Eufaula, OK – Hello fellow fishermen and welcome to another installment of the XFL-Extreme Fishing League. With the first tournament of the North Division on the Arkansas River drawing only about 100 boats, I was beginning to wonder if that was an indicator of things to come. Thankfully, I was wrong and 173 teams entered the 1st event of the South Division. It was good to see many familiar faces, but even more encouraging, was seeing many new faces. For those of you reading this who are first timers to the XFL, we welcome you. If you ever run into me on the water, at the boat ramp, etc. and have any questions or anything please don’t hesitate to ask. I will be more than happy to help you out other than tell you where I’m catching my fish! HAHA! For those who have fished XFL in the past, welcome back. We are glad to see you again.
Eufaula was setting up to be a real “toad fest”. Recent rains had raised the lake to a couple of feet above normal flooding lots of cover just in time for a big push of pre-spawn fish to move shallow. Couple this with a big warming tend raising the water temps into the mid 50s to low 60s and things were looking really good. Prior to this event reports were coming in of lots of big females being caught up shallow. But, (and there is always a “BUT”), that cantankerous old woman called Mother Nature decided it would be fun to send us an arctic cold front two days before the tournament. Friday, was marked by torrential rains and flash flooding across the area. Saturday morning brought temps in the high 20s to low 30s with freezing rain, sleet, snow and a stiff north wind. I saw a few brave (or perhaps foolish) souls heading out from Eufaula Cove Saturday morning while I was on my way to I Smell Bacon to eat breakfast. I said to myself that I was looking way more forward to a big plate of bacon and eggs than getting on the water in those conditions. Fortunately, the weather broke about 1:00 pm and the winds died down during the night. Sunday morning was partly cloudy and cold but at least the wind had died down enough to make decent running and fishing conditions. Fishing proved to be better than expected. At the end of the day, a total of 351 fish were weighed, 37 limits and a 2.86lb/fish average. Duane Smith and Jack Haden topped the field with an impressive limit of 22.55lbs. Duane and Jack took home $15,000. Second place and $5000 went to the team of Mike White and John Wynn with 21.23 lbs. Third place and the Blackbeard Marine Customer Appreciation Bonus money of $3,000 went to the team of Rick Woods and Brandon Christian for being the highest finisher in a qualifying Skeeter Boat. 4th place and an additional $500 in Blackbeard Marine Customer Appreciation Money went to Kirk and Shane Washburn. Big Bass of the event went to the team Roger Robinson and Justin Weatherly with a 6.83 lb fish. I spoke with the winners, Duane Smith and Jack Haden and they shared a bit of insight on how they went about catching the winning stringer.
Like many of the teams, Duane and Jack did some pre-fishing and got on a strong bite in the cleanest water they could find. But, due to the recent rains they were concerned their areas may have become too muddy so they spent one day fishing in dirtier water in case their clear water pattern didn’t pan out. They caught a few fish in shallow, dirtier water to give them enough confidence in that pattern. Drawing a very late take-off number, they made a “game time” decision to go to the muddy water because they felt their cleaner water areas would have too many boats. After take-off they ran to a spot where they had caught fish in the past but did not pre-fish. When they arrived they were relieved to find nobody else in this spot. They made one pass down a 200 yard stretch of bank and boated a 5 lb and 4lb fish. They made another pass and caught 2 more fish of similar size. Then their bite turned off. They ran several other spots and were not able to boat their 5th keeper. About noon, they made the decision to try their cleaner water areas and managed to boat their 5th keeper on an A-Rig. That was their final fish of the day but it was good enough to get them the 1st place check. Congratulations to Duane and Jack!
The next XFL event is scheduled for Sunday, April 22nd on Grand Lake out of Wolf Creek Landing. Hopefully, the weather will settle down a bit by then and make things a little easier on everyone. Please remember to check out our sponsor page. Until next time, this is Capt. Rob saying thanks to all who fish our events.
Capt. Rob