EUFAULA, Okla. — John Garrett, the current Opens EQ points leader, said it best about how the fishing will play out this week at the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Eufaula.
“It’s going to be our first grinder tournament of the season. Until now one area could make your tournament, but not here.”
That prophecy is partly correct. The largemouth, at least have mostly settled into summer patterns. Garrett, after yesterday tied for second place with 18 pounds, 10 ounces, is benefiting from one specific area.
However, to his credit, the grinder part comes into play, as it does anywhere during summer, about whether or not that one specific area can replenish and sustain its productivity through the final day, when it matters most. We’ll find out at today’s weigh-in and see how the leaderboard shakes up.
In the meantime, here are key takeaways backed up with comments from the leaders to help us all gain insight on what to expect today.
- Diminishing postspawn. As noted above, the lake is fishing towards the completion of the largemouth spawning cycle. Most of those bass have completed their transitional migrations from shallow to deeper areas of the lake.
- Dwindling shad spawn. Same thing with the mostly gizzard shad population, which is abundant and healthy here. There are some late spawners, and the 6 a.m. takeoff time benefits those anglers desiring to get an early jump on a limit, before moving on (or not) to specific areas to spend the remainder of the day. Take-away is missing out on the shad spawn isn’t a day breaker.
- Summer patterns. Instead of being constantly on the go to intercept backward migrating largemouth from spawning areas, you can settle in on specific areas. Patterns within patterns seem to be in play here, as anglers are duplicating areas but having to adapt to changing environmental conditions as they go.
- Water clarity. An uncommon scenario is panning out on Eufaula this week. The 105,000-acre lake is overall dingy, with average clarity in the inches. This week it’s up to three or more feet, which is expanding the strike zone considerably. Overall, the early leaders reported finding clearer water produced the best fishing.
- Weather watch. Largemouth settled in on their familiar summertime retreats react to changes in the weather, as they do during the spawning cycle. What makes summer different is how they set up on those areas. Specifically, wind, sunshine, clouds and storms current move them around isolated bottom structure, current breaks and depth contour changes.
Expanding on the weather, a considerable change took place overnight and early in the morning of Day 2. Unstable air and low-level winds collided to spawn thunderstorms, some severe with tornadoes, across eastern Oklahoma. Here’s the evidence of what happened this morning about one hour after takeoff in this photo taken by our photographer Andy Crawford. It’s a classic mesocyclone (note the anvil) and is one of several that are traversing the area.
Yesterday on Day 1, the conditions were slick calm with sunny skies. The latter is considered normal for stimulating summer patterns as the sun positions the largemouth tight to their preferred bottom structure. Wind is a must, though, to stimulate feeding. Here, it equates to wind-driven current, and better conditions for topwater fishing that’s also in play. Today, the forecast is for cloudy skies early with partly sunny conditions later in the day.
Will that change result in heavier weights at the weigh-in? More than likely. We’ll wait and see when it begins at 2 p.m. You can watch the results on our live stream here on Bassmaster..com.
