N.Y.B.C.F. Oneida Lake Tournament 7 Sep 08

[Burnie Haney]

Oneida Lake 5 & 7 Sep 08

I fished our NY BASS Chapter Federation event on Oneida Lake on 7 Sep. I went down on 28 Aug to show a young Soldier around the lake because he’d signed up to fish the BFL tournament on 30 Aug and he’d never been there before. I took him to the southern shoreline and we did very well in three foot of water or less over rock rubble. He caught a real chunker perch on a small shallow crank that had about a three inch crawdad in it's throat and when we dug it out the shell was still soft so I knew the dads were smolting or a least the ones in this general area were. That told me there was a very good chance the fish in this particular area would hold up a week later for our Federation tourney, because not all the crawdads smolt at the same time.

So, on Friday 5 Sep I went down to check the same general area that I showed the Soldier and sure enough the fish were still in there; not nearly as many ( I think a few got caught during the BFL event) but still decent numbers were there. I looked around and found a couple more areas with similar composition so no matter which way the wind blew I knew I could repeat that pattern around the lake. I got off the water by noon on Friday and I didn’t pre-fish on Saturday because I didn’t want to sore mouth any biters in that area.

My basic presentation was to fish shallow over the rock rubble with a ½ oz bait fish pattern spinner bait. I was using the 9/16th oz. Secret Weapon Lure (baby bass) spinner bait with a # 3 Colorado blade for vibration and a # 4 willow blade to give me flash, but reduce the overall lift on a fast retrieve. I’d cast it out and retrieved it as fast as I could crank the handle on my 6.3:1 reel. Here's my theroy why that works well when SMB are rooting around for crawdads.

The bottom line is those fish are on that open shallow water flat to eat, plain and simple. Now could you work a tube or other type of drop bait and catch them ... absolutely, but my theroy is I'll chunk and wind to show my bait to as many fish as I can that I know are up there to eat, and odds are I'm going to connect. This in your face rapid fire approach allows me to put a presentation across three times the area that a guy tossing tubes can cover in the same amount of time.

Then when it was sunny I flipped and pitched plastics to weeds clumps on a point across from the same area.

Tournament Morning, 7 Sep:
We had 74 boats (boaters against boaters & co-anglers against co-anglers)

I ran six minutes east of the Oneida Shores Ramp and fished the entire day in a ½ mile area. As long as the wind blew I fished the shallow rock rubble with the spinner bait just south of the eastern point of South Bay and when the sun popped out about 12 noon I went to some weeds clumps in 3-7 foot on the opposite side, on the western point of South Bay. I closed my limit and culled a few fish on a Texas-rigged chigger craw in green pumpkin.

Here's my biggest fish of the day



I finished in 6th place out of 74 anglers so that was pretty cool, but I brought in one dink 13 incher I just couldn’t get rid of. That last hour I pitched the weed clumps and I think I caught that dink’s clone a couple of times. I fished a clean tournament and executed my plan, and everything that bit I put in the boat. I just couldn't get that one big bite to bring it home. I ended up getting $400.00 for my effort of 12.26 lbs. and the winning weight was 15 (+) lbs. by Randy Lamanche

Congrats Randy and I hope I spelled your name right

Oh and like I always say there are no real secrets in tournament fishing just over inflated egos...

Thanks for reading

Burnie Haney

[fishinjim]

The bottom line is those fish are on that open shallow water flat to eat, plain and simple. Now could you work a tube or other type of drop bait and catch them ... absolutely, but my theroy is I'll chunk and wind to show my bait to as many fish as I can that I know are up there to eat, and odds are I'm going to connect. This in your face rapid fire approach allows me to put a presentation across three times the area that a guy tossing tubes can cover in the same amount of time.

I'm liking your somewhat outside of the box approach here. Had it not worked, one might argue that if these fish were accustomed to leasurely plucking crawfish off the bottom, they might not be interested in making the effort to chase down a spinnerbait.
Obviously and awesomely though, that wasn't the case.
Try any topwater? In that shallow of an area, where fish were hitting a spinnerbait, I don't think I'd be able to resist the temptation to throw a spook. Seems like it would work into your theory/pattern and maybe even present a bait option to yet a couple more fish.

