Lake Eufalas Postspawn Bass

THOSE POST SPAWN BASS OF
LAKE EUFAULA (Walter F. George Reservoir)

After fishing this massive, Chattahoochee River Impoundment, situated on the Alabama / Georgia border, for over 40 years, it kinda grows on you. Memories of hundreds of spring time fishing trips of years past, always dance in your head. Especially as you ready yourself (and of course all along the road), as you again make the long, but much anticipated drive, from Birmingham to Lake Eufaula.

Especially those memories created during the exciting, traditionally, topwater month of May (and often, even more so, as it gets hot on into early summer). Trips, fishing for and catching bass up to (or over) 10 pounds. Trips, never to be forgotten, just like one recently.

As I loaded up my fishing equipment and headed out the door I glanced at one of those dozen largemouth bass on my den wall. This one, weighing 9 pounds and 11 ounces, was caught the same week as this week, in mid May, many years ago. It was among a half dozen bass, weighing from 7-10 pounds, bass I've caught and had mounted over the years. Since then, I've caught and released two bass over 10 pounds on this lake and I do not mount bass any more. But the memory of that "topwater explosion" that day, is what keeps me coming back to Lake Eufaula for more.

Arriving at the lake, you always cross over many feeder creeks as you enter and leave the town of Eufaula. Not to my surprise, all the creeks were high and very muddy from the previous week's heavy rains. I met some clients in town, hoping to show them the brighter side of fishing for bass in a flooded lake, during late Spring.

So, after we met I continued south of town, to a place far from town, a place my father and I had fished since 1963, when the lake had opened. I knew this spot would more than likely (I hoped) not be as muddy, since it was situated on the lakes lower end. Although famed creeks along the way looked bad and had me wondering. Cowikee Creek, Barbour Creek, Thomas Mill Creek and others, all showed very disappointing muddy water.

But to my delight, near the dam, creeks like Hardridge Creek on the Alabama side and even Pataula Creek on the Georgia side of the lakes lower end, were already clearing and the main lake showed only stained water. Great conditions, for post spawn bass feeding in high, lightly stained water, now flooding the new growing grass along the banks of the lake's normally full pool shoreline. My spirits were immediately lifted as I (and I'm sure, the clients that had been following me) arrived at the launch, 25 miles from town.

We quickly loaded the boat, rigged some topwater lures, weedless lures, and others, to fish in and around the flooded shallows. As we headed out the creek, I observed the flooded weedy shallows, in anticipation of some Big Bass action...and this day (like many others in the past) during flooded conditions, was not discouraging in any way.

Only a little over one month ago, Lake Eufaula had been brought up, from being down for winter pool about 3-4 feet, but was still below normal full pool levels, down about one foot. Not all that unusual on this lake in mid April, a lake often dropped in anticipation of heavy spring rains, rains that have flooded the lake in the past. It gave the weeds along the high and dry banks, time to grow even thicker, weeds that would soon be flooded and full of predator and prey, right now in mid May.

To our advantage, the new growing weeds, (mostly now under water 1-2 feet) along the lakes 70 plus miles of very fishy water, held tremendous numbers of bass that day. Big Bass, that had moved shallow, feeding heavily under cloudy, rainy skies, cooperating on every cast to the flooded shallows, as we fished around flooded buck brush, weeds, and other wood cover.

With the lakes fast rising waters, in the last few days, we hit it perfectly that day, as we caught bass after bass and ended the day with over 40 landed bass, among 3 anglers, including a beauty weighing 8 1/2 pounds that struck a spinnerbait in 2 feet of water at 3 p.m. that evening. The biggest bass, that young man from North Carolina, visiting Lake Eufaula for the second time, had ever caught.

Like me, (many years ago), unknown to him at the time, he now had the first bass of a long career, fishing Lake Eufaula, going on the wall of his den. There are some fish, you just don't preach about catch and release.