Hults heads up the family
Hults & Co. dominate leaderboards at Eufaula
EUFAULA, Ala. – If the average bystander happened upon the day-three weigh-in of the FLW Series on Lake Eufaula this afternoon, they might wonder if they had come to a bass tournament weigh-in or a Hults family reunion.
The Hults fishing dynasty was on scene weighing in big fish, congratulating each other and collecting paychecks.
Still leading the Pro Division is Alan Hults of Gautier, Miss., with a three-day total of 63 pounds, 4 ounces. But what’s more amazing, his two brothers, Matt and Chris, finished first and second in the Co-angler Division. Their fourth brother Paul finished 13th as a co-angler, and not too mention, their fifth brother, Michael, is just starting to fish tournaments.
After winning a total of five FLW Outdoors events in the last several years, Alan decided to give the front of the boat a try at Eufaula this week and so far that seems to be working out pretty well for him, too.
Today he brought in 19 pounds, 5 ounces to maintain his lead going into the fourth and final day.
Hults is fishing three shallow water areas down the Alabama side of the lake. And while the rising water levels impacted much of the field today, Hults noted that it’s hardly been a factor in his fishing.
“I’m not really thinking about it,” Hults said of the water level. “I’m just fishing areas I have confidence in, putting my head down and fishing. I’ve got three confidence baits on the deck: a Berkley Chigger Craw, a chatterbait and a swim jig – that’s pretty much it.”
Hults did note that because he’s been losing fishing on moving baits, he has slowed down and done more flipping the last two days.
“I’m getting bites on the moving baits, but man, I can’t keep the fish on,” he said. “I don’t get as many bites flipping, but when I hook one, I can get him in the boat. So that’s what I’ve been going with.”
Pickett rigging for second
Lloyd Pickett of Bartlett, Tenn., is in second place with a three-day total of 60 pounds, 2 ounces.
Pickett is continuing his Carolina rigging ways on Eufaula, sweetening the business end with a lizard and a Brush Hog.
And if you think that Carolina rigging is a deep technique only, consider that Pickett is throwing his rig in as shallow as 1 foot of water.
“The sun really helps put the fish where I want them,” Pickett said. “It was cloudy and rainy all day and at the last minute of my day, the sun popped out and I caught my best fish – a five pounder – which helped me cull way up.”
Thrift third
Making his second top-five in two weeks, Bryan Thrift of Shelby N.C., is on a roll. He now holds down the third place spot at Eufaula with a three-day total of 58-13 after checking in with 19-3 today.
Thrift is splitting his days between running shallow banks with a vibrating jig and fishing out offshore with a 1/2-ounce jig.
“I had a short practice here and I did not realize how good my offshore places were,” Thrift said. “But as it turns out, I’m catching my better fish out off the bank on some secondary breaks in 6 to 10 feet of water. Some of those places have brush, some are stumps.”
“I’ve been fishing out deep early then going to the bank late,” he added. “But today I kind of reversed things. I started shallow and caught four keepers and then moved out and culled up.”
Monsoor fourth
Tom Monsoor of La Crosse, Wis., jumped into the fourth place spot today with a 22-14 limit that brought his three-day total to 56-13.
Monsoor is using a spinnerbait and his namesake swimming jig to target shallow pockets and piers.
“With this water rising like this I think the fish want to be on something they can move up and down on and docks are the perfect structure for that,” Monsoor said. “I also caught a nice one off a beaver dam this afternoon. I couldn’t get to it yesterday but today there was enough water to make my way to it and I had a 5-pounder just engulf my jig on the first cast.”
Kenney rounds out top five
In the fifth place spot is J.T. Kenney with a three-day total of 56 pounds, 9 ounces.
Kenney has spent much of his week in a spawning pocket, catching fish the “old-fashioned Okeechobee way.”
“I just cast a worm out there and let it sit, move it a little and then let it sit,” Kenney said. “When I get a bite, I actually feed them line before setting the hook. It’s old-school, but it works.”
Today, Kenney’s spawning pocket fell flat so he scrambled to a creek, picked up a spinnerbait and caught his limit.
“It was pouring rain and I remembered fishing here many years ago and spanking them on a spinnerbait in the rain in this one particular creek,” he added. “I ran in there today and it was like deja vu all over again.”
Rounding out the top-10 pros of the FLW Series on Lake Eufaula:
6th: Chuck Howard of Elloree, S.C., three-day total of 55-2, $13,134
7th: John Cox of Debary, Fla., three-day total of 53-4, $8,000
8th: Derek Hicks of Rocky Face, Ga., three-day total of 52-15, $7,500
9th: Koby Kreiger of Okeechobee, Fla., three-day total of 51-10, $7,000
10th: Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C., three-day total of $6,500