EUFAULA, Ala. — Abandoning highly-pressured community holes, being open-minded to changing weather conditions, and benefiting from a backup plan for all those factors were key to success today at the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Eufaula.
Let’s take those scenarios one at time, backed up by how some of the leaders acclimated to the changes.
- Community holes. Up to 50 or more boats shared one popular community hole, with others scattered about lake in similar areas. With the postspawn leaning more toward the end, it’s unlikely those known summertime areas replenished after Day 1. The boats returned to those now highly pressured holes on Day 2. It makes you wonder if those who camped out were without any other options.
- Weather. It’s summertime in Oklahoma, where the atmospheric energy forms the recipe for widespread thunderstorms. A big system revved up overnight, with one package of cells passing over the southern end of the lake after takeoff. After the storm passed, the clouds remained until near weigh-in time when the skies turned sunny. Those conditions scattered the largemouth gathered offshore. As a result, productivity lessened for those anglers.
Both those key factors made shifting to backup plans, or making critical adjustments to current game plans a must. Here’s how some of the leaders dealt with those decisions.
Joey Nania (Day 1: 14-5; Day 2: 22-2; 36-7)
Nania called an audible as he pondered a change-up to his game plan on Day 2 after little success early in the day. Earlier in the week, the Alabama angler graphed multiple areas holding bass in isolated shallow brushpiles in creek channels.
As he was about to leave, Nania noticed brushpiles in that area and gave those a try. One bass led to another, and Nania moved elsewhere to duplicate the tactic, eventually catching a limit weighing about 12 pounds. And a pattern was born after he dialed into brushpiles near deeper water.
“It’s a textbook, postspawn stopping point for transitional largemouth working toward deeper water,” Nania said.
Key to his pattern was sunshine, and obviously having the presence of mind to adjust.
Andrew Hargrove (Day 1: 16-3; Day 2: 15-6; 31-9)
Hargrove took advantage of the community hole bite on Day 1, then pivoted to a completely different strategy. It was a wise move.
With the final stage of postspawn in mind, Hargrove went to a textbook area used by largemouth to backtrack to their summer areas. The merging point of two creek arms allowed him to intercept largemouth as they approached the tributary junctions. Vertical presentations with soft plastics produced best.
Kyle Patrick (Day 1: 15-5; Day 2: 15-10; 30-15)
Patrick also left behind the community holes for confidence areas suiting his preferred style of fishing. That involved vertical presentations with soft plastics in the clearest water he could find. That tactic was ideal for catching suspended largemouth in timber, where those bass fed on schooling shad higher in the water column of the treetops.
Darold Gleason (Day 1: 16-5; Day 2: 13-2; 29-7)
Gleason wisely chose to completely ignore the community holes. Coincidentally, he came here to warm up and gain confidence in his fishing skills for the upcoming northern smallmouth swing of the Bassmaster Elite Series.
“I came here to hone my drop shotting skills,” Gleason said.
Using Lowrance ActiveTarget Live Sonar, Gleason set out to find largemouth holding on isolated stumps and rock in a depth range of 8- to 14 feet. After duplicating catches in that depth range and cover, he simply created a pattern of areas to run.
John Garrett (Day 1: 18-10; Day 2: 6-9; 25-3)
Garrett is worthy of an honorable mention after poised to take the lead on Day 1, and duplicate that effort today.
In a bizarre twist, Garrett watched all the largemouth he intended to target disappear from his area while viewing them on his forward-facing sonar.
“I was there early, all set up, and they were there,” he said. “A heavy downpour came over, and I watched them rise off the bottom, suspend, and then disappear altogether.”
Garrett fished an area where the thermocline extended out near the bottom and over a shallow bar located nearest a creek channel, an otherwise ideal location for postspawn largemouth. Alternative plans didn’t pan out, leaving Garrett out of contention for Championship Saturday.