Fishing Report: Oneida Lake 5/30

Oneida Lake report for 5/30



I fished Oneida last Thursday with my good friend Bridget Allen (some of you know her). We got on the water around 10 am, and spent a lot of time really just looking at different areas and their bottom compositions and didn't really spend much time fishing until around 1:30. For two hours we did fish (1:30-3:30) and for the conditions (hot, bluebird skies, no real wind to speak of) we actually did very well. Here are some pics from that day. We caught our fish between 7-10 feet of water, flipping grass. I think she caught one smallie in like 2 feet of water. I can't recall exactly how many fish we caught, but we both had limits and I think I might have caught a couple more fish than she did.

None of our fish were on beds. And they didn't want anything aggressive.

We were using almost two completely different setups. I can't tell you exactly what her's was, but I can tell you she was using Fluoro, texas rigged senko, no weight. I was using 65# braid, and two baits 1) 1/2oz sinker, texas rigged bass pro shops magnum flipping tube on a Trokar hook, 2) blue and black Bass Attacker 1/2oz football jig with a blue and black craw trailer, Quantum Smoke 151HPT reel, Dobyns Champion 766FLIP Heavy Flipping fast action casting rod.


It was probably the best two hours I've ever had on that lake. I know there a lot of people who are on the fence about Trokar hooks. I started out the day using a Gamakatsu wide-gap hook, and after I lost my fourth or fifth fish I decided it was because the weeds we were fishing were surprisingly thick for this time of year, and I just didn't feel like that hook was penetrating deep enough for me. I cut it off, put on the Trokar, and I maybe lost one other fish the rest of the day. My theory on the Trokar, is that under normal circumstances you can't try to cross their eyes when you set the hook. But when I was fishing these deep weed beds, I really felt more comfortable with the Trokar's ability to penetrate through the tube (just the very tip of the hook was exposed to reduce snagging) through the weeds, through the mouth. I think if you try it, you'll see it actually works very well and you don't have to gently set the hook.