Story by Hunter Baughman | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
Eufaula is in the books! I was blessed to have a good tournament, finishing 10th with a weather-shortened two-day total of 28 pounds, 2 ounces. Going in, I would have been happy with that weight as a three-day total!
As I mentioned last week, I was fishing high percentage areas. Moving water ended up being the common denominator for all my bites. I was getting bit around pipes with flowing water, culverts with moving water and a waterfall.
My Day 1 starting area ended up holding more fish than I realized. It was a small pipe with running water. When I first arrived, I had a bite every throw for the first 15 or so casts. Most of those bites were on a hollow body frog in an area about the size of a truck hood. Unfortunately, a little bad luck set in, and I lost several quality bites in a row.
I caught a 3 pounder and a 2 1/2 pounder before the bite died. I left there and ran some other places without any luck. So, I went back to my starting spot where I caught another 3 pounder and a couple of smaller keepers to fill out my limit. Then it was time to start exploring.
I ran several areas trying to access ponds with the rising water but had no luck. As I was making a long run back toward the takeoff area, I passed a waterfall I had fished in practice. During practice I spent roughly half an hour on this spot catching 15 white bass but never had a largemouth bite. I had no intention of fishing it again. But as I was passing it, I decided to swing in and make a couple of casts.
On my second or third cast I caught a 4 pounder on a Brazalo 501 spinnerbait that resulted in a three-pound cull. A couple throws later I caught another keeper that I used to cull up another half pound. At this point I headed back to Eufaula cove thinking I could make another cull or two without burning any of the other spots I needed for the next day. Unfortunately, I never had another bite and weighed 14-08 with a 1 1/2 pounder. In hindsight I should have run to another spot and culled the small fish out. But that’s fishing!
On Day 2, I went back to my starting spot. I immediately caught a 3 1/4 and a 2 1/2 plus two more small fish. Then I ran to several more spots without any luck. Finally, I pulled up on a culvert and caught a fish nearly every throw for over an hour on a Brazalo finesse jig. I was able to cull multiple times in that bite window. After that I ran back to the waterfall to catch another 2 3/4, upping my weight to 13-10 for the day and moving me up to 10th place.
Overall I think I fished a good tournament and made good decisions. I wish I had handled the last couple of hours of Day 1 differently, but I’ll learn from that and do things differently the next time that situation arises. I’m really liking how I’ve changed up my practice days. This finish jumped me up 27 spots in the Angler of the Year race. I’m now in 52nd with two tournaments left and well within reach of that top 40 championship cut line.
We leave at the end of next week for New York, and there’s lots of work to do before then. I’ll check back in before that with another column.
Hunter Baughman – Angler Profile
