The Nation’s Best Bass Masters Are Fishing On Oneida Lake This Weekend

The nation's best bass anglers will be hitting Oneida Lake this weekend to try and catch the biggest and baddest bass in Upstate New York.

The Basspro.com Bassmaster Northern Open is taking place from today through July 31st. Each day of competition begins at 6AM in the waters of Oneida Lake. The anglers launch from Oneida Shores Park and will return to the park for weigh-ins at 2PM the first two days and on the third day at 3:15 PM at the Bass Pro Shops location in Auburn, New York.

Why Oneida Lake? Well, officials with Bassmaster say it is the size of the lake that makes it so appealing as a host lake for the tournament. Bassmaster.com says,

Oneida’s size — 21 miles long, 5 miles wide, with 50,894 surface acres — makes it the largest lake located entirely within New York state. Fed by Oneida, Chittenango and Fish creeks, Oneida Lake outflows through its namesake river. The maximum depth is 55 feet, but Oneida averages about 22.

Bass Pro Casey Smith says while there will be plenty of bass to be caught, finding that tournament winner will be a challenge. He tells Bassmater.com,

Generally, the (winning) recipe is a mixed bag. There’s not as many largemouth, and they’re not as easy to target. But there are big ones in there; it’s just a question of can someone put together three days of big ones.

Bassmaster.com echoes the point about the inventory of largemouth compared to smallmouth, but there are enough in the lake to interest those anglers in the field. It should be a great weekend and you can follow all details about the tournament at Bassmater.com.