by Dan O’Sullivan

April 8, 2018 – Eufaula, Ala. – Once known as the Big Bass Capital of the World, Lake Eufaula has shown repeatedly that it is still an impressive fishery.  Home to many historical tales and legendary bass fishing industry companies, Eufaula has been fishing very well of late, with big bags being the norm at events for much of the spring.

Word in the week leading up to the third event of the 2018 Alabama Bass Trail’s Southern Division schedule was that an expected cold front was going to knock the fishing back a bit.  Many anglers thought that the overall weights would be lower.

Eufaula and the 225 boat strong ABT Southern Division field proved that prognosticators were not very good at prognosticating.

The team of Timothy Hatcher and Shane Underwood produce five quality largemouth on a cold, rainy day at Eufaula that weighed 27.41 pounds and took home the victory along with the $10,000 winner’s prize this week.  The team from Leeds and Trussville, Ala. used a strategy that revolved around the shad spawn early from Lakepoint to Town Creek, then probing brushpiles from White Oak to the dam as the day wore on.

They said a pair of jigs was the key. “We used a white Fat Daddy swim jig with a Reaction Innovations Twerk trailer during the shad spawn, and switched to a 5/8-ounce brown and blue Fat Daddy’s casting jig with a Twerk trailer on the brushpiles in the afternoon’ we were truly blessed.”

The pair reported that their main action was spread apart by a few hours.  “We caught three of fish that we weighed out of the grass during the shad spawn – a big one and two four pounders on the swim jig,” they said.  “We had a couple other small fish as well, but culled them with our big fish ( a 7.15) and another five pounder down lake around one o’clock, and that was the end of our day; we had fun, and excited to be standing here having won the tournament.”

Austin Lang and Michael Vinson from Dothan and Enterprise, Ala. came into the event with high expectation having won a tournament on the lake a week early.  They were able to continue producing quality bites, but the big fish they needed never showed up. “We caught good ones until about 11:30, and had one bite that felt really good, but it pulled of before we ever got a chance to see it,” they said.  “We were deep cranking for postspawn fish on offshore structure in the lower third of the lake; the wind changed directions midday and our bite absolutely shut off.” They reported making a 20-minute run first thing and using a minimum of six different colors of Strike King 5XD and 6XD crankbaits to produce their limit; they took home $5,000 for their efforts.

The team of John Skipper and Jeremy Headley finished the day in third place with a 25.19-pound limit that earned them $4,000.  The Mountain Dew Big Bass of the Tournament went to the Georgia based team of Bill Cook and Trent Adams. The 8.83-pound largemouth anchored their 19.41-pound limit and earned them the $500 big bass bonus prize.

The Top 10 Standings are below, for complete standings visit: http://www.alabamabasstrail.org/tournament-series/le-results/

Place	Team	Weight	Big Fish	Winnings
1	Timothy Hatcher / Shane Underwood	27.41	7.15	$10,000
2	Austin Lang / Micheal Vinson	25.40		$5,000
3	John Skipper / Jeremy Headley	25.19		$4,000
4	Foster Bradley / Clint Ellis	22.49		$3,000
5	Shane Horton / Brandon Horton	22.08	7.84	$2,000
6	Marc Frazier / John Nolan	21.17		$1,500
7	Nolan Brannan / Angel Garcia	20.94		$1,100
8	Les Bratcher /  Larry McDonald	20.82	6.61	$1,100
9	Nicholas Turner / Joe Lay	20.77		$1,100
10	Steven Morris / Matt Vanzant	20.56		$1,100