EUFAULA, Ala. — Pake South was a last-minute entrant to the 2026 Turtlebox Bassmaster Open at Lake Eufaula presented by Battery Tender. He knew very little about the lake other than his buddies Fisher Anaya and Jace Lindsay were both fishing the event too and on paper, it set up for how he likes to fish.
Did it ever.
The Winnsboro, Texas pro wrote another chapter in the B.A.S.S. history books, claiming back-to-back Opens titles with a three-day total of 84 pounds, 1 ounce, the third-heaviest winning weight in Opens competition behind only to his own record at Sam Rayburn (96-15) and Scott Martin at Okeechobee in 2024 (90-6).
“It was one of those weeks where it all just kind of happened. I wasn’t really on them that great (after practice), I just found them during the tournament,” South said. “It feels great. This is the first one I have won outside of (Texas). I just showed up. The feeling of winning like this will never get old.”
He also becomes only the fourth angler to win multiple Opens in a single season, joining Randall Tharp, Terry Scroggins and Easton Fothergill in that exclusive club.
In 10 Turtlebox Bassmaster Opens presented by Battery Tender or Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers presented by Bass Pro Shops events, the 21-year-old has two victories, six Top 10s and eight Top 25 finishes.
Opening the tournament in second-place with 28-0, South caught 24-10 on Day 2 to move into the lead before blasting 31-7 on the final day, the biggest bag of bass that local and Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series pro Kyle Welcher has ever seen caught on Lake Eufaula. South’s smallest bass in his Day 3 limit was a 5 3/4 with the rest weighing over 6 pounds.
“I knew the bass were there, but I didn’t expect at all to catch 30. I only saw five 6-plus-pounders all day, and you can’t catch 30 pounds if you only see five, because they won’t all bite. Today, there were a lot more than five. It really surprised me this morning when I got in there what was swimming around.
“I probably threw back another 24 pounds.”
Fishing close to takeoff at Lakepoint State Park, South targeted flats and drains where postspawn largemouth were staging in 6 to 12 feet of water. Brushpiles, stumps, grass and the occasional rockpile all attracted bass so long as it was located outside of the spawning areas. Most of the bass he caught were hovering just above or right next to the piece of cover.
The water level on the lake has been dropping since practice, and fell another couple of inches today, which South thinks helped draw more bass to his area.
“It was a combination of the lake falling a little bit and more bass getting done spawning,” South explained. “You just had to find something they wanted to sit on. If the brushpiles had bigger branches, it was a little bit better. The bigger the wood, the better usually.”
Two baits caught most of his bass; a 23-mm urchin-style lure tied to 20-pound fluorocarbon and the newly released 6.5-inch Berkley Lab Series Minnow rigged on an 1/8-ounce jighead. The urchin was most productive of the two during the final two days of competition, largely because of where the bass were setting up in the cover.
To trigger strikes, South worked it similarly to how he would a jerkbait, giving his 7-foot-3 medium-heavy extra-fast Fenwick World Class casting rod quick twitches with slack line. How hard he twitched it depended on how he saw the bass react on his forward-facing sonar.
“If they were sitting on cover or higher up in the water column, I was throwing the urchin,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll rip it pretty hard, sometimes I’ll barely move it. It depends on how fast the bass are moving.”
South has caught several big bites in the early morning hours the first two days, but used the rest of the day to make critical upgrades. On Championship Friday, South had the bulk of his total weight by mid-morning. His first keeper was a 6-pounder and his second was a 5 1/2.
“Every time I set the hook it was a big one,” he said. “I was surprised it happened that fast this morning.”
Chase Clarke said he had the best three days of tournament fishing he’s ever experienced this week on Lake Eufaula, even though it resulted in a runner-up finish. With limits weighing 23-9, 27-3 and 23-3, the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour qualifier notched his fourth Top 10 finish in Opens competition.
He also earned Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Tournament honors with his 8-15 largemouth from Day 2.
“It is the best week of fishing I’ve ever had,” he said. “I had a great time. I was a little stressed today thinking I needed one more big one. Had I caught that bass, I would have been pretty disappointed when I got back thinking I might have had a chance. Pake is an incredible angler. He is hard to beat and found the right area to be in this week.”
Clarke, who now calls Alabama home, utilized two patterns this week. The Auburn University grad caught his bigger bass close to takeoff, target shallow brushpiles located between 4 and 8 feet of water. Two baits came into play around the brush, including an unnamed 23-mm urchin-style bait and a Big Bite Baits Creature.
Prespawners occupied those brushpiles first two days, but on the final day Clarke landed mostly postspawners. He also discovered a shad spawn happening at his first stop of the day and was able to fill out a quality limit within the first two hours.
“I figured out which piles were the right ones, and this morning the first one I pulled up to had a shad spawn in it. And I caught three, including a 5-5. Then, the next 10 or 11 piles after that I got at least one bite out of. I made one big upgrade later in the afternoon before I came in.”
He also located several schools of bass on ledges in 14 to 17 feet of water. A Big Bite Baits Nekorama finesse worm and a Big Bite Baits Rollerama produced key strikes in the deeper water.
Welcher, meanwhile, finished third with a total of 61-4. He caught 18-14 on Day 1, a disappointing showing by his standards, before jumping up the leaderboard with 22-6 on Day 2 and 20-0 on the final day.
“It went pretty well. I tried to start around shad spawn areas every day,” he said. “I caught at least one 4-pounder each of the first two days and today the biggest one was a 3 1/2. I pulled the plug on that and did the jerkbait deal on shallow rocks, piles and stumps close to spawning areas. The shallower the better for me this week.”
Welcher’s best presentation was a Rapala Mavrik jerkbait, although he mixed in a Rapala CrushCity Bronco Bug and a frog at times too.
Georgia’s Cody Stahl leads the Division I points race with 378 points followed by fellow Georgia angler Buddy Benson in second, also with 378 points. Florida’s Bryson Osteen is third with 368 points, Texas’s Niko Romero is fourth with 361 points and Tennessee’s Dillon Falardeau is fifth with 359 points. Connor Jacob (358), Bo Thomas (354), Clarke (351), David Williams (350) and Jonathan Kelley (348) round out the Top 10.
This event was hosted by the Eufaula Chamber of Commerce.
