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Jim Buehler and Brett Wilson Go Wire-to-Wire To Win Close Region 4
TOC
The U.S. Angler’s
Choice Region 4 Tournament of Champions returned to Oneida Lake
near Syracuse, New York for the second consecutive year October
15-17. This event was hosted by Gander Mountain, Comfort Suites
Cicero and the Syracuse Visitor and Convention Bureau.
Last year’s
championship was held a week earlier. A warm spell seemed to turn
the fish off a bit as the big smallmouth need some consistent
cooler temperatures to trigger their fall feeding patterns. Little
did we realize how different the weather would be just a short
year later.
The air temperatures
were chilly all week, occasionally accompanied by wind and rain.
All eyes of the 83 teams competing in this prestigious event were
cautiously watching the weather as a strong front was due to move
into the Syracuse region bringing snow, freezing rain and wind as
the Friday and Saturday tournament days approached.
The late forecast
broadcast Thursday night predicted some form of frozen
precipitation to be in the Oneida Lake area by morning. The
qualifying teams were pleasantly surprised to look out the door of
their Comfort Suites rooms and find dry asphalt. The lousy weather
was surrounding us in all directions but did not materialize on
Friday. In fact, the temperatures reached 50 degrees…one of the
more pleasant days of the week.
We appeared to be the
eye of the storm as Saturday was also clear and dry with snow just
to the east and south of our championship venue. A strong east
wind produced some major rollers on Oneida Lake early on Saturday
but were all but gone by noon. This tournament had dodged a major
bullet.
The scheduled TOC
activities began on Thursday with official registration in The
Lodge within the confines of local tournament sponsor, Gander
Mountain. Eighty Three teams were participating in this
tournament. That’s only four shy of the 2008 Tournament of
Champions. Not too bad considering the downturn in the economy
since last year’s event.
The festivities moved
across the street to the banquet facilities of the brand new
Comfort Suites for dinner and our awards program. Angler’s of the
Year from each division were recognized and honored with plaques.
Additional individual awards were presented as well.
A brief preview of
2010 changes and additions were announced as well as overall
enhancements to Region 4 including the long-awaited arrival of the
Eastern Pro Am Series. The schedule will be announced soon.
The official tournament rules and procedures were discussed and
the boat launch positions were dispersed. The angler’s retired to
their rooms to make final preparations to their boats and gear as
the opening tournament morning was now just hours away.
Oneida Shores County
Park was open and ready for launch to begin at 5:00AM on Friday.
Other than a parking lot mishap, everything went smooth and all
boats were in the water prior to safe light. Pat Donnelly from
Team E Outdoors was on hand this morning and throughout the event
filming for a December airing of the Region 4 Tournament of
Champions on the Time Warner network.
Oneida’s own Mike
McKay performed a glorious rendition of our National Anthem as the
American flag was unfurled and the tournament of Champions was
underway.
All 83 boats were
quickly launched and headed in all directions in primarily in
search of the huge smallmouth bass that are usually so eager to
feed heavily in Autumn on Oneida Lake.
Many teams had
surprisingly disclosed they had discovered a shallow largemouth
bite early in the week. As the cooler temperatures moved in as the
week progressed, however the largemouth seemed to disappear.
All teams checked in on time in their respective flights and
anxiously awaited the opening of the scales at 3:00PM. The
dedicated staff in the Region 4 tournament trailer were well
prepared and ready for the progression of teams to the scales.
Although a few largemouth appeared on Day 1 it was the smallmouth,
of course that stole the show. Everyone was a little surprised to
see that so many limits were presented on opening day.
All of the teams had
their big fished marked will a culling device when they arrived at
the scales in order to speed things along. That’s a great method
we use to ensure that the fish are released quickly into the
water.
As the scales were
closed on the first day of competition it was Jim Buehler and
Brett Wilson, Angler’s of the Year from the Upper Susquehanna Pro
Teams Division who led the field with 18.69 pounds of smallmouth.
Oneida Pro Teams Angler’s of the Year Matt Martin and Mike Cusano
held down the second spot with 17.60 and Potomac Pro Teams’ Aaron
Hastings and Jeremy Birmingham were sitting in third place with
1`7.44 pounds. Rounding out the top five on Day 1 were Upper
Susquehanna’s Michael Cole and Alan Jenks(17.18) and the Potomac
Winter Pro Teams Ed Riley and Justin Riley with 16.63.
