“I was using my GPS to locate all the humps I wanted to fish on,” Omori explained. “I was fishing about 10 miles away from the boat ramp and fishing a dropshot the whole week.”

Omori was dropshotting with Gulp products and his Team Daiwa baitcaster. With 18 pounds, 15 ounces on day one and 19 pounds, 12 ounces on day two, things were looking up for Omori. However, a rough day three ended his week early and his shots at a Classic berth.

“I don’t know what happened today,” Omori said. “I lost two fish, and I couldn’t get any good bites. This tournament killed me. It was my last chance to make the Classic, so now I head to Oneida to just go fishing. I’m very disappointed. If I could have made the top 12 here, I had a chance to secure a Classic berth at Oneida, but everything went wrong today [Saturday]. It was just one of those days.”

“I spent a lot of my practice running around looking for big schools, and I probably screwed up there,” Swindle said. “I don’t think they’re catching them in big groups. I think the fish are more scattered. Last year, you could drop anything down to the fish and they’d bite instantly. This year, the fish were a little less aggressive.”

Swindle admits he didn’t fish where the tournament was going to be won, as he stayed close to the ramp and didn’t make the run to Dunkirk. After trying several baits in practice, Swindle decided his technique would be to dropshot for the entire tournament.

“I was dropshotting a Zoom finesse worm in green pumpkin and a Gulp minnow,” Swindle said. “I swapped back and forth between the two, but it seemed like the minnow was key. I was using 6-pound line with a Picasso weight, which made all the difference this week because of it’s rattling sound. I ran out of those weights, which was a big deal for me.”

Most of Swindle’s fish came in 24 to 32 feet of water as he tried to fish rough bottom locations. If he could find rocks on his depth finder, he’d drop his bait in the area. Even if there was only a single fish on the electronics, once the bait dropped, he’d usually see two or three more swim up to it.

Swindle, like Omori, needed a solid finish to make the Classic, so with 47 pounds, 7 ounces and a 42nd-place finish on the Niagara River, he isn’t sure if he’ll gain a Classic berth. He’ll have to fish a phenomenal tournament on Lake Oneida, which isn’t out of the question for the Alabama resident.

“I’m going to fish different on Oneida this year,” Swindle concluded. “The last two years, I’ve jerked and haven’t made a check. I’m going to pick up a flipping stick this year. I have to find a way to catch a big sack. There’s no other option. I’m going to flip grass from daylight to dark.”

Lucky Craft’s Skeet Reese just missed the cut to 50, finishing 59th with a two-day total of 28 pounds, 9 ounces. Reese admits he wasn’t around the right fish to get it done this week.

“I’m still scratching my head wondering what I did wrong, but I just couldn’t find those quality fish,” Reese said. “I can think of one major thing I did wrong. I purposefully avoided the two most popular fishing areas, one at the mouth of the Niagara River and the other in Dunkirk. I was trying to find fish that didn’t have as much fishing pressure, but I see that was a bad decision on my part.”

Reese was dropshotting, like most other anglers, and was fishing in between Sturgeon Point and Dunkirk. He had a big area of about 15 miles of shoreline with no other boats around. Reese was using a spinning rod with 8-pound fluorocarbon. All his fish came on Berkley Gulp.

“I did a lot of graphing, and my Lowrance was my best friend this week,” Reese continued. “I’ve stared at my screen so many hours this week looking for subtle breaks and fish. As soon as I’d find an area with fish positioned on breaks, I’d drop my line in. Sometimes I’d be in 20 feet of water and other times I’d catch them in 40 feet.”

After bringing in an 11-pound, 10-ounce bag on day one and 16 pounds, 15 ounces on day two, Reese knew he wasn’t going to make the cut or have a chance at back-to-back Angler of the Year (AOY) titles. With a few missed opportunities, Reese is disappointed, but pleased to be sitting in the top five.

“I haven’t executed as well as I could have this year, so I should be thankful to be sitting where I am in the points,” Reese said. “I couldn’t get it done again this year. At least I was able to put myself in contention and win last year. I wanted to do it back-to-back, no doubt, because it hasn’t been done too many times. Now I’m hoping for a top five … and then I can try for the AOY win again next year.”

