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SEPTEMBER 2017www.rochesterbassmasters.com

HAROLDW I N S

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ONEIDA LAKEA & P MARINA, UNION CICERO, NY

ANGLER OF THE YEAR SERIES - SEPTEMBER 24, 2017

MARK HAROLD BROUGHT IN A MIXED BAG TO EARN THE WIN AT THE ONEIDA LAKE TOURNAMENT WITH 19.22 POUNDS

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Mark Harold brought in a mixed bag limit of (2) largemouth and

(3) smallmouth bass to earn the win at the Raymour & Flanigan Rochester Bassmasters Oneida Lake tournament that took place on September 24, 2017. Mark’s 19.22 lbs. not only gave him the tournament victory, but it inched him past Angler of the Year leader Tom Haley in the year’s final AOY points tourney. This is Mark’s ninth Angler of the Year title and his latest since 2005. Also, his biggest bass (4.60 pounds) tied Stephen Levine for the tournaments biggest bass. Mark said, “After watching and par-ticipating in (by netting his fish) Merritt Diamond’s win in Saturday’s tourna-ment, I was hoping to have a change of fortune on Sunday. Just a small recap of Saturday’s beatdown by Merritt – He caught a smallmouth on his first cast and had his limit and winning weight by about 7:30am. I, in the meantime, had an equal number of blowups during that time period on my topwater bait but zero hookups. Yes, he had his winning weight in the boat at least a half hour before I finally boated my first bass. I went to school on Merritt’s technique too late on Saturday, but prepared myself to employ it, if necessary, on Sunday. On Sunday, Kyle Sweers and I went to the area I had fished on Saturday and the day started in an eerily similar manner. Kyle caught a smallmouth on his second cast, and I had a blowup

and miss on my topwater offering. Kyle will tell you I called him Merritt more times than I should have. Things turned around in my favor after that and I actu-ally started hooking up with the fish. I started both days throwing a bone colored magnum Rebel Pop-R. On Saturday, I had observed that Mer-ritt was throwing a smaller popper and working it in a more subtle manner, so I was prepared to do that, if necessary. My bigger bait worked better on Sunday than Saturday and I boated two small-mouths and two largemouths in less than an hour. The two largemouths came as a pleasant surprise because I hadn’t caught a largemouth there this year, but I have to say that, in the past, this spot had yielded mainly largemouths. The two largemouths were the key to my victory, one weighed 4.60 pounds and tied for lunker, and the other weighed about 4.40 pounds. Things slowed after those four fish were in the live well so I switched to my more subtle smaller profile topwater lure. That lure was a vintage Luhr Jensen chrome PJ Pop that I got new, when it wasn’t vin-tage. I guess when you’re a vintage an-gler many of your lures are vintage, too. I can’t remember ever catching a fish on a PJ Pop and this lure wasn’t even in my boat this year until the Wednesday before the tournament. The first time I threw it was during the tournament Sunday. Anyway, the switch to the PJ Pop paid off as I caught my fifth and sixth bass on it, both over three pounds. I caught a few more good smallmouths after these two, but wasn’t able to cull with any of them.The general location I fished was at least several hundred yards off shore in about 10-12 feet of water in and around weeds. I boated two largemouths and about eight smallmouths, lost and/or missed too many, and had my limit at about 9:00am. My final weight was 19.22 pounds.”

Rodney Brown followed up his third place finish on Saturday with a second place finish on Sunday. Rodney’s five bass limit weighed in at 17.34 lbs. Matt Ferrante brought in a five bass limit weighing 17.16 lbs. to grab third place. Matt said, “I started the day in a spot

where I caught a 4lb smallmouth on Saturday with a swim bait. I heard from some guys in the club that top water bite was good and I saw some activity on the surface where I was Saturday. The spot was a weed bed at 8-10’ with a drop to 15’ all around but was still a pretty big area. At kick off I went straight there about a 5-10 minute ride I had the whole area to myself not another boat in sight all day. I started with a buzz bait had a few blowups pretty quick but didn’t hook any so I switched to a spook and landed a small keeper within a couple cast. I was happy to have one in the live well that early. After that, I had good fish blowup but didn’t hook any so I decided to switch to a popper thinking my lures where to fast and the popper I could use slow. Only having very little experience with all topwater lures, I was only guess-ing it would work. Within a few casts, I landed a good fish just under 3lbs. and then another and then a 4 pounder. In between landing these fish, I would miss just as many that went for my popper. Not sure if I was just missing the hook set or if they just plain missed the bait. I had my limit by 8am, and shortly after that I caught my biggest fish and culled the first fish I caught which was barely

