“I’m tired of being in the mix,” he said. “I want to win – really bad.”
This is Faber’s third time fishing a tournament in June on Eufaula, and he’s on track to make it three-for-three in high finishes.
So far, the weights are great in this one – maybe even better than some of the previous events, when forward-facing sonar was an all-day affair – but the Colorado pro is rolling with the punches.
“I dropped the boat in and thought I was at the wrong lake,” he said about the first day of practice. “You can see a foot right here. Usually, you can see an inch. It’s crazy.”
Of course, after Day 1, he’s right on track.
“I think it’s just a grind, and I’m stubborn, and this lake is stubborn, and we mesh,” he said.
Doing a little of everything, Faber stayed versatile.
“I had a good limit early, which helps,” he said. “I junk fished, but I started off with a ChatterBait, trying to catch one on a shad spawn. There are a lot of shad spawning; there just aren’t very many bass eating them. I caught a limit doing that, and then poked around, caught one here, one there.”
Cracking 19 pounds on Day 1, Nutt put himself in the conversation to win and may have done a lot for his Angler of the Year (AOY) chances in the process. He was also a good example of the diversity of patterns available. While Lane mostly fished shallow and Faber ran a shallow-centric gameplan, Nutt took advantage of the offshore biter.
“I was expecting to catch a decent bag – my practice was all right, I had a big bite every day,” he said. “But (Day 1) was great. It was super slow during my ‘Scope period, but I caught a few of the right ones.”
Doing much of his damage off one spot, being new to the fishery didn’t faze him.
“It kind of reminds me of a lake we grew up fishing – Percy Priest,” Nutt said. “There’s quite a bit of rock in here, and the things they set up on are similar. It’s a super cool place; I really enjoy it.”
Tomorrow, Nutt’s goal is not to blast another big bag, though he likely wouldn’t say no to that. He’s looking to make the Day 3 cut and keep the points situation looking good.
“Today I had the opportunity to have a really big bag,” he said. “But I don’t expect to have anything more than what I had. I was more worried about having a consistent tournament – 13 or 14 pounds a day and having a solid tournament.”
The Top 20 pros after Day 1 on Oklahoma’s Lake Eufaula are:
1st: Cal Lane, Grant, Ala., five bass, 22-2
2nd: Ty Faber, Pagosa Springs, Colo., five bass, 19-8
3rd: Carter Nutt, Nashville, Tenn., five bass, 19-3
4th: Mark Condron, Murfreesboro, Tenn., five bass, 18-13
5th: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., five bass, 17-15
6th: Josh Bertrand, San Tan Valley, Ariz., five bass, 17-14
7th: Ryan Lachniet, Gum Spring, Va., five bass, 17-12
8th: Adam Lynn, Culleoka, Tenn., five bass, 17-6
9th: Hayden O’Barr, Scottsboro, Ala., five bass, 17-2
10th: Riley Nielsen, Murray, Utah, five bass, 17-1
11th: Brody Campbell, Oxford, Ohio, five bass, 17-0
12th: Ethan Fields, Breese, Ill., five bass, 16-14
13th: Drew Boggs, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 16-12
14th: Broderick Luckey, Lynchburg, Va., five bass, 16-11
15th: Will Harkins, Blairsville, Ga., five bass, 16-7
16th: Tripp Berlinsky, Saint Cloud, Fla., five bass, 15-12
17th: Fred Roumbanis, Russellville, Ark., five bass, 15-11
18th: Matteo Turano, Puryear, Tenn., five bass, 15-7
19th: Kyle Goldstein, Paso Robles, Calif., five bass, 15-5
19th: Britt Myers Jr., Clover, S.C., five bass, 15-5
19th: Dylan Nutt, Nashville, Tenn., five bass, 15-5
Complete results for the entire field can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 558 bass weighing 1,429 pounds, 11 ounces caught by 126 pros Friday. The catch included 89 five-bass limits.
Pro Will Harkins earned Friday’s Day 1 Berkley Big Bass award of $500, bringing a bass that weighed in at 6 pounds, 5 ounces to the scale.
In Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit competition, the full field of 129 pros compete in the two-day opening round on Friday and Saturday in a five-fish, weigh-in format. Only the top third of the field – 43 pros in this event – based on their two-day cumulative weight, advance to the final round on Championship Sunday. The winner is determined by heaviest cumulative weight from all three days and they will be awarded the grand prize of up to $135,000. Forward-facing and/or 360-degree sonar is limited to only three hours of competition each day.
Anglers will launch at 6:30 a.m. CT each day from the Nichols Point Boat Ramp, located at 400 Lakeshore Drive in Eufaula, Oklahoma. Weigh-ins will also be held at the Nichols Point Boat Ramp and will begin at 2:30 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and weigh-in events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLFNOW! livestream and coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
The 2026 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech features a field of up to 150 professional anglers competing across six tournaments around the country, for a total purse of $3.8 million and valuable 7 Brew Angler of the Year (AOY) points to qualify for the Pro Circuit Championship, set for Sept. 18-20 on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes in Kissimmee, Florida, and a coveted spot on the MLF Bass Pro Tour – the sport’s premier circuit.
The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and Rob Newell will break down the extended action live all three days of competition from 7 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. CT. MLFNOW! will be livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.
Television coverage of the MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech Stop 5 on Lake Eufaula Presented by K&N Filters will air as a two-hour episode, premiering at 9 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Oct. 4 on Vice TV.
Proud sponsors of the 2026 MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech include: 7 Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, Black Buffalo, Bubba, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Grizzly, Mercury, MillerTech, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, PirahnO2, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, VOSKER, YETI and Yuengling.
For complete details and updated information visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the MLF5 social media outlets at Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.