“Ray – its Pat Xiques – pick up….”

We have all been there – at least any of us who call Ray on a regular basis. Usually it’s the same old thing – “the bite on Mahopac is tough” – “the bite on Mahopac is awesome.” “ Man, that tournament was hard – wow, that tournament last week was a blast”.  This time it would be a little different. It was three days before the 2006' Atlantic Bassmaster’s Classic Championship on Oneida Lake, an event that had been planed and coordinated with the members for a long time, and I had told everyone involved with the event that I was not going to go.  Well, I changed my mind.

I didn’t have a partner, didn’t have a reservation at the hotel and quite honestly, I didn’t have a clue on how to fish this massive body of water. I was honestly expecting Ray to say, “What are you nuts! All the plans have been made and now you want in”. Thankfully he didn’t. He helped me out., told me who to call and then gave me directions how to get up there. Work had been tough lately and I needed a few days off so I decided to go. I was even happier when I found out that Chris Loraine wanted to go but didn’t have a partner. We would fish together. Needless to say, fishing this tournament was a last minute thing but I thought it would all work out in the end.

I hadn't done much in the way of research short of watching and re-watching the Elite Series guys on Bassmasters.  I had hopes of recognizing a few things when I got out there, but that didn’t work out to well.. I had just a few hours practice one day and another full day of practice to figure something out. It boiled down to two choices. One, study the map and the winds over the past few days and try and figure out where the smallies were, or two, just go “fishing” and concentrate on largemouth. The first evening, I teamed up with Sean Kelly and Ray and we ran a few points, covering water with a spinnerbait. We did that  for awhile and caught a few fish, but I didn’t have much faith that this bite would remain consistent; in addition the weather was about to change for the worse. Concentrating on  largemouth might be something to consider....a lot.

On my full day of practice I tried to locate a concentration of smallies but couldn't put anything together.  One here, one there, but no true PATTERN I could bank on.. It was a luck thing and I wasn't comfortable doing that . Instead I headed for the bank and the protected areas on the South shore of the lake. After all, not only was I not comfortable with fishing those “here today- gone tomorrow” smallies, but Tommy Biffle had proved you could win here targeting largemouth.. As far as I was concerned, that was our best bet. Go fish for largemouth. After discussing it with Chris, we did just that.

The night before the tournament, Chris and I looked at the map and talked about our decision to abandon the smallies. He was on-board with that so we scoured the map looking for areas that fit a shallow water profile, such as creeks and small pockets.. They would be out of the wind (not to mention the 4ft plus waves) and they were shallow – two things that I had noticed when I watched Biffle win the 'Empire Chase' on TV. In practice, I had caught a nice largemouth (4.75 lbs) fishing a Sweet Beaver up shallow, just like Biffle. Why reinvent the wheel when the conditions had not changed that drastically as it related to the cover these largemouth were using. We decided to fish at a few points in the morning, cover it quickly with a spinnerbait,  then head to the creeks for the  largemouth.  Yes sir, we had a 'game plan'.

DAY 1 – We stuck to the 'game plan', but we had some rather nasty weather to deal with. Winds 15-25, running right down the lake, east to west.. We hit the main lake points, but we agreed that getting our butts kicked didn't make much sense, so we headed for the creeks.  Getting there was another story. The waves had built to an unsettling 4-5 ft and the tops were all blown off (white water) making it rather difficult to navigate.  This body of water that is littered with rocky shoals and are marked (ok – most of the shoals are marked, right Pep’s – lol) with small white buoys which were now underwater. White knuckle time! Thank God  Chris had a good GPS (Garmin) and we were able to track a safe course via the electronics’. Rod and reels were stowed away and we “Battened Down the Hatches” for a 5 mile run into some very nasty water. Chris did a fantastic job of getting us there. He really knew how to handle his boat well and got us there safely with no loss of equipment....at least on the ride anyway….