MATT FERRANTE3rd Place - 17.16 lbs.

ROD BROWN2nd Place - 17.34 lbs.

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legal. By 9:30, I had culled the 2 fish that where under 3 pounds with 3+ pound-ers. By 10:30, I caught my last fish on the popper that weighed 2.9 lbs. Although, I threw it back seeing there wasn’t any-thing in my live well under 3.15 lbs. After that, I had a couple blowups but didn’t hook any more before 11am. I put the popper down after having the morn-ing like that, which was very hard to do. I only lost one fish I hooked which I think would have been my biggest, of course. It actually broke the hook of my popper.

A little after 11, I went to another spot I caught fish in practice and on Saturday I didn’t stay long there. There were two other boats there, so I went back to the first spot and spent the rest of the day there fishing the weeds using about 6 different lures never catching another fish at the spot. Catching smallmouth was fun especially on topwater, which made it that much more special. My first year as a boater in the club has helped me learn to fish many different techniques which paid off on Oneida and has made me a much better bass fisherman over the two years I’ve been a part of the club. Catch-ing 17lbs of fish, especially smallmouth, was awesome placing third that day was pretty cool.

4th place went to Tom Haley with 16.72 lbs. Tom said, “After running around the lake too much on Day 1, trying to chase a diminishing topwater bite, I decided to focus on my primary area on day 2. The day started out slow on topwater but my partner, Jake Zaremski, and I managed to each catch a decent fish. We concentrated our efforts in 9-12 feet of water and through a variety of baits. Most consistent were swimbaits and a shakey head senko. Throughout the day, we would get short flurries of activity but overall the bite was slow. Probably caught about a dozen fish over the day. With twenty minutes left to fish, the bite improved in the area we were in. I tossed out a Zara spook and yelled over to Tom Hughes and Rich Calabrese “Wonder if they will bite a spook!” Within 2 twitches there was a big swoosh as a high 3 to 4 pounder crushed my bait. Unfortunately, this fish didn’t do the typical one jump and then dig to the bottom. He decided multiple tail walks were a better option, and he was right. Within 15 seconds he threw the lure. That fish would have really made the angler of the year race closer. I just want to take this opportunity to not only thank my family (Jen, Ethan and Sarah), but want to thank the excel-lent sportsmanship shown by Dennis O’Brien, Jake Zaremski, and Tom Hughes this weekend. From just not second guessing my decisions, offering encouragement, letting me throw first at the blow ups, to sharing water with me all day I couldn’t have asked for more.

TOM HALEY4TH Place - 16.72 lbs.

That’s the Rochester Bassmasters we all know!”

TJ Valle took 5th place with a 5 fish limit of 16.65 lbs.TJ said, “I caught most of the ten fish on the A-rig. I was Matt James’s co angler. I wasn’t able to use my boat due to a technicality, but I had a great time even though I was in someone else’s boat. Matt is a great guy. Some guys should try it and leave their boat home, they might pick up a couple things.”

Rich Calabrese finished in 6th place with 16.86 lbs.

Rich said, “My partner was Tom Hughes. We primarily fished three differ-ent flats in 10-14 feet of water with weed clumps and drop offs nearby. The catch-ing was sporadic but when they fed, it was fast and furious for five minutes then they’d shut down.

I caught my smallies on three baits throughout the day – a swim bait, a spin-nerbait and a crankbait. The swim bait was rigged with a 1/4oz football jig head and 6’6” medium weight (fast tip) spin-ning rod with 8lb test line. I chose the football head so I had the option to swim it, or bounce and drag it on the bottom without snagging it on the bottom. The spinnerbait was 1/2oz, two extra-large gold willowleaf blades and a gold flake skirt. I used a 7’ BPS rod (medium, fast tip) that I bought from Rod Brown (no

TJ VALLE5th Place - 16.65 lbs.

RICH CALABRESE6th Place - 16.63 lbs.

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Place Angler Fish Caught

Fish Weighed Weight Lunker Penalties Total

Weight1 Mark Harold 5 5 19.22 4.60 19.222 Rod Brown 5 5 17.34 17.343 Matt Ferrante 5 5 17.16 4.18 17.164 Tom Haley 5 5 16.72 16.725 TJ Valle 5 5 16.65 3.83 16.656 Rich Callabrese 5 4 16.86 3.74 0.25 16.637 Kyle Sweers 5 5 16.42 4.39 16.428 Dave Livingston 5 4 16.51 0.25 16.269 Jon Skirment 5 5 16.21 16.2110 Nate Kalpin 5 5 15.42 4.05 15.4211 Will Rogers 5 5 15.11 3.92 15.1112 Tom Hughes 5 5 13.94 13.9413 Tyler Muhs 5 5 12.59 12.5914 Matt James 5 5 12.49 12.4915 Tige Noni 5 5 12.42 12.4216 Mike Wall 5 5 11.44 11.4417 Bill Wittman 5 5 10.97 10.9718 Rich Bush 5 5 10.68 10.6819 Jacob Zaremski 3 3 9.78 9.7820 Dylan Mackaravitz 5 5 9.10 9.1021 Todd Keller 5 4 9.32 0.25 9.0722 Fred Ratcliffe 5 5 8.41 8.4123 Drew Damtoft 3 3 8.16 8.1624 Dennis 4 4 8.13 3.12 8.1325 Orlando Roman 4 4 7.75 7.7526 Merritt 4 4 7.04 7.0427 Dom Cerasuolo 3 3 7.00 7.0028 Paul Caldwell 4 4 6.84 6.8429 Steve Levine 2 2 6.80 4.60 6.8030 Fred Blom 5 5 6.79 6.7931 Chris Burns 2 2 5.43 5.4332 Steve Sanca 3 3 5.30 5.3033 Rich Zajac 3 3 4.89 4.8934 Tyler Austin 2 2 4.39 4.3935 Kurt Keller 2 2 3.84 3.8436 Kevin Kinnear 2 2 3.38 3.3837 Raven Otto 2 2 3.24 3.2439 Dalton Talbot 1 1 3.00 3.0040 Terry Gartz 1 1 2.46 2.4641 Bob Manley 0 0 0.00 0.0042 Ray Law 0 0 0.00 0.00

Non-BoatersBoaters

Amatuers

KYLE SWEERS7th Place - 16.42 lbs.

Rod, you can’t have it back) and 17lb test mono. The crankbait was a deep(er) div-ing bait, shad pattern with a blue top and a touch of orange sprayed on the bot-tom near the lip. I used it to tick the top of the weeds in 11-12 feet of water. As the spinnerbait hit the water, I twitched it once (aggressively) to make the blades and skirt flare, let it sink 12 inches and then reeled it in with a quick stop and go retrieve.

We were on a funny pattern: Float-ing crankbaits. One thing I noticed is that the smallies were interested in the crankbait as it settled and floated on the surface. The first time it happened, I had made a cast and I was wiping sweat from my face and was caught completely off guard. In the disbelief and excitement, I overreacted and missed the hookset. The second time it happened, I was wip-ing my hands clean of sun block as the crankbait floated on the surface and a smallie crushed it. This one I landed. It must be a new Oneida pattern, floating crankbaits. Tom was a great partner, we had a great time. I hope we get drawn together again.”

Rounding out the Top Seven was Kyle Sweers with 16.63 lbs.

Kyle said, “Finally, a limit...plus some! On day 2 of Oneida, I brought to the scales a mixed bag weighing 16.42 pounds, anchored by a 4.39lb small-mouth. I had a phenomenal day fishing with “The Legand,” Mark Harold. We made a short run first thing in the morn-ing and pulled up on what was referred Stats continued on page 6

to all day as “the juice”, which wound up producing really good fish for both of us all day, we didn’t leave the area until we headed back for weigh-in. We were fish-

ing in about 10 feet of water all day, with hard bottom (from what I could tell), and scattered grass. Mark may say otherwise, but I think a key component of the area

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was big isolated patches of coon tail. It did not take long for things to start, as I boated my first keeper on my second cast, which was a good small-mouth going about 3 pounds. Mark and I were both fish-ing top water baits, and the action was thick and fast. It seemed like, for a while, one of us would hook up, or at least get a nice blow up every other cast. After a couple of hours, we both had good fish in the wells, but had also last some really nice fish right at the boat, such is fishing... We fished top water baits for as long as the boat chop would allow, which was until about 11 or 12 o’clock, when we transitioned to moving baits, which for me was an A-rig, and would produce the final 3 of my 7 total fish for the day. Believe it or not, I culled for the first time ever. I was able to get rid of 2 smaller fish, which brought me to my final weight. Despite being held to “Merritt standards” all day, it was the best day I think I have ever had on the water. In ad-dition to catching the weight that I did, I learned a ton from Mark, a true class act, and it was a spectacle having a front row seat to watch him execute and catch the huge weight he knew he needed to claim the AOY title. This was the third time this season that I fished with the eventual tournament winner. My day 1 highlight was landing a 13 pound Northern Pike, but not without the help of my boater Jon Skirment. All in all, great weekend, and great way to end a great season, already looking forward to next year. Big thanks to all my boaters this year, and everybody who has helped me along the way. And congratulations to Mark on the AOY title, you’re a true legend!”

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2017 STANDINGS

Dr. Marci Mendola-Pitcher Board Certified Pediatric Dentist 25 South Main Street Pittsford