Congrats on a great finish and some neat patterning.
Cool report!!!

[nbajack70]

way to go burnie...... get your salmon/steelie rod ready, they'll be there soon.


nice job finishing in the money

[nycubano]

Congrats on a job well done !

[Marcola]

I also fished this tourney. I was a non-boater. This was my first ever experience fishing a sanctioned tournament. I can tell you it won't be my last. I had great fun. I finished 15th or 16th out of 74 on the non-boater side. Top 12 got paid so I just missed a check. Not too shabby for my first time. I'll take it. I was all smiles on my ride home.

I caught mine on a spinnerbait. Reeling it in just as fast as I could. Going for the reaction bite.

I also caught two on a senko cheater rig.

I also met Burnie. I recognized him from this message board and introduced myself. As a fellow steelheader we had plenty to talk about. HI BURNIE! Congrats on your finish in the tourney. I met lots of cool people on this day. Lots of fun.

[CrankBass'n]

Nice report and a job well done...

[KaseV]

Congrats and great detail report.

[RWL]

Burnie,
You got my name correct, and nice job to you as well in the tourney...
Just a quick run down on my day-

In the AM I went to a area and fished over 12-14 ft of water. I was throwing a trap and a spook. My co- angler and I caught our limits in about the first 40 mins doing that. Most of our bites came on the traps, but the biggest bites came on top water. After just one drift, these fish shut right down. We made about 3 more passes and couldn't get bit. I was on the bubble to make the team, so I was a little disappointed with the weight at this point. Maybe 11-12lbs, so I bombed around the lake for a while trying to upgrade with a large mouth. Pulled in on on one dock, hooked a beauty, it tied me up and snapped my braid. I was ticked.
Ultimatley- decided to finish the day back on the first spot. I knew there were some big ones still there, just need to talk them into biting. Gave up on reaction and dedicated the time to dragging a tube and it paid off. Wind had shifted slightly and may have helped, landed 4 fish in about an hour and a half. 3 helped me including one just shy of 4 lbs. I knew I had a good limit, but didn't expect to seal the deal.
I am excited I won. (so is my wife for that matter) I had a great time in all three of the fed events this year. I recommend it to anyone. Its well managed and there are some great guys to compete against as well.

Like some of the others on here, I will see you on the river too. Just got to get a big ol' buck first. Actully-got to go get those boats in Oklahoma first, then the buck.

Thanks,
Randy

[purdue]

Great job Burney, really enjoyed the report. Very interesting pattern, throw a spinnerbait when they are eating crawdads. Way to think outside of the box. I saw the lake flying in to Syracuse that afternoon, thought you guys probably had a great day, the lake looked gourgous.

Randy, congrats on the win. Hope your ready to catch them Sunday, should be a fun tournament. I'll see you at the ramp.

Brandon

[Skeet]

Congratulations to the both of you.

Thank you for taking the time to post your results.

[Buttlesdog]

Nice report and congrats on finishing near the top!

[Bassbum]

Nice report and Congrats on the finish...

[RWL]

Purdue-
I guess you don't have to bother calling me to find out what the scoop is for this Sunday...yes, see you there.

And Burnie- there are secrets.... Just people who can't keep them LOL!

Randy

[Fishndav]

Thanks for the info guys. I spent the tournament and much of my practice not catching much. I just couldn't put anything together. I appreciate you two sharing info on what I should have done!

Dave

[Magic]

When I was looking at the board before I left, it was painfully obvious that the bite was OFF. My (nonboater)fishing started bad and then got worse, never got anything going. Boater and I had 1 fish each, only 1 other hit all day (boater missed one on a spinnerbait). 8 hours for 1 bite- now that's tough fishing!

There were many nonboaters with 0 fish, and many more with 1 fish (might guess as much as 50% of nons had 1 or less when I left). Tough fishing!

Congrats to the folks that figured them out. You deserve special kudo's on that day!!!!!