EUFAULA, Okla. – With the final two days of the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southwestern Division event on Lake Eufaula canceled due to rising water and unsafe boating conditions, Clayton Coppin earned the co-angler win. On Day 1, Coppin landed two bass for 10-1, including a 7-pounder, and topped the co-angler field by a pound. For his efforts, the Oklahoma co-angler earned a new Phoenix boat package, plus Tackle Warehouse incentive money and big bass honors.
Finishing second, Ben Burk caught three bass for 9-1, and no co-angler caught more than three bass on the day – a sure sign of super tough fishing.
This morning, Coppin was surprised to get the win.
“I was kind of skeptical at first whenever I received the text message that it was canceled,” Coppin said. “I was like, ‘it’s just canceled for the day.’ And, some guys that I was with, they were like ‘No, it’s canceled, canceled. It’s done. It’s over.” And I was like, ‘OK, whatever.’ And, sure enough, it was.”
Still, it’s certainly a welcome one, especially as he turns 53 tomorrow.
“The Good Lord blessed me with this one,” he said.
Coppin spent the week practicing with Phillip Lunceford, and he knew what he was looking for in the high water.
“During practice, we were catching some off willow trees, catching some off of buck bushes, but it had to be a certain buck bush and stuff like that,” he said. “And if there’s a willow tree by it, that was a bonus.”
In the event, Coppin got three bites and landed two of them. The first, he popped out of a willow tree, and the second, a 7-pounder, came out of a willow as well.
“That big fish is kind of an interesting story,” Coppin said. “I flipped into another willow tree, and I was pulling my jig out, and it felt like I was just hung up on a limb. Real mushy. You know? And, my boater, (Joshua Teply), he says, ‘That was a fish.’ I said, ‘I was hung on the limb.’ And he said, ‘No, look.’ And I turned and looked, and I saw the boil.
“And he said, ‘Heck, that’s about a 3-pounder.’ So, I turned around, and I flipped back in there and got bit. She knocked the snot out of it and got up on top. And I told Josh, I said, ‘That’s no 3-pounder, get the net!’”
The best bait for Coppin was a black and blue 3/8-ounce D&L Tackle jig, which he matched with a Berkley PowerBait Chigger Craw. He also threw a BOOYAH spinnerbait.
Coppin lost another big fish later in the day, but in the end, he didn’t regret it – one good one and one giant were more than enough to get the job done.
Top 10 co-anglers
1. Clayton Coppin – 10 – 1 (2) – $33,750
2. Ben Burk – 9 – 1 (3) – $3,721
3. Michael Zachry – 8 – 1 (2) – $2,977
4. Stephen Vogel – 6 – 15 (3) – $2,605
5. Justin Swayze – 6 – 11 (3) – $2,233
6. David Bozarth – 6 – 5 (2) – $1,861
7. Shawn Clark – 6 – 4 (2) – $1,488
8. Mark Sloan – 5 – 1 (2) – $1,402
9. Jimmy Wells Jr. – 4 – 15 (2) – $1,116
10. Mike Casanova – 4 – 15 (1) – $930