Lake Eufala BFL

After a 16 1/2 hour day at work and a few hours sleep, I was off to fish the Lake Eufala tournament as a co-angler.  It was a 4 1/2 hour drive to the lake.  I went to the town of Eufala expecting the tournament registration to be there.  After a short drive around town I realized that it wasn't.  I looked at the paper I had printed out for the tournament information and it showed that the registration was in Chekotah.  I was already heading the wrong direction on highway 69 so I had to wait until an off ramp to turn around. 

At the first off ramp I found a good camping spot so I set up the tent, paid my dues and took off.  My GPS is old now and has not been updated so when I got to Chekotah it did not know where the walmart was.  I drove every way except towards the walmart.  Finally, I checked the 4th direction and there it was.

I had seen Route 69 Diner while driving around so I went back to eat.  Eating is my second favorite thing about tournament fishing.  I get to try new places I wouldn't even see otherwise.

The hand breaded chicken fried chicken meal was amazing.  There was a special I didn't see though.  Steak and baked potato or all you can eat fish.  I was happy as I would have been with any of the three meals.

I finished eating and headed back to the pairing meeting where I discovered I was one of the last boats. 

The next morning I met my boater and we set off to fish.  We had a few hiccups getting out on the water, starting with not being able to find the check in crew.  We were the last to leave the marina once we figured out where to check in.

Trying to stay positive we hit some great looking water.  The lake had came up 7 or 8 feet that week while the bass were getting ready to spawn so the great looking spot was not to great early in the morning.  Next we hit the most beautiful bank I have seen.  I started catching a few bluegill then eventually a short bass.  On our way back down the bank we were fishing a little further out when I had a hit in about 11 foot of water.  It was a 2 3/4 pound largemouth. 

We continued to fish that bank as well as other banks, rip rap, shorelines, bluffs.  We caught a lot of fish just not the right kind or size.  After what seemed like a long day we headed in for weigh in.

My fish got me 58th place and moved me up to 52nd place in the standings.  Fishing seemed tough.  We just couldn't figure them out no matter what we tried. 

Our next tournament is at Fort Gibson on May 5th.  I am looking forward to the fishing the rest of the year.  I feel that I fish better in late spring, summer and fall months.