2009 Elite Series Champion's Choice: Todd Faircloth

Todd Faircloth sits down to organize his rods prior to beginning his first day of practice for the Ramada Champion's Choice.

Oneida Lake is the location of the final event of the 2009 Elite Series regular season.

Faircloth begins his practice on a cool, rainy morning in August.

Clouds built quickly first thing in the morning and opened up into a downpour within hours.

Faircloth re-rigs a bait in the morning of the first practice day for the Ramada Champion's Choice

After catching a few fish here and there throughout the rainstorm, Faircloth hooks up with a good keeper-sized smallmouth bass.

Smallmouth bass like this 2-pounder here are common on Oneida Lake.

Faircloth shows off one of his bigger fish of the morning on his first day of practice.

It didn't take long for the rods to begin piling up in practice as Faircloth searches for the right area and bait to fish.

Faircloth's day was full of a mixed bag of fish like this rock bass here and a plentiful amount of pike.

As Faircloth fishes, a competitor works along a grassline in the same area.

Faircloth moved to another spot, but boats were crowded even on Oneida's large amount of available water.

Faircloth spent a good portion of the morning fishing open water in search of the winning school of fish.

Long casts to cover water were important as Faircloth was locked in search mode all morning.

Northern waters like Oneida Lake support a variety of fish species like this perch that Faircloth caught on his first day of practice.

After hooking up with another fish, Faircloth stops to mark the exact spot on his GPS.

Another smallmouth bass comes swinging into the boat on the end of Faircloth's line.

This one won't quite make the 12-inch minimum length limit on Oneida Lake.

Faircloth made cast after cast, diligently searching for active bass in Syracuse, N.Y.

Part of his time was spent idling around looking at changes in the grass and bottom.

After dropping the reporter off at the dock, Faircloth heads back out for the afternoon of fishing under stormy skies.