As we stopped at the mouth of a small creek Chris says, “Take the front Pat”, so I hopped up front and  grabbed the pull cord on his trolling motor.....Now remember when I said that we didn’t loose any equipment on the ride down the lake? Well, I hung the handle of his new Shimano Stella reel and Kisler spinning rod in the chord – launching it over the side as I pulled it up. "Chris please tell me that wasn’t the Stella” I said.. “Yup” was all he said.. S--t! What a way to start the day. First we get our brains kicked in by Oneida’s wind and waves, then I throw $700.00 worth of equipment over the side, and we aren't  at the good spot yet. Being the chop buster he is Chris dropped to his knees on the front deck of the boat, made two fists, and raising them into the air he does his best Marlon Brando imitation screaming “STELLA!!! – STELLLLAAAAAA”! (Street Car Named Desire) I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry but Chris told me not to worry about it we had a tournament to win – “let’s get to work partner" he said with a smile.

We began at the marina at the mouth of the small creek and I caught a  northern almost immediately on a spinnerbait. Good sign I thought, there is “life” here.  I typically find that if you see bluegills, perch even pickerel or pike in an area, you more than likely will find other game fish in the area.... like bass.  Many times you will have a dead area of a lake. The cover, the wind, the water clarity may all seem right, but sometimes  “something” just isn’t right (possibly oxygen levels– PH, light penetration, etc.) and the fish don’t relate to the area at all. But this area had life! Small yellow perch were running all over the place, chasing bait up and down the bank and even a few small bass were visible as well. All the signs were right as we entered the marina directly in front of us.

Immediately on our left was a downed tree. I decided to start with that Sweet Beaver and Chris opted to throw a Texas rigged  Senko. Chris’s first cast into that tree produced a bass. It  was a short, as were the 15 others (no joke – it was loaded with fish) that Chris took from that one tree by skillfully skipping a Senko under its branches. It’s impressive to watch someone with that amount of accuracy pull fish after fish out from some nasty looking cover. Can you imagine what he might have been able to do with  'Stella'  if I hadn’t thrown it into the lake!  That's enough guilt – lets get back to the tournament.

Moving further into the marina we caught our first keeper, a decent fish just a shade over two pounds and we were very happy to have it.  The pressure was off – we weren't going to blank! After an hour had passed without another keeper bite we left the marina and head for our second area, another creek just to the south of the marina. In between our two key areas there is a small  island of sorts. The water here is quite shallow, less than 2 foot  with lots of downed timber. Circling this small island I caught a nice largemouth about 4 1/2 pounds and Chris picked up our third fish, another solid keeper as well.  We are in good shape as we moved back into the creek/river in search of just two more…....just two more.

This creek/river looked fantastic! Plenty of docks, blow-downs and submerged  brush,  perfect looking stuff for that Sweet Beaver. We continued to flip the abundant cover, covering more than a mile of the river. We caught a few shorts and even a walleye, but we still had just the three fish.. Rounding a small bend in the creek, we came upon a smaller creek that intersected with the main one. It was large enough for us to move the boat into. Approaching a small bridge we noticed there seemed to be more fishable water just past it.  It was going to be a tight squeeze but we we're going to get in there. We laid down on our backs and pulled our way through.

Once through we stood up and looked around.  It looked pretty nice back there, but  it only went for 50 to70 feet or so and then it ended. Picking out a likely spot I made a pitch with the Beaver – POW!, a  2.5lber . Number four (4) was in the boat – room to breathe – finally! This spot was too small to hold much more so we headed back into the the creek/river for our last hour, but  knew we needed to leave ourselves an hour to get back out into the lake.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier because this was the first tournament I have ever fished (derrrr Patrick….), I forgot my sunglasses in the hotel room. This wasn't much of an issue since we were fishing in the shade of overhanging trees most of the day, but I had no vision beyond the surface – something that polarized glasses would have helped with. I was at a distinct disadvantage at this point and felt a bit weird since I fish with them on all the time.. Anyway, as we pulled up to a blow-down  I pitched the Sweet Beaver into a snarl of  limbs and branches. Shake – shake – nothing. Just as I was about to pull the Beaver out, Chris shouts, “Pat – a nice one just followed you right to the boat”. Without those sunglasses I never saw the fish.. Never  missing a beat, my partner puts his Senko right on the same spot and POW! Number 5 joins our party. Way to go baby! 

What transpired next you might find a bit disturbing, so consider yourself warned.  Just  because we had fished so hard and because we knew that  we had a shot of bringing in a nice limit, catching number five was a HUGE relief….We have all been there. When Chris says, “Hey, a fish” and then lays a bait in there perfectly and  executes to perfection by putting a 2.5lber in the boat, AND that fish is the tournament limit, it's time for a celebration. As if on cue we proceeded to do a group hug on the front deck as we bounce up and down  like schoolgirls. Now I admit, it must have seemed like a moment from “Broke Back Mountain” to the untrained eye, but it was much more “wholesome” than that, I assure you.  Someone else wasn't so sure.

