Mighty Oaks Bass Fishing In Action on Seneca Lake

            The ESF Mighty Oaks Bass Fishing Team competed in the first NYBassYouth collegiate tournament of the year recently on Seneca Lake. Two ESF teams participated, with the pairing consisting of Matthew Norvilitis (graduate student) and Xavier Pearsall (junior) taking the win with just over 13lbs and the team of Dominic Begier (senior) and Erich Thompson (junior) finishing in second place.

            Going into the event, both teams predicted the winning pattern would be found with prespawn smallmouth on the main lake. "Seneca is a deep, clear, smallmouth-dominated lake. And it has big ones. Looking ahead to the event, it made sense that they would be pulling into shallower water, 15 feet and shallower, looking to begin spawning," coach Nick Sanderson said. Both teams dedicated considerable practice time to the main-lake, but the fish weren't quite ready. Norvilitis reported a mixed bag in practice, "We found consistent groups of fish on the Eastern shoreline outside of large spawning flats, but the water was too cold and the fish were still too deep." Begier and Pearsall experienced much of the same - groups of fish but all were in negative moods and a stingy bite.

            Each team started their day in the main-lake, hoping to catch some of the many fish seen on their forward facing sonar. However, they didn't stay long. "The lake was only about 43 degrees and there were boats on several of the isolated boulders that were holding groups of fish," Norvilitis said. "So, Xavier and I bailed and fished in the Seneca River for largemouth." Begier and Thompson headed to the river around midday. "We probably would have caught more fish if we bailed earlier, but we gambled and kept trying to force the smallmouth bite longer than we maybe should have in hindsight. If we had caught smallmouth, though, those were larger on average than the largemouth," Begier lamented.

            Numbers of largemouth in flooded creeks proved to be a more productive pattern. Recent rain had flooded warm water inputs in the river, leading to aggressive groups of largemouth bass in the muddy water. Many other teams found this, as well, though, and both teams reported fishing behind other anglers depleted fish in their areas. Pearsall and Norvilitis were able to overcome this by fishing in smaller creeks than other boats were able to get into, thanks to their smaller and aluminum (instead of fiberglass) boat. Pearsall said, somewhat incredulously, "We were fishing creeks where we couldn't even turn the boat around, fishing essentially in people's backyards!" Both teams caught all of their weight on a bladed jig and a jig, both fished on Douglas LRS baitcasting rods. Muddy water necessitated darker colors, with all fish weighed in from ESF being caught on black and blue combinations.

            The Mighty Oaks look to continue their hot start to the season at the next NYBassYouth event on Cayuga Lake on June 15th. If they continue performing well, they will qualify to compete in a National qualifier event in the Fall, the winner of which will qualify for the College Bass National tournament in Spring 2026.