Day 2 again began dry
but rain was forecast for the afternoon. As mentioned earlier,
boats electing to venture to the east end of the lake encountered
some large swells form a direct wind out of the east. As this day
progressed the winds subsided and the smallmouth turned on!
Friday’s weigh-in produced only 3 bass over 4 pounds. Saturday was
a different story as team after team reported a fantastic
afternoon smallmouth bite.
Saturday saw 15 bass
over four pounds, not to mention a few teams with multiple
4-pounders in their creels. A Heddon Zara Spook cast to breaking
schools of smallmouth seemed to be the big P.M. producer.
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2nd Place
Team Ed Riley and Justin Riley |
Ed
Riley and Justin Riley took the early lead with the heaviest bag
of the tournament…19.12 pounds to give them a two-day total of
35.75 pounds. They anxiously watched as several teams bearing big
sacks of bass weighed in. Would their weight be enough to win the
grand prize of a Legend Bass Boat/Mercury Outboard combination?
As the fourth and
final flight of teams passed through the weigh-in line the scales
were pronounced officially closed and the calculations began to
determine the 2009 champions.
Finishing in 5th place
and receiving $2725, which includes the 3rd place Angler’s of the
Year award were Matt Martin and Mike Cusano from the Oneida Pro
Teams division. They focused on Oneida’s smallmouth and had a
great tournament despite a minor breakdown on Saturday. Their
overall weight was 32.96 pounds.
Hailing from the
Central New York Pro Teams, last years’ champions Jamie Hartman
and Derek Bigford had another fantastic season-ending tournament
finishing 4th with 33.53 pounds. They were presented plaques and
cash and prizes totaling $3925 which includes the second place AOY
prize package. Nice going!
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3rd Place
Stan Sypeck and Bob Makerewicz with help! |
Third
place was claimed by Stan Sypeck and Bob Makerewicz from the
Oneida Pro Teams division. They amassed a total of 33.97 pounds
over two days and won plaques and $2100 in prize money. Great job!
The Potomac Winter Pro
Teams’ Ed Riley and Justin Riley fell just shy of the victory but
had a great tournament. These traditional largemouth angler’s put
in the required practice time it takes to succeed and were able to
figure these quality Oneida smallmouth out. In addition to their
35.75 pounds they also tied for the Day 2 lunker with Jamie and
Derek, each with a 4.87 pound smallie. Each team received $200 for
their big bass. Ed and Justin received engraved silver trays and
$2900. Way to go, guys!
Winners of the 2009
Region 4 Tournament of Champions were Jim Buehler and Brett Wilson
from the Upper Susquehanna Pro Teams division. They backed up
their first day weight with a solid bag on Saturday that totaled
17.85 pounds. In all, Jim and Brent had 36.54 pounds to lock up
the victory by the narrowest of margins.
While Jim fished
Oneida for the first time this June as a co-angler in another
tournament Brent had never seen the lake before this week. Jim had
picked up on a few things during his earlier visit and he and
Brent made good use of this preparation.
They concentrated on
plastic baits during this tournament. Their primary weapon of
choice was a time-tested favorite…a green pumpkin tube. Jim and
Brent stuck to the basics with a simple presentation and retrieve.
They obviously made all of the right choices as they culled their
way into the victory circle. In addition to the Legend
Boat/Mercury Outboard grand prize, they also were awarded the top
prize as the highest finishing Angler’s of the Year bringing their
total prize winnings to $42,725.
Congratulations to
these gentlemen on their accomplishment.
Ed Klausmeyer and Mike
Godfrey won big bass honors on Friday with a smallmouth weighing
4.28. That was good for $400. Good job!
A total of 691 bass
were caught during this 2-day event and Angler’s Choice is proud
to announce that ALL 691 fish were released alive back into Oneida
Lake. Our angler’s did a remarkable job in caring for their
catches. This is the second year in a row we have had a 100% live
release at our TOC on Oneida Lake!
Thanks to all of the
Region 4 directors and tournament volunteers for their incredible
assistance that allowed this event to run so flawlessly. It’s
great to have so many individuals you can rely on.
The 2010 Region 4 TOC
will be held on the Potomac River October 21-23.
Hope to see you there!
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