Cory Johnston Wins FLW Costa Series Oneida Lake
Johnston spent a full week at Oneida prior to the tournament and he came in expecting to have to find ways to catch both smallmouth and largemouth. "I was expecting it to be predominantly smallmouth, but I definitely planned on looking for largemouth because if you can catch largemouth there, I knew they'd be good, but you're not going to catch a ton of them," he said. It didn't take him long to pick up his first clue for the smallmouth. "On the first day within the first 10 minutes, I found the pattern right away," he said. "I focused on isolated rock piles predominantly. It was flat calm and the water was clear and I was able to put the trolling motor on 100 and cover water. I could see the fish so that's what I went with." Sight-fishing in August? "We do it at home all the time," Johnston noted. "Any time you're on a northern, clear lake, there are always some fish shallow." When his brother, Chris, arrived a couple days later, they divided the lake and tried to duplicate the pattern elsewhere. He tried to augment his shallow rock pile plan with deeper options, but nothing compared to what he'd found in 10 feet of water or less. "Basically, there's a ton of grass there and the fish were around the bare areas on the bottom where the rock is more dense and weeds were not able to grow," he said.
Competition:
The first two days went as well as Johnston could've hoped. The weather was stable and the winds were negligible and that allowed him to pick apart the shallow areas that others were overlooking, he said. "It worked all over the lake and it was nice because guys weren't keying on it," he added. "They'd fish through an area, but weren't dialed in on the sweet spots where fish were sitting." His first fish Thursday was a 3-pounder caught on a topwater popper. "That got the ball rolling," he said. "I knew exactly what was happening. The water was clean at that point and it was a matter of time before the sun came up and I could see the fish and start picking them off." He caught half of his weigh-in fish during the event on a 3 1/2-inch tube that he'd cast to targeted bare spots. He also mixed in a dropshot and caught a key largemouth on each of the first two days with a wacky-rigged 4-inch soft stickbait around docks. His 17-06 day-1 stringer had him tied for 2nd, one ounce off the leader's pace. He tacked on 18-13 on day 2 to move into the lead with 36-03. He averaged 10 to 12 bites a day both Thursday and Friday, but backed off some key areas on day 2 once he had a solid limit.
"I fished all the same stuff (on day 2)," he said. "I started on the east end every day and worked way back. I had about 40 spots I'd hit, but I tried to save as much as I could to prolong it." The final day was more of a challenge with the wind coming up. It forced him to target deeper water and where the wind hadn't dirtied the water. "That threw a fork into the game plan," he said. "I fished more in the moment than what I'd found in practice. I couldn't see the fish because the water was dirtier. There were three-footers rolling into my areas." He relied mainly on dragging tubes Saturday, but also mixed in an umbrella rig that netted him a few 2-pounders. He totaled 14-01, which he didn't would be enough to clinch the win. The 14-01 was the best effort on the final day and it resulted in a 4-pound victory. "I was a little bit surprised (I'd won)," he said. "I didn't think I'd win after the day I had Saturday. I knew I was on the right fish. I just had to get a little lucky."
Winning Pattern:
Because of the amount of vegetation surrounding the hard spots he was targeting, Johnston said it was imperative that he land his bait right on the sweet spot to trigger bites. "You had to land it in the target," he said. "They were all surrounded by grass and snot on the bottom. The fish were very spooky, but in certain areas it wasn't as bad because there was so much grass. You could get on top of them more."
Winning Pattern:
Tube gear: 7'5" medium-action G. Loomis E6X spinning rod, Shimano Sustain 2500 FG spinning reel, 8-pound PowerPro braided line, unnamed 8-pound fluorocarbon line (leader), 3/8-oz. homemade tube jig, 3.5" Strike King Coffee Tube (green-pumpkin).
Topwater gear: 7' medium-heavy Shimano Crucial crankbait rod, Shimano Metanium casting reel, 20-pound PowerPro braided line, Jackall Binksy (HL Chart Strike Gill). When he threw a dropshot, he fished a Jackall Cross Tail Shad.
Main factor: "Definitely the time (I spent) on the water and being able to dial in what was going on and finding something that guys weren't keying in on."
Performance edge: "The header on my Garmin electronics was really key. There are lines set at 50 and 100 feet away from your waypoint and you can tell how far you are from it. That allowed me to make pinpoint casts and I was not wasting time trying to find it."
