The Erie Canal is on both ends of Oneida Lake. Back in the day, when they were digging the canal, they'd dump the soil into Oneida. So there are sections of the lake labeled "dumping grounds" on the map.
We've pulled up on Ott DeFoe who is fishing a shallow area between two islands. He just pulled in a nice two pound smallie. He now has three in the Livewell. We're estimating he has between 7 and 8 pounds total.
The 2013 Bassmaster Classic on Oklahoma’s Grand Lake is only 65 miles from Tommy Biffle’s home but he enters the Ramada Championship on Oneida Lake on the fragile bubble of a Classic berth.
AOY leader Brent Chapman is already one-third of the way home in his quest for the title. He's already got a five-bass limit weighing 12 pounds, 12 ounces, according to BASSTrakk, which puts him in the lead at present. Again, remember, we have BASSTrakk in only 50 boats, but Chapman is essentially competing within himself in this tournament. No matter what anybody else does, if Chapman makes the top 12 cut to Sunday, he wins.
With so much on the line at the Ramada Championship, we'll be using BASSTrakk all four days to follow the Top 50 anglers in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year race.
After stopping on Kelly Jordon and Jeremy Starks for a few minutes we are off to find DeFoe. We are hoping he's had a better morning. We like to see a closely contested race. Oversteet and Mercer are texting that Chapman is wailing on them. He has to feel good about that. In a few minutes we will see if DeFoe is starting to keep it interesting.
Jeremy Starks and Kelly Jordon are fishing right next to each other and helping each other out.
We've pulled up on Kelly Jordon, Jeremy Starks and Boyd Duckett on Day One at Oneida Lake.