Maryland resident Randy Elliott caught a 19-01 stringer to grab the early lead at the Oneida Lake Bassmaster Northern Open on Thursday.
“I didn’t see anybody posting anything for the last week (on social media) on big largemouth, so I decided to stay with all smallmouth,” he said.
The smallmouth bite was early and often for most of the top contenders, including Elliott, who had his limit by about 8 a.m. However, while other anglers struggled to catch fish later in the day, Elliott kept catching them.
“The fish are postspawn,” he said. “They are hungry and feeding up. There are lots of baitfish around. Every time I caught a fish it was coughing (baitfish) up.”
The weather was sunny with a light north wind today, but the forecast calls for clouds and rainstorms throughout Friday. Elliott doesn’t expect the weather to change his pattern.
Bird-watching is usually a good way to find schooling smallmouth on Oneida as the diving seagulls indicate baitfish and bass activity on the surface, but neither Elliott nor 2nd-place Derek Yasinski relied on the birds to find their fish.
“I found five or six places this week (in practice) where I knew fish were there,” said Elliott. The government contractor decided to key on those spots rather than run around looking for bird activity.
“We saw some birds later this afternoon, pulled up on them and caught a few little fish, but I am not fishing the birds,” Yasinski said.
Yasinski caught his limit in about his first 30 minutes of fishing and finished the day with 18-09.
“Then we jumped around and caught one or two here or there. I tried to catch a bigger fish (after catching his limit), but I mostly went pre-fishing so I could hopefully catch a decent limit tomorrow.”
Here's a look at the initial Top 12:
1. Randy Elliott: 19-03
2. Derek Yasinski: 18-09
3. Jesse Tacoronte: 18-00
4. Wesley Strader: 17-07
5. Mike Shumanis: 17-06
6. Wil Hardy II: 17-04
7. Ed Loughran III: 17-02
8. Ian Renfrew: 17-01
9. Larry Mazur: 16-15
10. Tyler Berger: 16-14
11. Buddy Cipoletti: 16-11
12. Jacob Wheeler: 16-10
