Final 12's pattern of success
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The following is a capsule of how all 12 of the Bassmaster Memorial finalists caught their fish for two days on Oneida Lake:
1. Dean Rojas
"I threw Kermit (the frog) for two days. I probably had 15 keepers today. It was a fantastic day. There's nobody fishing what I'm fishing, so I had it all to myself. There was no pressure, and they were wanting to bite. In all the lakes I've fished, I've never seen fish stay this shallow in water this clear."
2. Steve Kennedy
Dead-sticking a Kinami Flash soft plastic lure, a topwater frog and a spinnerbait.
"Honestly, I just went fishing. That's what I've been doing all week. There's no special spot. I just kept going fishing and I covered miles and miles and miles of water."
3. Jared Lintner
A Spro Frog topwater lure and flipping a Berkley Chigger Craw.
"I concentrated on as much grass as I could get into. I took three hours to fish this whole bay. There was not another tournament angler in there."
4. Skeet Reese
Berkley Gulp Wacky Crawler on a drop shot rig; a Lucky
Craft Gun topwater lure; and a 1/2-ounce football head jig with a Berkley
Gulp Sabertail Bug trailer.
"It was just kind of a mishmash of fishing today. I had three largemouth and two smallmouth (in his 5-bass, 17-7 limit). Yesterday it was all smallmouth."
5. John Murray
Fished openings in the shallow outside grass areas for
largemouth with a watermelon/candy-colored Yamamoto jig and soft plastic trailer on 15-pound Berkley Fluorocarbon line.
"They were in two little openings in the grass. I caught some there in the morning and culled out my entire livewell there in the afternoon."
6. Peter Thliveros
Carolina rigging a watermelon/purple Zoom Super Fluke
and casting a Rapala DT 10 perch-colored crankbait in 8 to 10 feet of water.
"I stumbled upon the right school of fish at the right time. I saw one fish boil on the surface and threw out the marker buoy. For the next two hours, I didn't go three casts without catching a fish."
6. Jason Quinn
Gambler Craw (green pumpkin dipped in orange dye) with a 1/8th-ounce Tru-Tungsten sinker in less than 3 feet of water on 6- and 8-pound test fluorocarbon line with spinning gear.
"That (sinker) was the key because you didn't want the bait to fall too fast in that extremely shallow water or you'd spook the fish. That flat that I was fishing had a lot of fish just cruising around on it. I caught over 100 bass in the last two days off that one 75-yard flat."
8. Mike Iaconelli
Berkley Gulp Wacky Crawler (pumpkinseed) in 8 to 10
feet of water on a drop rig with a 1/4-ounce weight.
"I concentrated on smallmouth today and that was the key. It gave me that extra 15 ounces (in his 14-15 bag). The bass were feeding on lots of crawfish and smaller, young of the year yellow perch."
9. John Crews
A variety of shallow baits for largemouth — a (topwater) frog, flipping a Berkley Chigger Craw, and a Yamamoto Senko — on 65-pound Ultracast line. He caught all the smallmouth in about 10 feet of water by drop shotting a green pumpkin-colored Berkley Wacky Crawler on 6-pound Berkley Fluorocarbon line.
"I was largemouth fishing for a good bite or two and smallmouth fishing to fill my bag."
10. Randy Howell
A Berkley Gulp 3-inch Minnow and a Berkley PowerBait Drop Shot Minnow on a drop shot rig with 10-pound test Fire Line with an 8-pound test 100% fluorocarbon Trilene leader; a Molix perch-colored 3/8ths-ounce small profile spinnerbait with #3 gold and silver willowleaf blades; and a Splash-It topwater lure. The drop shot rig was used on a Quantum Shaw Grigsby Series 6-foot,10-inch rod coupled with an Energy PTI spinning reel. The other baits were used on a Quantum Randy Howell Series 7-foot rod.
"Probably 65 percent of the fish I weighed-in were on the drop shot. Everything I weighed-in was a smallmouth. I caught most of my fish in 3 to 7 feet of water. Look for holes in the grass. That's the key. Hard spots or rock mixed in with the grass."
11. Dave Wolak
A Lucky Craft jerkbait, a homemade spinnerbait and a Texas-rigged Yum Crawpappy green-pumpkin soft plastic lure with a 3/8ths-ounce weight.
"I caught mostly smallmouth in shallow grass. I caught a whole bunch of fish, but I just couldn't find the largemouth."
12. Jeff Kriet
A Right Bite soft plastic watermelon-purple with orange flake tube with a 5/16ths-ounce weight and a rattle, with long casts on a flippin' stick coupled with 20-pound test fluorocarbon line.
"I moved up a lot shallower the second day, probably 3 to 5 feet of water, fishing that grass. I'd just chunk that tube as far and as high as I could throw it. Then I'd drag it until I hit those holes in the grass."
Editor's note: Check in each day for live video of the weigh-in and the realtime leaderboard at 6 p.m. ET. There will be a special Hooked Up show at 10 a.m. ET Saturday, with tournament updates Sunday at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and noon ET. The Hooked Up show begins at 5 p.m. Sunday and leads into the live final weigh-in.
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