EUFAULA, Okla. (June 5, 2026) – As you’d expect from Lake Eufaula, the fishing wasn’t easy. But the weights wound up looking solid after Day 1 of Stop 5 Pro Circuit tournament on Lake Eufaula, pros racked up more than 20 bags over 15 pounds, caught from all over the lake and all sorts of ways. In the lead by a solid margin, Cal Lane of Grant, Alabama, pounded out 22 pounds, 2 ounces – the only bag over the 20-pound mark. In second, Ty Faber of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, tallied 19-8, and 7 Brew Angler of the Year leader Carter Nutt of Nashville, Tennessee , stayed hot, putting 19-3 on the scale for third.
Lane has markedly improved since he started fishing nationally in 2021, and this year is shaping up to be one of his best yet – he led for two days at Wheeler Lake and finished third at Santee Cooper already. Once again fishing how he likes to fish, Lane is off to a big start in Oklahoma.
“I had a couple stretches where I got five or six bites pretty quick,” said Lane of his practice. “I saw a couple of them – I never saw anything like I had today. I saw some 2-pounders; I figured that was good enough.
“I started on what I thought was my best stretch, and I caught two 1-pounders,” he said. “I thought ‘Well, this isn’t going to be good.’ I started working little milk runs, and I figured out the deal they were on. Every time I set the hook, it seemed like it was a 4- to 5-pounder.”
Cracking 4-pounders at will is great, and it’s especially great at Eufaula, where a little can go a long way. Still, Lane is far from confident that he’ll wallop a big bag again tomorrow.
“It’s a new day; I don’t know what to expect,” he said. “I might catch them, I might not. I don’t know how many more fish are down there. I’ve got some other areas I think I can do some damage in. Nothing like today, but I think I can catch 15 pounds or so.”
Lane is in this one to swing big. A couple Top 10 finishes to end the season might put him on the Bass Pro Tour, and with six Top 10 finishes at Pro Circuit events without closing out his first national win, he’s had enough of being close.
“I’m tired of being in the mix,” he said. “I want to win – really bad.”
This is Faber’s third time fishing a tournament in June on Eufaula, and he’s on track to make it three-for-three in high finishes.
So far, the weights are great in this one – maybe even better than some of the previous events, when forward-facing sonar was an all-day affair – but the Colorado pro is rolling with the punches.
“I dropped the boat in and thought I was at the wrong lake,” he said about the first day of practice. “You can see a foot right here. Usually, you can see an inch. It’s crazy.”
Of course, after Day 1, he’s right on track.
“I think it’s just a grind, and I’m stubborn, and this lake is stubborn, and we mesh,” he said.
Doing a little of everything, Faber stayed versatile.
“I had a good limit early, which helps,” he said. “I junk fished, but I started off with a ChatterBait, trying to catch one on a shad spawn. There are a lot of shad spawning; there just aren’t very many bass eating them. I caught a limit doing that, and then poked around, caught one here, one there.”
Cracking 19 pounds on Day 1, Nutt put himself in the conversation to win and may have done a lot for his Angler of the Year (AOY) chances in the process. He was also a good example of the diversity of patterns available. While Lane mostly fished shallow and Faber ran a shallow-centric gameplan, Nutt took advantage of the offshore biter.
“I was expecting to catch a decent bag – my practice was alright, I had a big bite every day,” he said. “But (Day 1) was great. It was super slow during my ‘Scope period, but I caught a few of the right ones.”
Doing much of his damage off one spot, being new to the fishery didn’t faze him.
“It kind of reminds me of a lake we grew up fishing – Percy Priest,” said Nutt. “There’s quite a bit of rock in here, and the things they set up on are similar. It’s a super cool place; I really enjoy it.”
Tomorrow, Nutt’s goal is not to blast another big bag, though he likely wouldn’t say no to that. He’s looking to make the Day 3 cut and keep the points situation looking good.
“Today I had the opportunity to have a really big bag,” he said. “But I don’t expect to have anything more than what I had. I was more worried about having a consistent tournament – 13 or 14 pounds a day and having a solid tournament.”
The top 20 pros after Day 1 on Oklahoma’s Lake Eufaula are:
1st: Cal Lane, Grant, Ala., five bass, 22-2
2nd: Ty Faber, Pagosa Springs, Colo., five bass, 19-8
3rd: Carter Nutt, Nashville, Tenn., five bass, 19-3
4th: Mark Condron, Murfreesboro, Tenn., five bass, 18-13
5th: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., five bass, 17-15
6th: Josh Bertrand, San Tan Valley, Ariz., five bass, 17-14
7th: Ryan Lachniet, Gum Spring, Va., five bass, 17-12
8th: Adam Lynn, Culleoka, Tenn., five bass, 17-6
9th: Hayden O’Barr, Scottsboro, Ala., five bass, 17-2
10th: Riley Nielsen, Murray, Utah, five bass, 17-1
11th: Brody Campbell, Oxford, Ohio, five bass, 17-0
12th: Ethan Fields, Breese, Ill., five bass, 16-14
13th: Drew Boggs, Lebanon, Tenn., five bass, 16-12
14th: Broderick Luckey, Lynchburg, Va., five bass, 16-11
15th: Will Harkins, Blairsville, Ga., five bass, 16-7
16th: Tripp Berlinsky, Saint Cloud, Fla., five bass, 15-12
17th: Fred Roumbanis, Russellville, Ark., five bass, 15-11
18th: Matteo Turano, Puryear, Tenn., five bass, 15-7
19th: Kyle Goldstein, Paso Robles, Calif., five bass, 15-5
19th: Britt Myers Jr., Clover, S.C., five bass, 15-5
19th: Dylan Nutt, Nashville, Tenn., five bass, 15-5
Complete results for the entire field can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 558 bass weighing 1,429 pounds, 11 ounces caught by 126 pros Friday. The catch included 89 five-bass limits.
Pro Will Harkins earned Friday’s Day 1 Berkley Big Bass award of $500, bringing a bass that weighed in at 6 pounds, 5 ounces to the scale.
https://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/mlf-eufaula-6526.html
Major League Fishing (MLF)