Former tour pro Chris Daves caught a 17-02 sack comprised entirely of smallmouths to grab the day-1 lead at the Lake Oneida Bassmaster Northern Open.
“I don’t have anything to even catch a largemouth in my boat,” he said. “I’m not saying that I’ll win, but you can definitely win with all smallmouth here. I think the largemouth bite will fall off.”
He’s pursuing his quarry in two ways: on isolated grass clumps and when they’re schooling. Because the water was so rough on day 1 due to strong winds, he couldn’t focus on birds to find schooling bass, but instead used his depthfinder to locate the bait they were pursuing.
At the first stop of the day his front graph went out, so he spent the rest of the day moving his console unit back and forth from the bow to the dash.
He had a 1-ounce lead over 2nd-place Tracy Adams, who weighed two largemouths and three bronzebacks. Veteran Terry Baksay was 3rd with 16-10 – all smallmouths.
Here are the weights for the initial Top 12:
1. Chris Daves: 17-02
2. Tracy Adams: 17-01
3. Terry Baksay: 16-10
4. (tie) Jacob Powroznik: 16-08
4. (tie) Eddie Levin: 16-08
6. Mike Morrin: 16-07
7. (tie) William Kemp: 16-06
7. (tie) James Niggemeyer: 16-06
9. Woo Daves: 16-00
10. (tie) Mike Iaconelli: 15-13
10. (tie) Joshua Wagy: 15-13
12. Jim Bianchi: 15-12
