The prevailing theory at Oneida Lake is that high-level tournaments can't be won strictly with smallmouths. Jeff Kriet nearly proved otherwise in 2009, when he caught bronzebacks exclusively en route to a 2nd-place finish – he ended up 2 1/4 pounds behind winner Chad Griffin.
He'll go back to Oneida this month in search of another high placement, and perhaps that long-awaited initial Elite Series win. He's currently 26th in the Toyota Tundra B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year (AOY) race, which is several spots above where the cutoff for the 2013 Bassmaster Classic will fall, so he'd like to punch his ticket for Grand Lake in his home state of Oklahoma next February and also conclude an inconsistent year with a strong finish.
He caught an 18-02 bag of smallmouths on the final day in '09 to challenge Griffin. He'd found that large school of 3 1/2- to 4-pounders during practice, but they didn't cooperate until that Sunday.
"The conditions have to be perfect for that to work, and they were only right for part of the tournament," he said. "If they'd been right the whole time, I'd have blown it away. Those suspended fish are an opportunity deal.
"I thought it could be won on all smallmouths and (Kevin) VanDam and I argued about that. I ended up getting beat by a guy who caught a couple of big largemouths."
He's missed the 50-cut four times in seven events this year, but has thus far been saved by a pair of single-digit finishes. He vows to alter his pre-tournament preparation routine prior to next year.
"I'm going to do a lot more organization and research ahead of time," he said. "I'm not saying anybody's breaking the rules and maybe I'm naïve to believe that nobody is on our circuit, but a lot of the younger guys are coming in a lot more prepared because they've done more Internet research and stuff like that.
"I always assumed I could figure things out in 3 days (of official practice). Sometimes you get to a lake and you burn a practice day trying to figure out what's going on when a lot of other people already know."
