Eufaula BASSMASTER

I caught two whoppers today. They weighed 3-15. I don't think the water rising screwed me up. I just wasn't around them, I guess.

I went to the places I've caught them in years past this time of year, and I couldn't catch a cold. I fished a bunch of different place. Some places people were fishing there, and some places no one was around. The two places where I caught fish, I never saw another boat. I had a couple of shorts and a 4-pounder jumped off. That hurt the pride -- that's about all, because it wouldn't have done me any good otherwise.

I feel really discouraged. A bunch of the big weights came out of two places (the pipe-holes). That's kind of frustrating. If I would have found them in practice, I might have fished them. For first 2-3 hours today and yesterday, 6- 7 boats were lined up across this area and all of them were casting right at this water discharge. Their lines are getting hung up every few minutes, even with guys on the bank who were fishing. It was a total goat rodeo. I mean, just ridiculous. I went in there today just to look. When I was there, I guy on the bank caught two and threw them in a bucket. Every one they caught was going to the frying pan.

I just didn't know about those spots. But I guess I know now.

The saving grace for me I think about is every time I get my butt whupped, is that as long as I can make that FLW Championship, I have a decent shot at placing high because it will be at a body of water I know well. And that will be a good payday if I can just make it there.

(Elias ended up in 107th today with a 10-11 limit.) I got crucified. I didn't fish shallow -- I had to go with what I found. I caught a limit, and they weighed about what I thought they'd weigh. I don't know what happened. I guess I didn't fish (the shallow water) right in practice.

The weights sure surprised me. I thought 12 pounds would be right in the middle of the pack. If I blow it here, I won't be going west unless I really catch them at South Carolina.

The bad part about tomorrow is that I have to go out and make a change. I can't go out and catch 10 pounds again. I might not catch anything, but I really need to go out and catch some bigger fish.

(Crews ended up 146th today with 3 bass for 6-07.) I only had 3 keepers and I about soiled my pants when I came in and saw how they caught the absolute snot out of them. I figured there would be maybe one 20-pound bag and then some 18s. I was a little past halfway (in the field), and as soon as I got to the bag line I heard them call out 18 1/2 pounds. Then I heard them say, 'Too bad, you're only in 12th place.' I was like, holy cow.

I couldn't get on anything today. I caught them here and there, fairly shallow. I don't know what I'm going to do. Coby (Carden) caught some late, so I'm going to find out what he did (laughs). The way it looks, I have to have at least 15 pounds tomorrow to get a check. I'll probably just put on a couple of spinnerbaits and a jig and see what happens.

I didn't do any good today. I tried to fish stuff I normally catch them on this time of year -- crankbait fish -- but they weren't there. It could be the water color, but normally that has never affected that bite. But I've never been here when this lake is muddy like this. Probably someone catch them that way (cranking). I devoted the whole day to it, and nothing.

The water dropped a little today, but I called the Corps (of Engineers) and they said they were planning to generate through tomorrow night, but they're pushing water in from above so the lake shouldn't vary much.

For the most part, the shallow vegetation is negated. The guys who will do well have been shown brushpiles. Locals showed them last May, before we had the 30- day off-limits. The brushpiles are off the grass, and the fish should move to them (when the water drops).

Tomorrow I'm going to Carolina-rig and spinnerbait mostly.

I went upriver and fished for about 2 hours up there. I caught 4 short fish pretty quick, and then I came back down and went all the way to the lower end of the lake. I looked at some areas where I caught them on beds before. Four fish were on beds, maybe two of which were catchable. But a lot of other boats were in that area.

I'm going to stay around the mid-lake area tomorrow and try this pattern that I think I picked up on yesterday. It involves that Luhr-Jensen prototype crankbait and a Leverage spinnerbait. So if I catch them tomorrow, that's probably what it will be on.

It's not real good. They've pulled water off all the shallow cover and made it a lot harder. I found a few fish today Carolina-rigging. It isn't much weight, but I feel like I can catch five.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to build on what I found today and keep myself in the same area. But I'm torn between that and going down south and trying to find some cranking fish. I've always done well with that this time of year here, but the lake is muddy and for some reason they don't want to bite a crankbait where I'm fishing. I'm sure if you ask Fritts he's probably catching the heck out of them (laughs).

The water's still falling, and we heard it's going to fall a little bit more which is not good for the shallow fish. I fished some shallow and some intermediate stuff. I managed to catch 5 keepers and had a couple more that pulled off. I caught most of them on the same kind of pattern, and that was kind of a positive, but they were just keepers.

I can't get bit deeper in the section of the lake I'm fishing, and I think it's because the water's too dirty. The visibility where I'm fishing is about 6 inches, and that's the clearer part. Tomorrow I'll try to go for clearer water and find some fish.

The lake is a lot more stained than it usually is because they had a lot of rain down here. It looks like the lake was at full pool last week or so, but the past few days they've dropped the water pretty hard. From last night to this afternoon, they dropped it about 6 inches. That's hurting the shallow bite, and that's what I was planning on doing. I went to places I've fished before and there was hardly any water in there. I fished shallow, with a spinnerbait, a 1- and a floating worm.

I didn't wet a line today until 10:00 because I had to get a prop put on. Then I ran down to where I wanted to fish and the front depthfinder wasn't working. I went all the way back and had the Ranger guy look at it. He pulled the wires out and said, "There's your problem right there." The negative wire was in the positive slot and vice versa. He fixed it and I went back out and fished.

Tomorrow I'm going to go to some areas I haven't been to since the first time I came here 2 years ago. They're shallow places, but I think they'll be okay even if the water's dropping. I'll also look for some new areas.