Eufaula Yields Heavy Slabs During The Fall Feed-Up

Fall is a great time of year for the crappie angler in Georgia. As the summer doldrums come to an end, air and water temperatures start their relentless path downward, and the slabs start thinking about bulking up for the cold winter months ahead. In October and November, you’ll find crappie schooling up under bait and having a feast in most of our southeastern lakes. Lake Eufaula is no exception. This big reservoir is known all over the Southeast for its trophy-sized slabs.

Eufaula is generally a shallow lake, with an average depth of about 23 feet and even shallower during the winter months when the lake is down. Much of the lake consists of large shallow flats with channels running through them. This is especially true of the upper end of the lake. And these flats are loaded with stumps and other cover. This is perfect crappie habitat but also can be pretty dangerous for the uninitiated boater. Old Eufaula has claimed many a lower unit, especially during the fall and winter when the lake level is down.

We had the pleasure of fishing this famous body of water with one of its regulars, Tony Outlaw from the Albany area. Tony and his tournament partner, and overall fishing buddy, Steve Harrison, of Warner Robins, are huge crappie enthusiasts and regulars on several tournament trails.

“We think of Eufaula as a big-fish lake,” said Tony. “Fish of 2 pounds or more are not all that uncommon.”

Tony and Steve try to fish Eufaula at least once a month year-round.

These guys are well known on the tournament circuit. They fish the Georgia Slab Masters Tournament Trail, and Tony is the past president of that organization.

Scott Craig, of Duluth, and I met Tony and Steve on a windy Saturday at Lakepoint Marina to give the crappie a try. A cold front had blown through the night before (wouldn’t you know it), and the barometric pressure was high and rising. It promised to be a tough day. We split up into two boats and headed out across the choppy lake. Our first stop was Wylaunee Creek, just up the lake from the marina.

As we motored slowly into the creek, Tony told me we would be pushing for crappie. With an array of rod holders across the front of his boat, Tony began setting out long rods pointing out like a fan across the bow.

“We’ll be using 16-, 14-, and 12-foot rods across the bow, one of each on both the starboard and port side,” said Tony. “The 16-footers are in the center, and the 14- and 12-footers point more toward the side.”

Pushing is the best method to use when the fish are not very aggressive and the water is shallow. Unlike conventional trolling, with lines stretched out well behind the stern, when pushing, the lines hang vertically from the rod tip giving the angler maximum control over position, depth and speed of the jig or minnow.

The long rods are fitted with small open-faced spinning reels spooled with 6-lb. test monofilament line. But the reels are almost incidental. With the amount of line that is out, the rig is used more like an old-fashioned cane pole than a rod-and-reel outfit. The terminal tackle is either a lead-head jig with a curly tail grub or a bare hook. In either case, a small split-shot is added to the line about 3 feet above the bait, and Tony added a minnow to the jig or hook.

We had six rods in the bow-mounted holders with an assortment of jigs and minnows dangling from them beneath the surface.

“In tournaments you can fish up to eight rods,” said Tony. “We’ll work it with six today and see how the action is going to be.”

As we moved slowly around the mid-point of the creek, Tony kept a close watch on the bow-mounted graph. We were in about 6 feet of water and were marking a small school of bait every now and then.

“There was a lot more bait in this creek a couple of days ago,” said Tony. “They must have moved out in this weather.”

Tony said the presence of bait is the key to finding crappie in the fall. If you don’t see bait in an area, you are not very likely to find fish there either. Use your electronics, and look for big schools of bait for the best chance of catching a good number of crappie.

“If the bait is in a tight ball, then fish are probably not actively feeding on them,” said Tony. “But find a school of bait that is scattered, and you are likely to get bit when you drag your minnow or jig through the area.”

When fishing minnows, Tony chooses either No. 2 or No. 4 Mr. Crappie hooks. The hooks have a cam action that Tony feels improves his ratio of strikes to hook-ups. His jig head of choice is usually either 1/8- or 1/16-oz. size, but he will go smaller if the fish are finicky.

He finishes off the jigs with Strike King Rage Tail 2-inch grubs in assorted colors. Through his years of experience, he has narrowed down his color selection to just four or five favorites. These include black/blue/chartreuse, glitter with a chartreuse tail, and popsicle — which is pink with a chartreuse tail. Note that all of these include chartreuse; Tony said that color is in every jig he uses.

He hooks a medium-sized minnow up through the lips on both the bare hook and the jig.

“Especially this early in the season, I feel the minnow can make a real difference when the crappie are not yet aggressive,” said Tony.

Matching the size of the bait to the natural bait the fish are feeding on is very important, according to Tony. Often he will clean a fish that he has caught and check its stomach contents to determine what the fish are eating.

Tony used his hand-held remote to steer the bow-mounted trolling motor that guided us around the cove. He was moving very slowly, and most of the time the lines were hanging vertically, even though the weight of the combined split-shot and jig was quite light.

“I prefer to use light weights because I believe it allows a more natural motion of the jig and minnow,” said Tony. “I will use much heavier weights in stiff wind conditions or much deeper water, but I don’t like to unless necessary.”

Tony tries to keep his trolling speed at 1/2 mph or slower. Sometimes, when we were heading into the wind, the motor was just sufficient to keep the boat still.

We fished Wylaunee Creek, No Name Creek and Rood Creek. All are up-river of Lakepoint Marina, and all had similar characteristics. In each case we started at about the mid-point between the mouth and upper end of the creek and worked very slowly toward the back. We could see shad and fish on the graph, but it was tough. Bites were few and far between.

Two days earlier, Tony and Steve had good success in two of these creeks and a few others. That is one characteristic of fall and early winter crappie fishing. Radical changes in weather patterns can shut the fish down quickly. But it won’t take long before the weather stabilizes and the bite is on again.

One reason Tony stays up the lake most of the time is the striper population on the lower end.

“Down near the dam there are a lot of stripers in Eufaula,” said Tony. “They feed heavily on the shad and can make crappie fishing difficult. I just choose to avoid them; there is plenty of good fishing upstream.”

Another reason to stay on the upper end is that it is narrow compared to the main-lake basin. Winds tend to blow strong and often in the fall and winter, and the bigger water can be downright uncomfortable at times. Even though Tony and Steve have the option of using Steve’s big Ranger when the going is rough and they have no choice in a tournament, they still prefer to stay in the calmer water.

Tony said that while the crappie will be about halfway back in the creeks in late October and early November, they’ll soon begin migrating to deeper water throughout November and December until they end up on the main lake along the river channel or deep creek channels for the winter. As the bait and fish move out and become more aggressive, traditional longline trolling can also be an option. This has the advantage over pushing since you can cover more water in a shorter period of time and get your bait in front of more fish.

“To tell the truth, longline trolling is more my specialty,” said Tony. “Steve is the pushing expert.”

Both methods have their places and can be equally effective under the right conditions. Whether you choose to push or pull your baits, fishing for crappie on Eufaula late in the year can be a rewarding experience. So load up the rods and head out to Eufaula this month. The water is cooling down, and the fishing is heating up. Catching a mess of slabs can be a lot of fun as well as providing some fine table fare. It is also a great way to get a kid involved in fishing. When the conditions are right, you can catch a cooler full in a short period of time; the kids will love it.

If you need overnight accommodations, Lakepoint State Park is an excellent choice. It offers a lodge, cabins, campground and marina. See the website at <www.alapark.com/lakepoint

resort>. It is a great place for a long family weekend.

By Don Baldwin

Fall is a great time of year for the crappie angler in Georgia. As the summer doldrums come to an end, air and water temperatures start their relentless path downward, and the slabs start thinking about bulking up for the cold winter months ahead. In October and November, you’ll find crappie schooling up under bait and having a feast in most of our southeastern lakes. Lake Eufaula is no exception. This big reservoir is known all over the Southeast for its trophy-sized slabs.

Eufaula is generally a shallow lake, with an average depth of about 23 feet and even shallower during the winter months when the lake is down. Much of the lake consists of large shallow flats with channels running through them. This is especially true of the upper end of the lake. And these flats are loaded with stumps and other cover. This is perfect crappie habitat but also can be pretty dangerous for the uninitiated boater. Old Eufaula has claimed many a lower unit, especially during the fall and winter when the lake level is down.

We had the pleasure of fishing this famous body of water with one of its regulars, Tony Outlaw from the Albany area. Tony and his tournament partner, and overall fishing buddy, Steve Harrison, of Warner Robins, are huge crappie enthusiasts and regulars on several tournament trails.

“We think of Eufaula as a big-fish lake,” said Tony. “Fish of 2 pounds or more are not all that uncommon.”

Tony and Steve try to fish Eufaula at least once a month year-round.

These guys are well known on the tournament circuit. They fish the Georgia Slab Masters Tournament Trail, and Tony is the past president of that organization.

Scott Craig, of Duluth, and I met Tony and Steve on a windy Saturday at Lakepoint Marina to give the crappie a try. A cold front had blown through the night before (wouldn’t you know it), and the barometric pressure was high and rising. It promised to be a tough day. We split up into two boats and headed out across the choppy lake. Our first stop was Wylaunee Creek, just up the lake from the marina.

As we motored slowly into the creek, Tony told me we would be pushing for crappie. With an array of rod holders across the front of his boat, Tony began setting out long rods pointing out like a fan across the bow.

“We’ll be using 16-, 14-, and 12-foot rods across the bow, one of each on both the starboard and port side,” said Tony. “The 16-footers are in the center, and the 14- and 12-footers point more toward the side.”

Pushing is the best method to use when the fish are not very aggressive and the water is shallow. Unlike conventional trolling, with lines stretched out well behind the stern, when pushing, the lines hang vertically from the rod tip giving the angler maximum control over position, depth and speed of the jig or minnow.

The long rods are fitted with small open-faced spinning reels spooled with 6-lb. test monofilament line. But the reels are almost incidental. With the amount of line that is out, the rig is used more like an old-fashioned cane pole than a rod-and-reel outfit. The terminal tackle is either a lead-head jig with a curly tail grub or a bare hook. In either case, a small split-shot is added to the line about 3 feet above the bait, and Tony added a minnow to the jig or hook.

We had six rods in the bow-mounted holders with an assortment of jigs and minnows dangling from them beneath the surface.

“In tournaments you can fish up to eight rods,” said Tony. “We’ll work it with six today and see how the action is going to be.”

As we moved slowly around the mid-point of the creek, Tony kept a close watch on the bow-mounted graph. We were in about 6 feet of water and were marking a small school of bait every now and then.

“There was a lot more bait in this creek a couple of days ago,” said Tony. “They must have moved out in this weather.”

Tony said the presence of bait is the key to finding crappie in the fall. If you don’t see bait in an area, you are not very likely to find fish there either. Use your electronics, and look for big schools of bait for the best chance of catching a good number of crappie.

“If the bait is in a tight ball, then fish are probably not actively feeding on them,” said Tony. “But find a school of bait that is scattered, and you are likely to get bit when you drag your minnow or jig through the area.”

When fishing minnows, Tony chooses either No. 2 or No. 4 Mr. Crappie hooks. The hooks have a cam action that Tony feels improves his ratio of strikes to hook-ups. His jig head of choice is usually either 1/8- or 1/16-oz. size, but he will go smaller if the fish are finicky.

He finishes off the jigs with Strike King Rage Tail 2-inch grubs in assorted colors. Through his years of experience, he has narrowed down his color selection to just four or five favorites. These include black/blue/chartreuse, glitter with a chartreuse tail, and popsicle — which is pink with a chartreuse tail. Note that all of these include chartreuse; Tony said that color is in every jig he uses.

He hooks a medium-sized minnow up through the lips on both the bare hook and the jig.

“Especially this early in the season, I feel the minnow can make a real difference when the crappie are not yet aggressive,” said Tony.

Matching the size of the bait to the natural bait the fish are feeding on is very important, according to Tony. Often he will clean a fish that he has caught and check its stomach contents to determine what the fish are eating.

Tony used his hand-held remote to steer the bow-mounted trolling motor that guided us around the cove. He was moving very slowly, and most of the time the lines were hanging vertically, even though the weight of the combined split-shot and jig was quite light.

“I prefer to use light weights because I believe it allows a more natural motion of the jig and minnow,” said Tony. “I will use much heavier weights in stiff wind conditions or much deeper water, but I don’t like to unless necessary.”

Tony tries to keep his trolling speed at 1/2 mph or slower. Sometimes, when we were heading into the wind, the motor was just sufficient to keep the boat still.

We fished Wylaunee Creek, No Name Creek and Rood Creek. All are up-river of Lakepoint Marina, and all had similar characteristics. In each case we started at about the mid-point between the mouth and upper end of the creek and worked very slowly toward the back. We could see shad and fish on the graph, but it was tough. Bites were few and far between.

Two days earlier, Tony and Steve had good success in two of these creeks and a few others. That is one characteristic of fall and early winter crappie fishing. Radical changes in weather patterns can shut the fish down quickly. But it won’t take long before the weather stabilizes and the bite is on again.

One reason Tony stays up the lake most of the time is the striper population on the lower end.

“Down near the dam there are a lot of stripers in Eufaula,” said Tony. “They feed heavily on the shad and can make crappie fishing difficult. I just choose to avoid them; there is plenty of good fishing upstream.”

Another reason to stay on the upper end is that it is narrow compared to the main-lake basin. Winds tend to blow strong and often in the fall and winter, and the bigger water can be downright uncomfortable at times. Even though Tony and Steve have the option of using Steve’s big Ranger when the going is rough and they have no choice in a tournament, they still prefer to stay in the calmer water.

Tony said that while the crappie will be about halfway back in the creeks in late October and early November, they’ll soon begin migrating to deeper water throughout November and December until they end up on the main lake along the river channel or deep creek channels for the winter. As the bait and fish move out and become more aggressive, traditional longline trolling can also be an option. This has the advantage over pushing since you can cover more water in a shorter period of time and get your bait in front of more fish.

“To tell the truth, longline trolling is more my specialty,” said Tony. “Steve is the pushing expert.”

Both methods have their places and can be equally effective under the right conditions. Whether you choose to push or pull your baits, fishing for crappie on Eufaula late in the year can be a rewarding experience. So load up the rods and head out to Eufaula this month. The water is cooling down, and the fishing is heating up. Catching a mess of slabs can be a lot of fun as well as providing some fine table fare. It is also a great way to get a kid involved in fishing. When the conditions are right, you can catch a cooler full in a short period of time; the kids will love it.

If you need overnight accommodations, Lakepoint State Park is an excellent choice. It offers a lodge, cabins, campground and marina. See the website at www.alapark.com/lakepointresort. It is a great place for a long family weekend.