Oneida Elite Series

> Day 1: 5, 10-08
> Day 2: 5, 11-09
> Total = 10, 22-01 (92nd)

Today was a lot more of a battle. There was a walleye guy anchored in my starting spot and I didn't catch anything there, and I had to dropshot Berkley Gulp! Shaky Worms to get a limit of smallmouths by 11:00.

After that I went back to the grass and started flipping and I caught some largemouths, but no big ones. Maybe I needed to be there earlier.

I finished 3 pounds out of the cut, and with one 4-pounder along the way somewhere I would've been fine, but they were all 1 1/2- to 2-pounders. This was one of the tougher tournaments I've had in a long time and it's time for me to go home and lick my wounds.

> Day 1: 5, 10-08 (94th)

I went out to a smallmouth reef in the morning and basically hooked a limit in five casts, but I lost two at the boat and it took 40 minutes to get a limit of smallmouths.

Then I ran in to where I normally flip grass and fished around there until 3:00. I caught quite a few fish – and a lot of walleye, northern pike and perch – but I never caught a good bass. I was looking for that one 4- or 5-pounder and it never happened.

I feel I could have upgraded with smallmouths to 12 or 13 pounds, but I thought I could get 14 or 15 with largemouths. I didn't get either. I screwed myself away with both of them. Now I have to go catch 13 pounds tomorrow just to make the Classic. I've got my work cut out for me.

I'm just going for smallmouths tomorrow. I won't really fish for largemouths until the very end of the day. I'll go try to catch the best limit of smallmouths I possibly can.

The grass I fished today was from 7 to 12 feet deep. I really hit a variety of stuff – some stuff in the past that really had some good ones. It just didn't happen.

After being here 3 years in a row, it's pretty much the same thing – you pull up on your waypoints from years ago and there's still fish there. Then I go out and try to find new stuff, but I rarely find anything new. Everybody has their places and they kind of just sit on them.

I didn't catch as many fish during practice as I had in the past, and most of them were a pound and a half to 2 pounds. I did catch one 4-pound largemouth.

My plan is to get a limit of smallmouths and then go for largemouths. I think we'll see everything pretty much fall in line with what's happened the past few years.