Eufaula, Alabama: a Fishing Town

It should come as no surprise that the mayor of Eufaula, Alabama is a serious bass fisherman. Lake Eufaula, after is, is often dubbed "the bass capital of the world," and folks in the town of the same name, whether or not they fish, obviously value the fishermen who come to town. Mayor Jack Tibbs has fished Lake Eufaula since he was a boy and began fishing tournaments while he was still in his teens. He loves to talk about fishing ad about Lake Eufaula with anyone who wants to exchange fish stories.

I enjoyed listening to Mayor Tibbs talking about fishing a few evenings this week as a group of outdoor writers, fishing pros and folks from the town Eufaula, Phoenix Bass Boats and the Alabama Bass Trail sat together around the dinner table after days on the water. Even outside our our group, I could tell that people in town appreciated visiting anglers and were hopeful that we were catching fish and enjoying the lake and the area.

I also got my first samples of Lake Eufaula bass fishing and learned that as legendary as the lake is for its offshore fishing, it's also a fine place to flip soft plastics or swim a jig around pads and other shallow vegetation. Elite Series pro Russ Lane found a bass that approached 10 pounds within the first hour of fishing while cranking an offshore ledge with another writer. An hour later, when I joined him in the boat, Lane moved shallow and proceeded to catch several chunky largemouths from less than a couple of feet of water before lunchtime.

I definitely was impressed with my first visit to Lake Eufaula and look forward to the next visit!

Closer-to-Home Eufaula

Until I was asked which Lake Eufaula I was headed toward this week I hadn't stopped to think about the odd fact that while I've spent several days fishing on Oklahoma's Lake Eufaula, which is 825 miles from my North Georgia home, I've never fished a day on the nearer Lake Eufaula, which straddles the Georgia/Alabama border and is only 250 miles from here. Making it even more unusual that I've never fished the nearer Eufaula, it's one of the South's true classic bass fishing lakes and in fact is commonly called "the bass fishing capital of the world."

I've been there once to do a brief photo shoot and attend a tournament weigh-in, but I didn't fish at all and didn't actually even go out on the lake. So it's almost like I've never even been there.

I'm fixing that this week. I leave this afternoon, in fact, to drive four hours to Lakepoint State Park in Eufaula, Alabama. Today's plan includes arrival and settling in and then meeting and eating dinner with with other folks who are part of the trip, which is being hosted by the Alabama Bass Trail. Fishing begins tomorrow morning.

My understanding is that Eufaula is largely a structure lake, but I don't know a tremendous amount about how it fishes. With two and half days of fishing time planned this week, I look forward to learning much more about the fishing. I'm also looking forward to spending a bit of time in a boat with Aaron Martens and Russ Lane, neither of whom I've ever fished with before. Hopefully I will have some good fish stories to tell by Wednesday afternoon when I point the truck north again.