By John Neporadny Jr.
BASS PRESS RELEASE
Milking one spot for three straight days made a winner of
Wil Hardy II at the Bass Pro Shops Northern Open #1 on Oneida Lake.
New to smallmouth but not fishing, Hardy focused on smallies for the win. (BASS Photo) |
The Harlem, Ga., angler caught his second consecutive
18-pound limit (18 pounds, 4 ounces) of smallmouth bass to win the pro division
and the grand prize of a $45,000 Nitro Z20/Mercury 225 Pro XS rig and
$8,491 in cash. The 26-year-old Hardy finished with a three-day total of 15
bass weighing 53-13 to win his first B.A.S.S. tournament and claim a 2017
Bassmaster Classic berth if he fishes the remaining two Northern Opens.
Hardy said the area he fished had a “whole lot of
everything” including scattered gravel, zebra mussels and cuts of grass.
“I found that spot last year (in the Open) but I never really caught them
that good there,” said Hardy, who caught a quick limit there the first
day. Most of the fish he caught were about 11 to 13 feet deep.
Indianapolis, Ind., pro Jacob Wheeler chased after
smallmouth again and caught a limit weighing 16-6 to take second place with
50-9. “Today was a lot of fun,” Wheeler said. “I went out there and caught a
lot of fish. That is the cool thing about Oneida Lake. It is getting better and
better every single time we come here.”
Wheeler found smallmouth roaming in the holes of grass and
along breaklines where the fish were 10 to 13 feet deep. His main tactics for
catching brown bass were drop-shotting with a green pumpkin finesse worm to
catch a limit and switching to a Carolina-rigged Larew Punch Out craw or Larew
Biffle Bug Junior for kicker fish.
The rest of the top five in the pro division included Jamie
Hartman, Newport, N.Y., third place, 50-6; Kurt Dove, Del Rio, Texas, fourth,
50-4; and Larry Mazur, East Aurora, N.Y., 48-11.
The co-angler top prize of a $30,000 Triton 179 TRX/Mercury
115ELPT Four Stroke package went to Joel Willert who finished in first with
29-9. The 32-year-old Burnsville, Minn., angler caught all of his fish
throughout the tournament on a Ned Rig and drop-shotting a soft plastic goby
bait.
The Phoenix Boats Big Bass Award of $750 on the
pro side went to Mike Shumanis, Bethlehem, Pa., with a 5-4 largemouth. Jeremy
Jones, Big Rapids, Mich., weighed in a 5-pound bass to earn the
$250 Phoenix Boats Big Bass Award on the co-angler side.
Hardy also received the Livingston Lures Leader Award of
$250 for finishing as the top pro on Day 2. Darryl Halbert, Enoree,
S.C., won the Livingston Lures gift pack worth $250 for finishing
as the top co-angler on Day 2.
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