LAKE EUFAULA

By Capt Sam Williams hawk184@earthlink.net 334-687-6266

The water level is holding near normal for this time of year. The shad hatch has been good, and the fish are good and healthy. The shallow bite for bass early and late is getting better every day. Blade baits, bladed jigs, frogs, and flukes worked over and around the vegetation are getting some good fish. The fish are full of shad, so a slow or repeated presentation is necessary to aggravate a strike.

Jigs and Texas rigged soft plastics are also a good choice. Green pumpkin, black with chartreuse tail, watermelon candy are all good colors to work. White or pearl trainers or creature baits on the jigs are doing great. Deeper bass are hitting large spoons worked in front of them when you find them on your electronics. Continued jigging will aggravate a hit. Carolina rigs with big dark plastics will also work. Deep cranks are ok but need to be worked fast to reach the deeper fish and it is hard to get them to chase it when they are full. A jerk bait twitched through the schooling bass are doing well. You will catch a bunch of shorts, but the keepers are there. Top water noisy plugs like the Whopper Plopper are also a great choice.

Crappie are still deep and eating minnow tipped jigs. They are deep around any structure you find with your electronics.

Bluegill are in the shallows eating crickets. Remember, if you have leftover crickets from a fishing trip, freeze them when you get home. Next trip out, keep the container you froze them in, in your cooler. They stay on the hook better than live crickets and catch just as many fish. If you think about it, when you hook a cricket, he is going to die, and they do not breathe under water anyway. I wasted a boat load of them over the years.

Catfish are eating crawlers and cut bait on the bottom and cut bait on jugs. They really make a great meal with some grits and biscuits.

Remember to go to www.alclassic (http://www.alclassic) to sign up for our newsletter and register for the Lee King Memorial Alabama Classic Bass Tournament. This is our 23rd year and we are praying y’all will come back and support our efforts to find a cure for these precious children with terminal Niemann-Pic disease. Because of the support from you fishermen, the scientists are on the verge of finding the possible cure after all these years. Please continue to support these efforts with your participation, we will also have a lot of great products for bidding and ticket sales at the safety meeting on Friday Sept 15th. Check out the website for all the new sponsors and we will also have a great clothing package from Reel Skipper for the lady angler on a team that finishes highest in the tournament weather she is in the money or not, so come on ladies, get registered. We also invite the High School teams to compete with their captain onboard.

Pray for all our folks in uniform and their families as they go out each day to protect us. School is out now, take a youngster out fishing or working on your hunting land. Enjoy God’s great outdoors and make those memories you will hear talked about for generations. Pray for our tournament, please.

God Bless & Good Fishn’

Water Level: 188.23 msl

Water Temp: 78 degrees

Water Clarity: clear to perfect stain

Eric Welch Welch’s Guide Service www.welchguideservice.com 706-455-2323

Bass: Guide Eric Welch reports: “Fishing has been good. The fish are done spawning and are somewhat scattered moving out to their summer areas. There has been a little bit of top-water action going on, but I’m still marking a lot of bait deep. The bait has not been staying up in the water column to get a really good top-water bite. I’m starting to find fish out in ditches and on offshore structures while using my electronics. To catch these fish, I’m throwing a shaky head, drop shot, and swimbaits. This month you should start seeing fish chasing bait and blowing up, so I always keep at least two topwater baits tied on and on the front deck, so I can get to them quickly. I like to use the Berkley Cane Walker and Strike King sexy dawg Jr. Now depending on the size of the bait fish, I will also have