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U.S.
Angler's Choice News
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August
9, 2003 Oneida, NY
Griffith and Fey Use Last
Minute Heroics to Win Oneida
August 9 was the 3rd stop on the Oneida Teams
Division of Angler's Choice. Although rain once again showed
its face at this event as it has the previous two, something
was missing as this day began....wind!
Oneida Shores Park, just north of Syracuse, NY offered a view
of the lake not often seen by the teams as they launched their
boats. Calm, mirror-like water awaited them as they were launched
at 5:45AM by Tournament Director Dave Kilby. All but one team
headed toward the east end of the huge lake toward the smallmouth
shoals as "visions of topwaters danced in their heads".
One team headed across the lake toward grass-filled Big Bay
in search of Oneida's oft forgotten big largemouth. Mostly
overcast skies and intervals of gentle showers joined the
angler's for most of the day.
After more than 9 hours of fishing (pure Heaven on this lake!),
all teams returned to the weigh-in site on time and safely.
The first team to weigh-in had a 13-pound limit of smallmouth,
which led the spectators to believe this was a typical day
of fishing on Oneida Lake with a big limit of smallmouth needed
to win the tournament. In fact, the cash award for the Smallmouth
Bounty was claimed by the New Jersey team of Tony Mann and
Sam Steelman, whose 3.29 smallie was the largest of the event.
Following the script as written, New York's Stewart Bird and
Steve Croll brought 5 identical smallmouth to the scales to
finish in 3rd place with a weight of 14.49 pounds. Stewart
and Steve were presented plaques and 2 Okuma IM6 rods for
their efforts, and are right in the thick of a very closely
contested AOY horserace! Nice job, guys!
Looking at the big bag brought in by our 2nd place team, one
could sense something out of the ordinary. Pennsylvania's
Tom Heckman and Bill Faulkner, Regional Qualifier's from the
DelMarVa Division last year and money winners at the 2002
Regional Championship on Columbus lake had two largemouth
over 4 pounds in their creel! Big Oneida largemouth have a
reputation for disappearing after the spawn, but Tom and Bill
were able to figure them out. Their 5-bass limit weighed 14.68
lbs. and earned them $395 and 2 plaques. Congratulations!
Our Oneida Champions of this event are also from the state
of New York. They had the big fish in our first Oneida event
in June and know this lake well. After securing a 5-bass limit,
Jim Griffith and Norm Fey spent the balance of the tournament
day looking to cull some smaller fish and increase their weight.
Goal accomplished! Jim and Norm left the topwater fishing
to their competitors and utilized their bass fishing strengths...soft
plastics.
With only a short time remaining in the tournament, they returned
to an area that was being inhabited by...you guessed it...2
HUGE largemouths. Their largest weighed 5.49 pounds, and the
second one wasn't far behind it. This raised the weight of
their overall limit to 17.48 pounds...nearly a 3 pound margin
of victory! Their winnings for this day included 2 Champion's
plaques, a $1000 Bass Cat Bonus Bucks certificate, and $790
in prize money! Great job, Jim and Norm!
What's that? Did they win Big Fish? Read on! While that 5.49
largemouth caught by Jim and Norm would absolutely be the
lunker in most tournaments on Oneida Lake, it would not hold
up on this day. Not content with capturing the Big Fish award
last week in tournament #2, New York's Bill Sharp and Tom
Bienkowski stunned the crowd (and the Directors) when they
pulled a GIANT largemouth from their bag that lowered the
Equalizer scales to 6.02 pounds! This lunker earned them $110
plus the Big Fish plaque. Nice fish, guys!
As I mentioned, The AOY race has really heated up, with numerous
teams in contention for the Angler's of the Year honors.
The next Oneida Teams event will be August 30 out of Oneida
Shores Park.
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