Ontario’s Johnston wins Costa FLW Series Northern Division finale on Oneida Lake
Category: press release
Aug 22nd, 2016 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Aug 22nd, 2016 at 12:00 AM
Cory Johnston of Cavan, Ontario, Canada, weighed a five-bass limit totaling 14 pounds, 1 ounce, Saturday to win the Costa FLW Series Northern Division finale on Oneida Lake presented by Ranger Boats with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 50 pounds, 4 ounces. For his win, Johnston took home $77,778, including a new Ranger Z518 with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard.
“I spent the first two days of the tournament running shallow rock piles,” said Johnston, who was also crowned the 2016 Strike King Angler of the Year in the Costa FLW Series Northern Division. “I started on the east end of the lake and worked my way west, hitting about 20 isolated piles along the way.”
Johnston said he used a bluegill-colored Jackall topwater bait to dissect his piles, but fan-casted a green-pumpkin Strike King Coffee Tube and a 4-inch green-pumpkin Yamamoto Baits Senko when the fish were spooked.
“My day started off kind of slow on Thursday,” said Johnston. “I caught a 3-pounder right off the bat, but had to run around to catch more. Before long, I caught a 4-pound largemouth and then filled out the rest of my limit with some good-sized smallmouth.
“I didn’t have a good fish in the boat until 8 a.m. on Day Two,” continued Johnston. “I caught a key largemouth off of a dock on a Punisher Lures jig, which really helped, and I ended up weighing four smallmouth alongside it.”
On Day Three, Johnston said he switched tactics, opting to fish deeper using an umbrella rig with Electric Shad-colored Keitech Swimbaits.
“The wind picked up and the water was stained so I couldn’t see the rock piles,” said Johnston. “I concentrated on a weed flat, but returned to some piles when I went shallow. I probably hit 15 to 20 different areas throughout the day.”
The Ontario pro went on to say that it was his largemouth catches that were crucial to his success.
“You don’t get a ton of largemouth here on Oneida, but when you do, they’re big ones,” said Johnston.
The top 10 pros on Oneida Lake were:
1st: Cory Johnston, Cavan, Ontario, Canada, 15 bass, 50-4, $77,778
2nd: Casey Smith, Macedon, N.Y., 15 bass, 46-1, $12,724
3rd: Ian Renfrew, Phoenix, N.Y., 14 bass, 44-14, $9,774
4th: Chris Johnston, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, 15 bass, 44-12, $8,145
5th: Lawrence Mazur, East Aurora, N.Y., 14 bass, 44-3, $7,330
6th: Kyle Weisenburger, Ottawa, Ohio, 13 bass, 41-7, $6,516
7th: Ed Casey, Whiteford, Md., 13 bass, 41-5, $5,701
8th: Jim Vitaro, Wooster, Ohio, 13 bass, 38-13, $4,887
9th: Jason Shipton, Muncy, Pa., 11 bass, 35-12, $4,288
10th: Lucas McDaniel, Fishers, Ind., 11 bass, 34-3, $3,258
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.