Lake Eufaula Fishing Report May 2012

Eufaula: Level: 1.3 feet below full pool. Temp: 71-74 degrees. Clarity: Stained.

Bass: Fair. Collegiate angler Chandler Ray said there’s a good early bite around shallow grass. He likes a Spro Popping Frog in the grass the first 30 to 45 minutes of daylight, and then he switches to a Kriet Tail worm to fish around the edges of the grassbeds. He keeps a square-bill crankbait from Snake Bite Baits ready to throw on shallow points and rip-rap. For deeper points and ledges, Chandler likes a Texas-rigged Kriet Tail lizard or Baby Brush Hog behind a 3/4-oz. sinker. He likes the prime-rib color in the Big Bite Baits plastics and often dips the tail in JJ’s Magic to give it a little flash and smell. The same baits are rigged on a Texas rig with a 1/2-oz. sinker for brushpiles, points and ledges. Chandler said docks are also holding bass, and he will fish around them with a topwater Big Bite Baits frog early in the morning. When the sun gets up and the bass move under the docks into the shade, he fishes under them with a 3/8-oz. jig and a prime-rib-colored Big Bite Baits Rojas Fighting Craw. (See the article and a map to 10 locations on page 42).

Crappie: Fair. The cold front also gave the crappie lockjaw, although Sam said he was marking them all over the first drops, scattered in the water column from 2 feet deep down to 12 feet. He said the bite should pick up and suggested hitting the tops of the drops in 6 to 12 feet with minnows. Pushing and pulling don’t seem to be the best options right now. Find some structure, like a boulder, or some cover, like brush, and sink a minnow to it.

Bluegills: Good. Sam said the bluegills are up shallow and getting ready to push onto the beds on the full moon May 5.