Major League Fishing is set to visit Eufaula, Okla. today through Sunday for the third MLF Invitational of 2023. The roster features 150 anglers competing for a top prize of up to $115,000 and an invitation to compete at REDCREST 2024 – the Bass Pro Tour championship.
This is the first major tournament MLF has held at Eufaula, which is Oklahoma’s largest lake. However it is a fairly regular stop for the Okie Division of the BFLs, where local Tad Sweitzer of Eufaula racked up a winning weight of 23 pounds, 6 ounces in late March 2022. That same event featured 23 bags over 15 pounds and a 9-pound big bass from Chris Jones of Bokoshe, Okla., who is competing in this event.
The east-central Oklahoma lake has had two of the largest smallmouth bass in state history pulled from its waters, an 8-03 back in March 2006 holds the state record, while an 8-01 caught in April 2007 is right behind it.
In late April of 2019, back-to-back events saw winning weights of 21-02 and 18-08, so historically speaking, the tournament will be hitting this fishery at a great time of the year.
Kyle Cortiana of Broken Arrow, Okla., has history on Lake Eufaula and said he believes the tournament will hit the spawn window dead on, which should make for a great event.
Covering 105,500 surface acres with 800 miles of shoreline, Lake Eufaula is an enormous body of water, which according to Cortiana will play well during the event.
“You can run 10 to 40 miles in every direction from our takeoff and there are literally fish in every square inch of this lake,” said Cortiana. “The field should be able to spread out, which is something I’m looking forward to as well, because a lot of the places we visit, anglers end up on top of each other, all hitting the same locations. This fishery is unique in that it can be won in all kinds of places on the lake. There’s really no one spot you have to be on to win it, so it should be a lot of fun.
“Eufaula is kind of known to be a flat, muddy lake and I’d say probably 80 percent of the lake is relatively stained water, so there are a lot of flat, shallow, flooded bushes that come into play when the water isn’t really low,” Cortiana went on to say. “All the typical muddy-water baits are going to be players here – dark-colored flipping baits, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, ChatterBaits and shallow square-bills – anything that’s going to put off vibration and displace water.”
Anglers will take off at 7 a.m. CT Friday through Sunday from the Peter’s Point South Point Dock Boat Ramp, located on Dabbs Road in Eufaula. Weigh-ins will also be held at the boat ramp daily beginning at 3 p.m.
