EUFAULA, Okla. – The Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southwestern Division began the final event of the season this morning on a flooded Lake Eufaula. Now a standard target for national trails, Eufaula has produced several very interesting tournaments recently, but it remains a tough nut to crack, especially in the springtime, when the bass have a tendency to be everywhere at once. In this one, which will wrap up the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year race and solidify the Toyota Series Championship qualifiers from the division, lots of rain has made the lake even trickier than usual.
Could the AOY points be primed for a shakeup?
The standings heading into the final event of the Southwestern Division season are tight, and perhaps primed for a major shakeup. In the lead, Dakota Ebare has 514 points, with Brody Campbell at 513 and Riley Harris at 510. Veteran and five-time AOY Todd Castledine sits in fourth at 504 points, with Chad Mrazek a point behind him. With two events at Sam Rayburn to start the year, it’s no surprise that Campbell is the only angler in the Top 10 from outside of Texas or Louisiana, but it means that there’s no Eufaula local in the mix.
Plus, if you ask the leaders how practice went, you get a picture ranging from questionable to downright bad.
“The conditions are changing,” said Ebare. “Obviously, we’ve been getting a ton of rain, and most of the lake is very, very muddy. But we’re in Oklahoma, and that’s something that they’re accustomed to. But it is extremely dirty; it’s going to be a good old-fashioned Oklahoma, muddy water, shallow derby, I think.”
On Instagram, Ebare admitted that he hadn’t caught a keeper in two days, which actually isn’t that bad considering the conditions and some other reports. While highly decorated, Ebare hasn’t won an AOY title in his career yet, and he’s not going down without a fight this week.
“It would be awesome,” he said of the prospect. “There are a lot of a lot of really competitive fishermen in this field of anglers, and to win an Angler of the Year would be would be awesome. I’ve had kind of a tough year aside from the two events that I fished in this division. So, to be able to accomplish that outside of everything else going on, where things haven’t been going that great, would be really cool. It would be a good opportunity for me to get some momentum headed back in my direction for the rest of the tournaments that I’m fishing this season.”
Campbell, hot in pursuit, actually got a bite on the last day of practice.
“I had one buzzbait bite that was cool and was a pretty good fish,” he said. “Really, I’ve only caught two keepers in three days of practice, I’m practicing with Chad [Mrazek], and I don’t think he’s got a keeper in in three days. So, I mean, I’m sure it’s tough on everybody. I look to see some really low weights.”
Influx of water will put the field off balance
While all eyes will be on AOY, the story of the event from a fishing perspective is the water level. At the beginning of the final practice day, the water had begun to stabilize and drop a little, and things were shaping up to look a little like last year’s Bass Pro Tour event that Zack Birge won. Now, after another deluge of rain, the lake is up a foot higher than it ever was during the BPT.
“I felt like I felt like I had a really good opportunity to win until we had 6 inches of rain today,” said Eufaula expert Chris Jones. “I’m not sure how that’s going to play.
“I live on a county road, and there’s a creek with a low water bridge on it, and I just crossed, and there’s a foot and a half of water over the bridge. That just tells you how much water we’ve had in the last 3 hours. It’s just been a flood.”
With a ton of cover in the water already and more water coming in, anglers are likely to face rising water conditions for the beginning of the event, and perhaps the entire event. Even before the most recent bout of rain, Jones reported pretty tough fishing.
“I started practicing on Sunday,” said Jones. “And I think I had eight or nine keeper bites a day on average. But even me knowing the lake as well as I do, I’d go three or four hours checking places and not get a bite. It’s not easy to get a bite. It’s really a grind. And that was with the water falling a little bit, which I think had them positioned a bit.”
Nobody in the field is willing to swear that a LiveScope win won’t happen – in fact, the idea seems to occupy a lot of headspace for some veteran pros. But it seems pretty unlikely.
“These days, the check line is so much higher than what it used to be because with LiveScope, everybody can go catch 10 or 12 pounds wherever we go,” said Ebare. “You know, you don’t see those grinder derbs like we used to see, and I don’t know if that’s going to be the case this week. I think with the muddy water and everything, man, you’re going to have to really old-school earn just about every check that’s going to be given out.”
“I’m not going to say it can’t be won ‘Scoping or throwing a wacky rig or something, but I can make this promise, if Chris Jones wins, there won’t be ‘Scoping,” said Jones. “I’ll just put it that way, I was raised right here flipping trees and throwing topwater and floating a jig.”
While the idea of someone picking off individual shallow fish on forward-facing sonar isn’t far-fetched, the extreme mud in many sections of the lake will limit that play. And, it’s worth noting that in 2024, with somewhat similar conditions, Drew Gill’s best day produced 13 bass, and he’s currently busy in Tennessee. Of course, even ‘Scoping up a handful of bites a day could be good – the event could certainly be won with fewer than 15 fish.
Outside of the ‘Scope dream, flipping shallow cover is likely to be the primary play, with some moving baits mixed in as well. There’s a ton of cover in the water, and the fish are definitely shallow – Jones tried and failed to find anything offshore. With a shad spawn going on, the morning bite could be important, and on Day 1, someone could certainly find some clean water coming in and generate some bites – but this is one that is likely to be won an inch at a time.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to catch them on one specific thing,” said Jones. “Unless you had a little secret backwater that you could get into with [the water] coming up, like, if somebody knew a hayfield or something that you could only get to whenever the water gets at this level, that’s the kind of stuff that you blow it out on. But that’s just not everywhere.”
Every Eufaula event has taught the world a lot about the lake, and there’s now a decent read on what it can take to do well there. This week, with more water in the lake than any national event has faced, we’re likely to learn a lot more about it – and it should be a pretty good time if you like heavy line and don’t need too many fish to be entertained.