Cold Temperatures Have Lake Eufaula Bass Suspended Out Deep As Bws Tournament Nears
The story is the same all across the South: This is a cold, cold winter and fishermen can’t wait until spring arrives with some warmer temperatures.Gary Galloway, who lives just 25 minute north of Lakepoint Marina on Lake Eufaula, fished an ABA tournament on the lake Saturday and found the bass are still out deep.
“The temperature in the morning was 44 degrees and by mid-afternoon it was up to 46 degrees. It gained a couple of degrees, but it was not enough to put them up shallow,” said Galloway who finished fourth. “The fish I caught were real light in color because they all came from the deeper water.”
And, said Galloway, the way the weather patterns are developing he expects the bass in Eufaula to stay out deep for some time to come.
“The average temperature has been down about 8 to 10 degrees cooler than the normal mean temperature for the area. If the weather stays the same, the bass will remain down deep and suspended,” said Galloway.
“This winter and last winter, too, were both exceptionally colder winters than the norm here. The mean temperature normally is in the upper 40s, low 50s this time of year. When we have only mid 40s for highs and the upper 20s and low 30s at night the mean temperature has dropped into the lows 40s.”
Galloway has entered the Bassmaster Weekend Series Alabama South Division tournament on Feb. 5 as a co-angler, so he faces the prospect of developing a winning strategy based on how the boater he draws fishes.
“I’ve fished all my life and I have been fishing Lake Eufaula for about seven years now, but I just seriously got into the weekend club type tournaments,” he explained. “I traveled in the military for a lot of years and never settled in one place, but since I got out of the Army and settled here I have been able to enjoy it a lot more.”
Galloway caught his bass Saturday on a Shakey Head, but he may have to change tactics in the BWS tournament fishing out of the back of the boat.
“If my partner is out fishing ledges I am going to have to look for some kind of deep water structure on his screen that I can target and maybe throw a deep diving crankbait or a jig and craw, or possibly a jigging spoon,” he said.
“It all depends on what his pattern is. Sometimes it’s just he luck of the draw., who you draw and what kind of thing they do that is relative to what you like to do,” Galloway said. “Right now I just throw my name in the hat and hope I get somebody who likes to fish like I do.”
The BWS Tournament Feb. 5 is the first in a series of five tournaments on the schedule for the Alabama South Division in 2011. It will be followed by tournaments March 5 on Lay Lake, out of Beeswax Landing; April 2 on the Alabama River, out of Cooters Pond; May 21 on Lake Logan Martin, out of Lakeside Park; and September 24-25 on Lake Martin, out of Wind Creek State Park.
Bassmaster Weekend Series Alabama South Division
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Lake Eufaula
Lake Point Resort State Park
