Syracuse.com - Oneida Lake ranked 9th in top bass fishing waters in North America, says fishing website

[HuntingNY-News]

Oneida Lake has a character all its own - along with some of the best bass fishing in the Northeast.

LOS ANGELES, CA. - Oneida Lake ranks as the 9th best bass fishing waterway in North America, according to Fishhound.com.

Staff from the California-based, fish-oriented website conferred recently with expert bass anglers, tournament organizations, veteran outdoor writers and other top fishing authorities to compile a list of the top 100 bass waters..

Oneida Lake is one of two areas in New York State that made the top 10 on Fishhound.com's list. The Lake Erie/Upper Niagara River (New York/Ontario) region was ranked 5th overall.

The top-ranked waterway, according to the website is Lake Guntersville, Ala., where the Bassmaster Classic was recently held.

Concerning Oneida Lake, the website noted:

"Located just east of Lake Ontario and New York's Finger Lakes region, Oneida Lake has a character all its own - along with some of the best bass fishing in the Northeast. The lake boasts excellent populations of both largemouth and smallmouth bass, as well as abundant panfish, northern pike, walleye and tiger muskie.

"The arrival of zebra mussels in the 1990s enchanced lake clarity and accelerated the growth of aquatic vegetation to depths of 20 feet in some areas. It has also altered the balance of the forage bass, now strong in shad, perch and crayfish.

"Roaming schools of smallmouth often herd baitfish in open water where swimbaits, topwaters and a variety of soft plastics help anglers cash in on Oneida bounty. Oneida has become a favorite northern stop for the pro circuits." Read more.

Randy Howell, winner of this year's Bassmaster Classic at Lake Guntersville, ranked Oneida second in his list of his favorite waterwaters to fish. He ranked Lake Guntersville, which he lives near, as first.

Oneida Lake has also caught the eye of Bassmaster Magazine, which in 2012 ranked the lake as the 14th best bass fishing lake in the country. In 2013, however, Oneida dropped to 38th in the magazine's top 100 list.

The lake's plentiful gizzard shad population made it more difficult to catch bass in Oneida that year, a magazine spokesman said.

Fishhound.com, according to the website, gives frequently updated fishing reports on 2,800 waterways across the country.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog