09/13/2009 - FIRST PLACE: Chad Griffin: 15-03, 18-08, 16-05, 15-10, 20 bass for 65-10 winning total.

Primary pattern: Chad flipped grass clumps with a 1-1/2-ounce jig to catch a mixture of smallmouths and quality largemouths in the first couple of days and then switched to a topwater chugger to catch quality schooling smallmouths the last day.

SECOND PLACE: Jeff Kriet: 13-12, 15-9, 15-15, 18-02, 20 bass for 63-06 total

Primary Pattern: Counting down a green pumpkin tube on a jighead into schooling smallmouth.

RICK’S ANALYSIS: When I look back on Oneida two things come to mind: One, it always seems to take largemouths to win on that lake, and two, sometimes trying to be versatile can come back and bite you in the butt.

As for the first thought, the local ideology on Oneida is that it takes smallmouths to win multiple-day events there, yet every time we go there, the quality largemouths end up going the distance to the winner’s circle. Biffle has won there with largemouths; Rojas has won there with largemouths; and now Griffin also used largemouths to win.

On the second thought, while driving to Oneida one of the intentions I had was to throw a topwater popper in practice. I love fishing a topwater Rico, it’s one of my favorite ways to catch fish. But when I got there, I got sidetracked trying some other techniques and never even tied a Rico on. As it turns out, Griffin caught some of his better quality fish on a topwater popper. When that happens in tournament fishing it’s kind of a kick in the teeth. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: “One of the greatest disappointments in life is when another man shows you your own truth.” And that’s about how I felt after Oneida.