I know that scene must have looked very weird, but heck, we were excited (no, not THAT way) and wanted to celebrate. It was a great moment for us, until I looked over Chris’s shoulder and saw 5 carpenters who had been working on a new house, standing at the river’s edge with mouths agape .  I’m not kidding. I figured I had to say SOMETHING in fear of either getting killed or getting an invitation of some sort, so I said “You don’t understand guys, we have been fishing for number five for hours, then Chris saw this fish, and made the prefect cast, and…..”. It was no use - they obviously weren't listening . Leary of their next reaction, good or bad (actually, there was little GOOD in this situation), we moved on…….with great haste.

After a good day, we weighed in 12.12 – good enough for third (3rd.) place, just nine ounces out of the lead.  Wow” I thought to myself.  Maybe we do have a shot after all…...time for a cigar.

DAY 2 – We were going to do the same thing – kind of.  We knew that three of the four areas we fished held fish. We knew that they wanted a Sweet Beaver. We knew they would eat a Senko. (but then again, when don’t they – right Mr. Ripp..) The only change....no smallie fishing....we were off to the creeks. This morning, it was pretty obvious, before the sun even came up that the wind had gotten worse – much worse. This would make the run down tougher than it had been yesterday, but it's what we had to do if we had any shot to win the Classic Championship. No pain – no gain! Were going! Can you say five (5) footers PLUS!!!

After battling the wind and waves, we knew we would concentrate in the /creekriver only, and keep the Marina for the afternoon, just the reverse of what we did the day before. We tweaked our approach a bit and felt  the best way for us to fish the river was to run the big motor and idle back all 6 miles of it and fish our way out. We were convinced that guys would see how good the creek/ river looked, and would be tempted to drop the trolling motor immediately, not knowing that there was miles more of the same great looking stuff if they just keep going. So that is what we did, motoring all the way back and fishing our way out to ensure we were the first ones to each spot. We felt pretty confident since no other boat made the run that morning.  Or so we thought.

As we headed back there, I thought heard another outboard motor in front of us. “Couldn’t be,” Sure enough  there was another Skeeter heading up the creek. “Damn” I thought to myself. We don’t have this to ourselves after all. Well, as it happens the gentleman in that boat lived on the river and was heading back home. We found out when we rounded a turn and saw him up on his dock, tying his boat up for the day. “Way too rough out there for me” he said. Relieved that we were no longer part of a 5 MPH drag race toward the back of the creek, we stopped for a second to chat.

“Smallmouth are feeding like mad right now – just cant get to them with this weather”.  I had a funny feeling that didn't sit so well as  I thought (wound up I was wrong) we were one of the few teams that decided to concentrate on largemouth and if in fact those smallies were biting well, someone would find them. Oh well – we'll stick to our plan. “Not many fish live back here”, he said – another vote of confidence that we were on the right track (NOT!). “Most of the fish in this creek live in the first ½ mile – not much back here”. At this point, Chris was looking at me and I know he was thinking what I was thinking – we made a tactical error by coming back here. I know that is exactly what I was thinking…

Too late. We are back here and we are going to stick to our game plan. This was our first and our best choice and we stuck with it. Not 5 minutes passed before I caught a 3lber on the Beaver. Well at least there's ONE that lives back here. 10 minutes later – another 3lber on the Beaver.  Now we're cooking. – just goes to show you , you cant listen to dock talk.  I was pretty sure that old gentleman was trying to help, and had the best of intentions, but I assure you, there were plenty of fish back there. Ray and Sean came back  there as well and they caught just as many fish – as a matter of fact – the EXACT same amount as we did 13.5 lbs.

All in all, the game plan worked and we wound up winning the event with 26lbs –  beating Ray and Sean by 8 ounces. Great fishery and I had a great partner for two days – I can’t say enough about Chris Loraine. All we did was laugh and catch fish for three days. It was an awesome tournament, with a trip to Bass Pro Shops and  more than a few trips to the local ice cream shop thrown in there.

I will remember this one for a long time.

Tight Lines,

Pat Xiques