"There was sight fishing going on but they were hard to catch. My expectations weren't anything like what I found when I got there. I had to get there and then try to unscramble my mind and say all right they are not doing what I expected. I realized that I was going to have to fish slowly, but I really wanted to fish active and fast. I was dying to get away from the coldwater slow fishing deal," said Swindle. "Practice was slow. I spent a lot of time just looking. I mean looking for fish on beds. I got three to four bites per day fishing but it was just plain slow. Going into the tournament I was planning on sight fishing, then I said the heck with it. I'm going to just go fishing and resort to sight fishing if I have to," Gerald said of practice.

"On day two I decided to start in the area I flipped on day one and had found some bedding fish. I caught two, but all the bigger fish that I saw the day before were gone. I went to another area and was able to fill out my limit fishing a crankbait. They were all small fish though." Swindles day two limit weighed 9-15 and put him in 38th place for the tournament. But, more importantly, it put him into the lead in the Angler of the Year points race.

"Winning Angler of the Year has always been a dream of mine, but right know I don't really want to think about it. If you dwell on something like that it can make you fish different. I just want to keep doing things the way I always do. Just swing for the fence at every tournament."

"In practice I caught most of my fish around shallow grass pitching a lizard and a tube, which was how I expected to catch them. The bad news was that the water was falling a little each day, and I was catching my fish out of the matted Gator Grass. With the water falling each day I was a little concerned that the fish would move out of the areas that I had found in practice," said Thomas.

Day one of the tournament went well for Thomas. "I should have weighed in about sixteen pounds that day but I broke off one good fish. I hope that doesn't come back to haunt me," Thomas was in 60th place with 12-10 after day one.

"I got nervous on day two and ran around a little too much. I should have stayed put and gritted it out. I'm not happy with how I performed at Eufaula. I didn't fish or execute well. I found two areas in practice about a mile and a half apart. On day two I went to my second area and found Gary Klien and tournament leader Mark Rodgers already in there. Mark had caught thirty-one pounds there on day one. It made me sick. They were fishing the same bank I fished in practice. I guess I picked the wrong spot to start on. This is really a tough one for me to swallow. I hope I do better next week at Santee."

Day one of the Eufaula tournament saw Jordon weigh-in five fish for 14-05; this weight put him in 47th place going into day two. "The fish bit well on day one. They bit well for most of the field. I had a lot of fun; I just didn't get any big bites. I couldn't wait to go again on day two."

Day two saw Jordon's catch improve. He landed five fish that weighed in at 17-13. This gave Kelly a two-day total weight of 32-02 and put him into 14th place in the overall standings. Denny Brauer would go on to win the tournament.

"I had a great time at Eufaula, I only wish I could have gotten more big bites. Maybe I should have fine-tuned my pattern a little more. Overall I am very pleased with my finish. I went out and fished as hard as I could and I am proud of how I did. I am getting good points towards the Classic and Angler of the Year. Good finishes also help me to get back on top of the BassFan.com World Rankings."

"Going into the Citgo Bass Masters Event at Lake Eufaula I was fired up," said Marty Stone. "It was the first real spring tournament of the year. All the tournaments before Eufaula were winter tournaments if you look at the conditions. I was looking forward to not having to wear ten layers of cloths when I was out on the lake."

Practice was a little slow for Stone who doesn't like to sight fish. "I tried to find fish that I could fish for in practice. By that I mean I really didn't want to have to sight fish. I fished hard in practice but didn't feel that I had found something that I could rely on. On the last day of practice, I hardly picked up a fishing rod. I just put the trolling motor on high and went looking for fish on beds. I found quite a few fish that were spawning and decided that I would sight fish on day one of the tournament," said Stone.

"I had a good day on day one, I caught most of my fish sight fishing, and that is unusual for me. I've worked hard for the last two years to become a better sight fisherman, and it paid off for me on day one." Marty's five fish limit on day one weighed 15-05, good enough for 36th place.

