Fog delay stymies Eufaula launch

Heavy fog costs Stren Series anglers an hour on day two

EUFAULA, Ala. – Two hundred pros and as many co-anglers waited patiently for dense fog to clear Thursday morning at the day-two launch of the Stren Series Southeast Division event on Lake Eufaula.

In all, anglers lost an hour of fishing time as the official launch was pushed back from 6 to 7 a.m.

Those targeting sight-fish seemed undeterred by the delay.

“It doesn’t bother me,” said Koby Kreiger of Okeechobee, Fla., in 12th with 16 pounds, 12 ounces. “My fish don’t get on bed good until 9 or 9:30 anyway.”

While some of the better catches came by sight-fishing yesterday, Eufaula is wide open right now in terms of ways to catch bass. A myriad of productive techniques were cited at the day-one weigh-in including flipping, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, Senkos, shallow cranking and even deep cranking.

“I caught mine the way I always do here,” said well-known deep-crankbait ace Gerald Beck of Lexington, N.C., who is in 61st with 10 pounds, 3 ounces. “Chucking and winding.”

“You can pretty much fish any way you want,” Kreiger added. “I even had a decent topwater bite going before this little front came in and the water dropped.”

While the fog delay will likely depress weights a bit today, it’s still going to take a solid weight to make the top-20 cut on the pro side. Yesterday, the cut stood at 15 pounds, 3 ounces. Several speculated that a two-day total of 26 to 28 pounds would be needed to fish the finals after today.

The day-two weigh-in begins Thursday at 2:30 p.m. CST at Lakepoint State Park. For those who cannot be at the weigh-in in person, FLWOutdoors.com offers FLW Live, its cutting-edge Web application that brings viewers audio, video, results and more in real time.

Thursday’s conditions

Sunrise: 5:51 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 42 degrees.

Expected high temperature: 71 degrees.

Water temperature: 63-68 degrees.

Forecasted winds: N 5-10.

Day’s outlook: sunny