Situation fluctuation

Yo-yoing water levels at Lake Eufaula keep bass on the move

EUFAULA, Ala. – Fishing has been nearly perfect this week at the FLW Series on Lake Eufaula. The weather is warming, the winds have been light, water temperatures are on the rise, and bass are moving to the bank.

The only thing that has been a little funky is the water level – literally. The water-level graph of Eufaula from the last several weeks looks like the downbeat from a Black Eyed Peas song on an equalizer.

When the tournament started, the water was 187.7. Now it’s up to 188.9, a rise of over a foot. Now a foot of water may not sound like much to you and me, but to bass on Eufaula, it’s like the difference between 8-foot ceilings or 15-foot ceilings.

Eufaula has so many shallow flats that a foot of water is huge, especially when it’s going up and down every few days.

But some of the craftiest pros of the FLW Series have found a way to beat the Eufaula yo-yo.

“I think you’ve got to get on some kind of vertical bank,” said Scott Canterbury, who currently sits in the eighth-place spot. “I’ve been fishing steeper stuff up the river, banks that have at least a two or three vertical face on them. That way the fish can move up and down with the water. When you get back on these flats with no contour, a 1-foot rise or fall of water is the difference between night and day. But if there’s a little 2- to 5-foot drop around, a loss or gain of a foot doesn’t seem as drastic.”

Derek Hicks of Rocky Face, Ga., currently in sixth place, sees the fluctuation situation the same way.

“My best stretches are like miniature bluffs,” Hicks said. “I’m not talking about big 10- to 15-foot bluffs; I’m talking about small clay banks that have maybe 3 or 4 feet of water on them near spawning flats. I think that’s where the fish sit until the water stabilizes – then they’ll move up on the flat to spawn.”

As of this morning, it looked like Eufaula was continuing to rise with heavy rains that dumped on northern Alabama and Georgia on Wednesday.

The day three weigh-in will begin at 3 p.m. at Lake Eufaula State Park.

Friday’s conditions

Temperature at takeoff: 60 degrees

Expected high temperature: 67 degrees

Water temperature: 58 degrees

Wind: SE at 5 to 10 mph

Day’s outlook: thunderstorms, rain