Oscawana Lake

September 24, 2017

by Gary Menchen

It was a hot September day with the temp well over 90 degrees and lots of boat traffic on this small Putnam County lake. The boys of Watershed Bassmasters had a difficult task to figure out where the bass were and how to catch them. Two weeks earlier the surface water temp was about 60 degrees but by tournament day had risen to 75 confusing the fish terribly.

When the shallow bite is non-existent and even the deep bite is tough is when Greg Menchen is at his best with his ability to fish super slow and meticulously. Such was the case Sunday on Oscawana when Greg boated 5 of his 6 bites to weigh in his 12.76lbs of largemouth bass including a 4.64lb'er. As is often the case, Greg caught most of the fish later in the day after determining the location, depth and the presentation needed. Small jigs & plastics were the key although one fish was caught early on a top water bait. Greg had the only limit in the tournament

Second place went to Bryan Gudd who is always a threat to win any time he gets in his boat. Bryan's four bass weighed 12.16lbs and included a 5.45lb beast of a bass which was the tournament lunker.  Gudd fished “beaver type” plastics on deep weed edges most of the day after he could not get bit on his favorite drop shot baits. A mental lapse in bagging the fish from his live well forgetting one small keeper probably cost him 1st place. Bet that will never happen again!

 David Hadley fished his butt off and was “proud' to bring 3 good fish to the scales. His weight of 7.38lbs earned David a third place check. Hadley, normally a power fisherman, fished finesse worms to dupe his bass.

Joe Raguzin was the top non boater with his 3 fish for 3.38 lbs. Rags fished with Rob Lopez who had 4 fish 6.95lbs. Neither angler had a fish in the boat spending first few hours shallow. Once they moved off to the deeper weed edge, they began to find some action on the drop shot.

With two tournaments remaining, Timmy Thompson has a solid hold on the #1 position as he tries to knock off 3 time defending WBM champ John Ogolik. Next event is Sunday Oct. 8 on Highland Lake in CT, see ya all there.