www.rosenpitcherdental.com 585-586-2222

Place Angler1000

Islands Day 1

1000 Islands

Day 2Conesus

LakeSodus Bay

Day 1Sodus Bay

Day 2Cayuga

LakeOneida

Lake Day 1

Oneida Lake

Day 2TOTAL AOY

Weight

1 Mark Harold 18.72 20.15 8.14 11.88 13.55 14.90 12.51 19.22 119.07 110.932 Tom Haley 13.37 12.91 19.22 16.12 14.12 16.78 13.76 16.72 123.00 110.093 Dave Livingston 8.69 14.17 15.85 12.75 15.31 14.67 14.59 16.62 112.65 103.964 Nate Kalpin 19.17 7.39 14.93 15.74 8.60 6.93 14.49 15.42 102.67 95.745 Jon Skirment 13.07 10.43 0.00 16.99 12.15 12.12 10.70 16.21 91.67 91.676 Tyler Austin 11.13 11.07 10.73 13.58 14.99 14.19 12.92 4.39 93.00 88.617 Matt James 9.05 5.73 11.87 18.89 12.74 10.53 10.45 12.49 91.75 86.028 Rod Brown 0.00 0.00 8.78 13.94 14.80 11.09 15.87 17.34 81.82 81.829 Bill Wittman 7.67 12.84 10.77 16.99 9.68 10.64 9.13 10.97 88.69 81.0210 Jacob Zaremski 5.77 14.27 13.72 9.04 9.62 6.52 14.90 9.78 83.62 77.8511 Kurt Keller 10.32 13.99 17.39 8.90 3.64 19.25 3.54 3.84 80.87 77.3312 Tige Noni 14.03 5.62 0.00 8.66 7.12 15.78 13.14 12.42 76.77 76.7713 Steve Levine 17.45 10.57 9.06 10.17 7.46 13.26 0.00 6.80 74.77 74.7714 Matt Ferrante 9.69 11.66 2.89 7.66 8.42 8.13 8.83 17.16 74.44 71.5515 Paul Caldwell 12.16 5.18 9.13 9.47 14.24 8.89 10.64 6.84 76.55 71.3716 Will Rogers 8.69 0.00 5.19 10.52 8.60 7.51 14.08 15.11 69.70 69.7017 Fred Blom 16.13 9.75 7.05 12.19 10.27 2.82 6.76 6.79 71.76 68.9418 Todd Keller 4.45 12.04 0.00 9.99 0.00 12.86 16.07 9.07 64.48 64.4819 Rich Bush 0.00 0.00 11.32 0.00 11.81 13.08 15.52 10.68 62.41 62.4120 Dom Cerasuolo 4.62 10.89 2.87 9.82 13.59 7.08 8.81 7.00 64.68 61.8121 Kevin Kinnear 11.84 0.00 7.88 10.99 6.32 3.67 10.72 3.38 54.80 54.8022 Fred Ratcliffe 8.91 1.77 2.85 10.48 7.86 11.11 5.14 8.41 56.53 54.7623 Terry Gartz 11.67 9.01 3.04 10.50 4.34 3.72 10.36 2.46 55.10 52.6424 Bob Manley 11.52 12.76 0.00 9.43 11.09 4.43 2.64 0.00 51.87 51.8725 Dylan Mackaravitz 9.81 1.19 4.84 5.21 10.45 1.09 11.01 9.10 52.70 51.6126 Chris Burns 10.71 6.72 4.41 7.92 10.10 1.82 5.34 5.43 52.45 50.6327 Drew Damtoft 8.29 3.90 1.48 4.45 13.02 6.76 5.80 8.16 51.86 50.3828 Rich Zajac 0.00 0.00 3.81 9.01 11.69 4.80 12.15 4.89 46.35 46.3529 Merritt Diamond 8.35 0.00 3.91 5.04 0.00 3.24 16.19 7.04 43.77 43.7730 Devon Talbot 0.00 0.00 10.84 4.62 5.68 15.46 2.88 3.04 42.52 42.5231 Kyle Sweers 12.59 7.89 0.00 0.00 1.21 1.27 2.55 16.42 41.93 41.9332 Sean Brown 5.78 8.88 4.48 0.00 11.77 10.40 0.00 0.00 41.31 41.3133 Dalton Talbot 0.00 0.00 8.10 4.62 10.54 4.38 3.26 3.00 33.90 33.9034 Mike Wall 0.00 0.00 0.00 6.67 0.00 4.37 8.89 11.44 31.37 31.3735 Tom Hughes 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 15.28 13.94 29.22 29.2236 Orlando Roman 0.00 0.00 2.72 0.00 0.00 11.15 4.35 7.75 25.97 25.9737 Dennis O’Brien 0.00 0.00 8.05 0.00 6.66 0.00 0.00 8.13 22.84 22.8438 Aidan Blake 6.53 10.22 5.34 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 22.09 22.0939 Rich Callabrese 0.00 10.84 0.00 9.96 0.00 0.00 1.95 16.63 20.80 20.8040 Jim Bianchi 0.00 0.00 0.00 17.46 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 17.46 17.4641 Tyler Muhs 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.12 2.33 12.59 16.04 16.0442 Lock Holmes 6.14 7.76 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 13.90 13.9043 Ray Law 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3.85 5.04 3.17 0.00 12.06 12.0644 Bob McEneaney 0.00 0.00 10.68 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 10.68 10.6845 James Dorak 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 9.21 0.00 0.00 9.21 9.2146 Justin Keller 0.00 0.00 0.00 4.08 0.00 0.00 4.86 0.00 8.94 8.9447 Don Georlich 0.00 0.00 6.43 0.00 0.00 1.70 0.00 0.00 8.13 8.1348 Raven Otto 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 4.56 3.24 7.80 7.8049 Dan Palazzo 0.00 0.00 0.00 3.14 3.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 6.75 6.7550 Ray Sacheli 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 6.42 0.00 0.00 6.42 6.4251 Forte Dalton 5.79 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 5.79 5.7952 John Norton 0.00 0.00 5.32 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 5.32 5.3253 Gary Haun 0.00 0.00 2.42 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2.42 2.4254 Harvey Rhody 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

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