Lucky Craft pro Casey Ashley wasn’t looking forward to coming to Buffalo, and his sentiments haven’t changed after fishing the northern waters. Finishing 80th with a total two-day weight of 24 pounds, 12 ounces, Ashley is still not a fan of Lake Erie or the Niagara River.

“The first day of practice was really windy,” Ashley began. “It probably wasn’t as bad as it was yesterday [Friday]. With the 8- to 10-foot seas, I didn’t stay out there long. I’m not beating myself to death.”

Ashley brought in 9 pounds, 15 ounces on day one and was hoping for better weather on day two.

“I had a good day to fish on day two, but I just never found anything new,” Ashley continued. “The places I found last year were still available, but that’s all I had to go on.”

Ashley threw a dropshot and a tube using gobys and leeches on 8-pound line and a spinning rod. He didn’t make long runs and fished open water around shell bottoms.

“I probably caught 75 fish yesterday [Thursday] and only had close to 10 pounds,” Ashley said. “I just never got the right bites. Give me a place where I can jerk or twitch or something … I’m tired of this.”

Ashley moves on to the final tournament of the year on Lake Oneida, a place he has never been. He’s heard guys talk about catching fish with a variety of techniques.

“I’m probably going to target largemouth,” Ashley added. “I might try to catch a limit of smallmouth if I can find some and catch them pretty quickly. I do think jerkbaits are going to play a big role, and I might even try to flip the grass with a beaver a little bit.”

“I found some nice fish,” Jordon said. “Not a whole lot of them, but I thought I could catch a pretty good bag. I left a little early from my areas. I should have just camped out and gone for five good ones on the spots I had confidence in instead of moving. Yesterday, the first five fish in my boat weighed 18 and a half pounds, but I only had two of them. My co-angler, Alton Jones Jr. had the other three.”

Jordon weighed in 11 pounds, 9 ounces on day one and 12 pounds, 4 ounces on day two. He made long runs and came back to the areas he thought he could catch a lot of fish. He caught fish, but they were all too small. He couldn’t get those quality bites he needed.

The Texas resident was dropshotting with a baitcaster and a Revo reel on 8- to 10-pound fluorocarbon. He was using a 7-foot, medium action rod.

Jordon believes Lake Oneida will be a more diverse fishery than the waters for the Empire Chase.

“There will be a lot of different ways to catch them, and largemouth are big players on that lake,” Jordon concluded. “I’ve done well there, and I think I missed the top 12 there last year by an ounce or so. I’m looking forward to going to Oneida. It’s a more refreshing place to fish, and you don’t have to deal with the weather near as much.”

Bass Pro Shops angler Rick Clunn was disappointed after his tournament in New York. He thought he could catch 17 pounds a day, but after a tough start to the tournament, he finished his week in 61st with a two-day total of 27 pounds, 13 ounces.

“My fish were biting from about Noon on and yesterday [Thursday] I lost a coil on my engine around 1 p.m.,” Clunn said. “I had to idle all the way from Canada in the rough water. I got back to the dock around 3 p.m., and got a new boat, but I couldn’t go back to my spot. I didn’t have enough time. I had two small fish yesterday and never could get rid of them.”

Clunn was able to have a more successful day two, as he fished all day with a spinnerbait in 2 to 6 feet of water.

“I’m just not good at landing smallmouth,” Clunn admitted. “I should have had 17 pounds, but I jumped off two. I was fishing rocky points on a 7-foot, heavy action rod with 20-pound monofilament and a 6.3 gear ratio reel.”

Clunn said he wasn’t going to think much about Oneida until he had some rest, but did mention he would have to make a top 10 to have a chance to fish the Classic.

“If I could have made a top 30 in these last two events, I could have made the Classic,” Clunn said. “But this tournament finish doesn’t leave me much room for error. I have to pull out a great finish in Syracuse to have a shot. I have my work cut out for me.”