"I found an area where the fish were staging for the spawn during the afternoon of day one where I thought I could catch the fish without sight fishing. By mid-morning on day two I had only caught one fish using the pattern that had worked in the afternoon of day one, so I decided that I needed to go back to sight fishing. I moved back to my sight fishing area and found some. With two hours left in the tournament I had four fish. I left the area where I was sight fishing and went back to my back-up pattern. Looking back on it, I should have kept searching for fish on beds instead of trying to make my back-up plan work. I made a couple of bad decisions here, hopefully it won't keep me out of the Classic." Marty's day two weight for four fish was 7-12 and left him in 60th place.

"I was expecting a full blown toten contest coming in here, and that's just what happened. Unfortunately, I wasn't doing much of the toten. I'm looking forward to going to Santee Cooper. I have two days to lick my wounds, get mad, and go out there and fish hard again. I'm frustrated with Eufaula. I can come up with a lot of bad excuses, but that's all they are, bad excuses. Eufaula is a good lake. I simply haven't figured it out yet. I haven't figured out its subtleties, and that's what is really starting to bother me about Eufaula. I've been known to catch them one day and then not catch them the next day. At Santee at least I have been known to catch them two days in a row. I'm going to go work hard. I'm going to put in the effort. If I don't catch fish there it won't be for lack of trying."

"During practice I spent most of my time looking for fish on the beds. I ended up finding some good fish that were locked onto beds. I knew that these fish wouldn't last four days, but I thought they would at least give me a good start," said Takahiro of practice.

"I had found seven good spawning fish in three different creeks during practice, but I ended up drawing boat number 116 for take off on day one of the tournament. By the time I got to my fish there were boats on all of them. I had to scramble around and find more fish. I ended up catching eight keepers that weighed 16-05." Takahiro's weight on day one put him in 28th place.

"On day two I didn't have any bed fish to go to, so I just went looking for new fish. I ended up catching three fish from beds, and caught two more on a spinnerbait." Omori's five fish limit weighed 11-13 and was enough to put him in 29th place for the tournament.

"I caught most of my fish sight fishing with a Senko. I wish I could have found more bedding fish to rely on, or another back-up area, but overall I'm very happy with my performance on Eufaula. This finish gives me good points towards making the Classic, and if I do well at Santee-Cooper, that will seal my spot in the Bass Masters Classic. Now I just can't wait to get to Santee-Cooper, that place is just full of big fish!"

During practice Skeet found that there were some fish up on beds in the lower lake. "The bed fish that I found were good ones but there were not enough to last four days," said Reese. During the rest of practice Reese spent his time looking for other areas that were holding fish. "I found a couple areas that I felt comfortable with. One area was a good flipping spot; the other was a spot up the lake where there were some fish bedding way in the back of a pocket. I felt very comfortable with practice. I felt that I had found plenty of areas holding fish and was looking forward to the competition getting started," Reese said.

"On day one I caught all my fish sight fishing. There were a lot of other boats in the area though. I was just fortunate that I got some big bites. It was a really fun day," said Reese of day one. Skeet's weight of 19-01 put him in tenth place, a prime position to make the cut on day two.

"I started out sight fishing on day two and was able to get one fish, then I had to move to a back-up location I found in practice. I think a lot of the fish I saw on day one ended up getting caught, they were pretty easy to see. My back-up location was a good flipping area and I was able to catch five more fish." Reese's day two weight of 17-13 moved him up to fifth in the standings and put him well inside the cut to twelve.

Skeet started day four about three minutes from take off. By 8:30 AM skeet had four fish in the live well. At 9:02 AM Skeet had a limit that would weigh about 13-08. Reese caught all his early fish flipping and pitching to bank grass. "I saw fish pushing bait in one small area, and just decided I would stay there and try to catch them. I didn't actually have a game plan." By 10:30 AM Skeet had culled three more times. "At about 11:30 I culled again for about two and a half pounds. I was fired up; I had no plan going in and was just enjoying fishing by the seat of my pants. I can't believe how well I did for not knowing where I was going. Since I started by the launch site it was cool to have my wife and daughter watching me for a while. That doesn't happen very often."