Last week, Justin Lucas launched his boat at Oneida Lake for the first time. He'd never seen the lake up close prior to practice for the Bassmaster Northern Open. He was kind enough to let BassFan tag along for a couple hours as he got to know the lake on his first day of practice. The front deck of his boat was decorated with at least a dozen rods set up for various finesse applications and open water fishing.

His first stop was a grass flat and he immediately started throwing a paddletail swimbait on a lead head, hoping to draw some fish out of the thick vegetation. Ultimately, he went with a dropshot rig in the tournament, catching smallmouths out of the hard-bottom bare spots between patches of grass.

In the embedded video below, Lucas goes more in depth on how he breaks down a new body of water: