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EIGBRETT CONQUERS LARGE FIELD AT HOBIE B.O.S. ANCHORED BY POWER-POLE LAKE EUFAULA EVENT |
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Cashes $10,500 first-place check. Champion takes second, Stewart third. |
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OCEANSIDE, Calif. (May 6, 2022) – Stretching 31 miles with 600 miles of shoreline, lush vegetation, cypress forests, deep water, shallow flats and tons of nooks and crannies, Alabama’s Lake Eufaula certainly offers its heavy-hitting largemouth bass plenty of places to hide. Not enough, however, to avoid detection by the elite fleet of kayak bass anglers who pushed out across the hallowed waters here in hopes of making the leader board at the third event of the 2022 Hobie Bass Open Series (B.O.S.) Anchored by Power-Pole. “It was an exciting and interesting event this weekend as our competitors had to overcome some challenging conditions in pursuit of victory,” said tournament director, A.J. McWhorter. “Overall, it was another great contest as anglers from all over the country showed up to compete, and there was a tight battle for the top three positions. Our winner, Bailey Eigbrett, drove 16 hours to get here from Buffalo, New York, and that really drives home that anyone who enters these events has a chance to win. The recipe for doing that is simple: do your homework before and during the tournament, put your head down, dig in, and fish clean. That’s how you get paid in the Hobie Bass Open Series (B.O.S.) Anchored by Power-Pole.” That’s exactly the trail Eigbrett blazed in racking up 86.25 inches of bass on Day 1 before adding 85.75 inches on Day 2 to nail down the win with 172 total inches of bass in the two-day catch, photograph and release (CPR) tourney. Perennial contender Ron Champion of Richmond Hill, Georgia finished in the second spot with 167.75 inches of bass while Josh Stewart from Murfreesboro, Tennessee took home the bronze. Eigbrett earned a $10,500 check, Champion received $5,500 and Stewart took home $3,200 as the top 20 places finished in the money. Mississippi angler Brad Case also captured a $500 check for Bassin’ Magazine’s Bassin’ Big Bass honors with a 24.5-inch lunker taken on Day 2 and the top three finishers punched tickets to the Hobie Tournament of Champions (T.O.C.) at Caddo Lake, November 11 – 13, in Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana. The TOC is a three-day 50-angler championship with a $100,000 payout guarantee. |
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“It was a long drive to get here, but it was worth it,” chuckled the 24-year-old Eigbrett, who was competing in his second Hobie BOS event. “I’ve done well locally, but I wanted to test my skills against the best competitors in the game. Fishing the Hobie BOS Series Anchored by Power-Pole is the way to get that done. I’m thrilled to have done so well against this talented field. To be honest, I was happy just to meet a few of these ‘hammers.’” Eigbrett is also thrilled to have qualified for the T.O.C. “Just to be in that limited field of 50 anglers is a major accomplishment for any kayak angler,” he said. “Now that I’m in, I’m hoping I can ring up some big A.O.Y. points as well. Those titles – the Hobie T.O.C. and A.O.Y. – are the top rung for kayak anglers who take their bass fishing seriously.” Eigbrett credited a 7-pound bass that smashed a frog in shallow water during practice with setting him on the path to victory. He originally hoped to locate some large spawning flats and then back off to deeper grass beds nearby to intercept fish coming off the spawn. “I got that big one a frog popped through a shallow weed mat,” he stated. “It convinced me the bass hadn’t moved to deeper water yet, so I started pushing back into the creeks.” Moving shallow, Eigbrett encountered a heavy shad spawn in the early morning hours. As he pushed deeper into the hyacinth mats, however, he found the shad more scattered and less intense, making it easier for bass to find his baits. |
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“I was throwing a spinnerbait most of the time,” he revealed, “and my Hobie Pro Angler 12 360 proved clutch to my success. I had to keep my lure within inches of the weed mats to get hit, or actually cut my lure under canopies – that’s when I got slammed. With my Mirage 360 drive, I was able to hold those edges perfectly for cast after cast. I had almost all my fish by 10:00 a.m. on both days. That’s when the shad broke up and the bite died out.” On Day 1, Eigbrett left the bass biting with four fish on record, hoping to rest the spot as he filled out his daily limit. On Day 2, he returned and focused on the hyacinth bite again to pull a limit before noon. His key this time, however, was noticing a ditch closer to the creek mouth. With water levels dropping, the bass were shifting toward the deeper water and he drilled them across a 50-yard stretch. It was late in the afternoon on Day 2 when Champion made a serious charge at the leader. He had probed brush piles for a fifth-place tally on Day 1, taking four fish in rapid succession at one spot before letting it rest. With a top-three finish in his crosshairs at the start of Day 2, Champion decided to lean heavy on the piece he had previously rested and the strategy paid off. “As soon as I got there, I had two nice bass,” he said. “So, I backed off again, picked up a third keeper nearby, and returned to fill my limit before resting it again.” |
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With about 90 minutes to go, Champion decided to hit a cypress tree surrounded by two feet of water he hadn’t had time to test earlier. In sixth place at the time, he was hoping for a 20-inch fish to bust into the top three. He started skipping his Senko around the trees saw a huge fish swirl on the lure. It turned out to be a massive 22-inch fish. “She was as big around as she was long and must have weighed close to 10 pounds!” he recalled. “I was praying she would stay connected, and you can bet the good Lord and I had a conversation as she dove under the boat. I was blessed to get her in the net.” That fish moved Champion into second place, and he culled up another solid fish with seconds to go but it just wasn’t enough to catch Eigbrett. Champion had most of his action fishing a black and blue, 5-inch Senko impaled on size 1/0 Gamakatsu G-Fineness weedless stinger hook. He used 10-pound test Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line to make his wacky worm presentation. As for Stewart, he managed to climb from 23rd place after Day 1 to a third-place finish. Finding water temperatures on the main lake to be in the low-60-degree range, he fished shallow rip-rap and rocks for a decent limit on Day 1. Working the same basic pattern on Day 2, he spotted Cormorants diving on shad and sent a cast into the mayhem. “I was grinding a crankbait rated for 10-foot depths against the bottom in two feet of water,” he stated. “Every time it bounced off a rock, a bass belted that lure. The fast action didn’t last long, but it helped me collect a nice enough limit to move up the leader board.” |
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Thinking back on the event, McWhorter called it another Hobie success. “It’s been fun this year to see some new names and anglers who drove across the country at the top of the leader board,” he stated. “It’s great to see these super-talented and competitive kayak anglers rewarded for their efforts, and it reinforces the idea that every entrant has a chance to come out on top at these events. Add in the camaraderie, supportive atmosphere, and opportunity for any entrant to win on this trail, and you begin to see what the Hobie BOS Anchored by Power Pole is all about.” McWhorter went on recognize the town of Eufaula for its support of the Hobie BOS Series, both last year when they hosted the T.O.C. and with this year’s event. “This really is a fish-minded town with great hospitality and fun places to eat,” he stated. “We are thankful for their support.” Up next on the Hobie BOS tour is Broken Bow Lake in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, May 14-15. |