Georgia angler Wil Hardy II has weighed in nothing but smallmouth through the first 2 days of the Oneida Lake Northern Open. So far, those brown fish have carried him to the lead as he caught 18-05 today and heads into the final day with 35-09.
“Hopefully it will be all smallmouth for me tomorrow,” said Hardy, a 26-year-old fishing tackle company co-owner. “If I have largemouth (tomorrow), I either got really lucky or something really bad happened.”
Hardy’s smallmouth game plan worked perfectly for him the first two days of the tournament. Thursday, he caught his limit early and then went hunting for more schools of bass the rest of the day.
“Today I wasn’t sure how the weights were going to be so we just sat there and hammered on them and tried to cull up for the ounces that we could,” Hardy said. “We caught about all of our fish before 10 o’clock and I think I culled out one fish after that.”
Jacob Wheeler has also chased smallmouth both days and moved into second place with 34-3 after catching 17-09 today.
Jesse Tacoronte is 3rd with 33-09, followed by Mike Shumanis with 33-08 and New York angler Larry Mazur in 5th with 32-14.
Here's a look at the 12 anglers who will compete tomorrow:
1. Wil Hardy II: 35-09
2. Jacob Wheeler: 34-03
3. Jesse Tacoronte: 33-09
4. Mike Shumanis: 33-08
5. Larry Mazur: 32-14
6. Ian Renfrew: 32-08
7. Jamie Hartman: 32-07
8. Kurt Dove: 32-06
9. Alvin Shaw: 32-01
10.Tyler Berger: 32-00
11. Ron Johnson: 31-14
12. Michael Iaconelli: 31-14
