That's a wrap

Heading into the last NY State B.A.S.S. tournament of the 2015 I was hoping for a change of fortunes on a lake that has given me fits the few times I have fished it. Oneida Lake is a place I don't have a ton of experience at and the time I have spent there is usually late in the fall and I struggle to find fish for whatever reason. I took off early Sat. morning to get some practice in before the Sunday event, hoping to pick up on a pattern. The few hours I had were slow but I did manage to get a few big ones, a 5lber and a 4lber, both largemouth. Marked the areas and left figuring the surrounding area was very similar if I worked them slowly I would run into more. Tournament day comes and I plan on focusing on largemouth, which is not the norm on this lake. Most will be throwing A-rigs for smallmouth all day. Hoping that I will have some of the largie areas to my own, or at least less pressured than the outside edges where anglers would be focusing on the smallmouth. After catching 1 pretty quick, a decent 3lber I think I should be set but then the hours keep rolling and nothing. My coangler had a few decent blow ups but we just missed what little fish we could find. We changed to smallmouth for a few hours in mid day but that was just as fruitless. In the end it was a bit of a disaster on the day that counted as I weighed in 1 fish for the first time in my tournament career and slipped down the final AOY Pt. standings to 20 of 115 boaters. Not a bad finish even considering the results of the last tournament, but disappointing knowing how I had a shot at the top spot if Oneida didn't smack me in the face again. My fish in practice and tournament day came on Bayou Bug Jigs and Texas Rigged Crawfish. I may not have figured that place out this weekend, but I will figure it out soon. Waves were brutal with east winds both days...at least the carpet got a cleaning. Tight lines!