EUFAULA, Ala. – The Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Central Division is set to wrap up the regular season at Lake Eufaula. One of the more popular tournament lakes in the Southeast, the fishing should be good, and the beginning of the offshore bite, as well as some shallow options, should make for a diverse tournament.
What to expect
Justin Barnes is local to Eufaula, and when a big tournament rolls into town, he’s always a threat. In this event, he thinks the fishing could be getting good, as there should be lots of fish headed offshore to brush and summertime ledges.
“The lake is in a super funk right now, I don’t know why, I kind of think from pressure,” he said. “There was a big tournament this weekend, it took 21 pounds to win it, but 10th place was like 12 pounds. The way it was fishing, if you don’t catch them the first couple hours on the shad spawn, it gets bad. But the water temperature is hovering around 80, 81 degrees – they’re going to make that move any day now. Brush piles will play for sure, but I think you’ll see some schools, too.”
Though Barnes predicts a good offshore bite, you can never really count out the shallow bite at Eufuala. And, finding a productive shad spawn could be extremely important.
“There should be a shad spawn going on, if somebody lands on the right shad spawn, they could catch a bigger bag,” he said. “I know there have been some boys up in the river hammering them, but I don’t know how much longer it is going to last. There should be a good frog bite too, if the water level is normal.”
Baits to bring
Offshore at Eufaula, the whole gamut of baits will work – from more precise offerings for forward-facing sonar, to crankbaits and Carolina rigs. Spinnerbaits also get a lot of play on Eufaula, and if the fishing is stingy, Barnes thinks a drop-shot rig will do well.
He’s also planning on bringing some other old-school accessories.
“It’s going to be a little tricky with the rules, if you pick the wrong hour to use your forward-facing, you really could ruin your whole day,” he said. “It’s definitely going to put a strategy to it. I definitely will dust off the marker buoys.”
What will it take?
Pake South won a recent Bassmaster Open at Eufaula with 84 pounds, which was a bit of an outlier. In 2023, at almost the same time as this event, Justin Lucas won the Toyota Series event on Eufaula with 51 pounds, 13 ounces, mostly catching his fish on a shad spawn. In the 2024 Tackle Warehouse Invitationals event, Jake Lawrence won with 59-10, and Barnes thinks that is about the mark to shoot for.
“I think 20 to 21 a day will be real strong,” he said.