"There was a lot of pressure on me coming into this tournament," Ashley began. "Before the Lake Erie tournament, I was around 31st in the points but dropped to around 40th after my finish there. I knew I had to at least finish in the top 30s on Oneida to make the Classic."

With a top-10 finish to end the season, Ashley no longer had to worry about the Classic. He secured a spot in his second Bassmaster Classic in as many years.

"It was an amazing week, and I caught more smallmouth here than I have ever caught in my life," Ashley said. "And I was able to catch them the way I like to. It was fun."

Ashley was swimming a jig mostly, around large, shallow rock flats. He tried other techniques in practice, but nothing seemed to be as popular as the jig.

"I tried to see every bit of this lake that I could," Ashley said. "I fished it well enough to finally figure something out. I was eliminating water and fishing all kinds of stuff. I threw a jerkbait and caught a few, but they were small. I also fished a dropshot around grass lines, but nothing seemed to beat the shallow bite."

According to the 24-year-old, the smallmouth would head to the shallow water when the cloud cover rolled in to eat crawfish and chase perch. After a good topwater bite in practice, it tapered off, so he resorted to swimming the jig as fast as he could. Ashley weighed in 13 pounds, 11 ounces on day one, 15 pounds, 2 ounces on day two and followed that up with two 13-pound days for a total four-day weight of 56 pounds, 1 ounce.

This is Ashley's second year fishing the Elite Series, and he is excited to prepare for his second Bassmaster Classic.

"This is big for me," Ashley said. "My goal this year was to make the Classic. I would have liked to do better than I did in some tournaments this year, but honestly I'm just happy to be able to come back and do it all again in 2009."

When comparing this year to his rookie season, Ashley believes it's all about confidence and an open mind.

"The lakes we went to this year didn't really suit my style, but I learned a lot," Ashley concluded. "Hopefully I will be able to use that next year, and it's great to have all this knowledge under my belt. I don't claim to be the best fisherman in the world. I keep an open mind and learn something new every day."

Much like teammate Ashley, the Texas resident was in a similar situation going into the final tournament of the year. With two rough tournaments behind him, Jordon moved from 13th to 32nd in Angler of the Year standings and had to grind it out on Oneida to gain a Classic berth.

"I know I had to have a good tournament here to make the Classic, so I put my head down and went fishing," Jordon said. "I decided to go all-in on the largemouths this week. I did some smallmouth fishing a little bit and found a few places I could catch a quick limit, but they were all really small. I was glad to find some pretty good largemouths to key on."

Jordon was fishing in two feet of water or less, flipping heavy soft plastics and pitching Senkos around docks and shallow grass mats. He was able to catch some smallmouth in practice on the Lucky Craft Sammy and G-Splash when the sun was high in the sky.

"It has to be hot for the fish to come up and sun themselves in the afternoon," Jordon explained. "The fish were up there in the heat of the day on rock piles. They would smoke a topwater and it happened for me every day in practice. But that bite disappeared during the tournament. That was a frustrating thing for me."

Even with the loss of the topwater bite, Jordon was able to weigh in 14 pounds, 11 ounces on Thursday, 14 pounds, 3 ounces on day two and an 8-pound, 7-ounces bag on day three to finish 31st.

"It was a great tournament for me, and I did what I needed to do," Jordon said. "I made the Classic without a problem. I would have liked to have caught them better on Saturday, but I just wasn't able to find any big fish. I did all I could do."

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 knew coming in that I didn't have an opportunity to win Angler of the Year," Reese began. "I was struggling to find some motivation, so I decided to strive for a top 12 at the final tournament of the year."

Reese didn't finish in the top 12 but was able to bring in a total of 37 pounds and finish 32nd. With 11 pounds and 9 ounces on day one, Reese picked up the pace on Friday with a decent bag weighing 14 pounds, 6 ounces.

"It was a fun week, but practice was really tough," Reese said. "The bite got better as the tournament progressed, and Lucky Craft played a big role for me this week. I caught a lot of fish on the Slim Shad D-9 in Ghost Minnow, a good one on the Sammy 100 and a bunch on the Lucky Craft BDS 3 in Chartreuse Shad. I concentrated primarily on smallmouth to make the top 50, and then planned to fish for largemouth."

On day three, Reese pulled off the smallmouth bite and went for broke. He knew he didn't have anything to lose and wanted to enjoy his final tournament of the year.

"I weighed two largemouth and three smallmouths today," Reese explained. "I fished for smallmouth and would catch a limit. Then I'd go look for the largemouth bite. I didn't have it in me to commit to largemouth fishing all day. I should have, but I didn't. I struggled for energy to give 100 percent this week, but I found it somewhere deep down."

Reese came to a stunning realization this week after a conversation with roommate, John Murray. This is the first time since Grand Lake in 2008 that he hasn't been in contention for Angler of the Year.

"I've been fighting for Angler of the Year for almost two straight years," Reese said. "That hit me this week, and it was weird to think of it like that. It was strange not to have that pressure on me this week. I was pretty carefree out on Oneida, and I'm not used to feeling that way. I like the pressure and kind of thrive on that stuff."

Reese is looking forward to some time off, heading back to California and spending time with his family for several months before it all begins again in February 2009.

Lucky Craft's Marty Stone has mixed feelings about Oneida, thinking there may one main thing he regrets from this tournament.

"I went fishing for smallmouth exclusively, and I might look back and regret it," Stone said. "I thought fishing was going to be a lot tougher than it was. I had a pattern to follow and thought I could catch 11 to 13 pounds a day. I thought that would keep me competitive, but I struggled on day one and only caught six fish and weighed in nine pounds."

Stone had a better day two as he weighed in 11 pounds, 7 ounces and caught approximately 18 fish. Fishing with two main baits, a Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 112 and a Picasso spinnerbait, Stone fished outside grass all week. Finishing 71st isn't what has Stone feeling frustrated; missing the opportunity to fish the 2009 Classic is.

"This will be three years in a row that I've missed the Classic," Stone said. "It absolutely kills me. One thing I can say about this year though is that I was actually in contention. The last two years, I missed the Classic and wasn't even in the running. I'm proud of the way I fished the last half of this year and plan to build on it going into 2009."

After pre-fishing a few northern lakes before he heads home, Stone plans to shut the fishing down for a while and work out like he never has before. Feeling weak coming off back-to-back tournaments makes Stone realize his need to get into the best shape of his life for the 2009 season.

"I'm coming out with both barrels smoking next year," Stone promised. "I'm out of shape and not where I need to be right now physically. And when you get physically tired, you're not sharp mentally either. Three years ago, when I made my Angler of the Year run, I was in the best shape of my life. I haven't been in that shape since, and now I'm making the commitment to come out next year stronger than I've ever been."

"This finish on Oneida was definitely not what I was looking for," Swindle said. "I couldn't pull myself out of the corner in this tournament and now I'm knocked out of the Classic. It's very disappointing."

In practice, Swindle flipped grass on Lake Oneida looking for big largemouth but couldn't seem to get anything going. He had one area where he had a few quality bites and another jerkbait area, but that was all he had to rely on.

"I fished for largemouth for five hours on day one and never had a bite," Swindle said. "I went out to fish for smallmouth after that and caught three, 2 1/2-pounders in 10 minutes. I thought that was going to be it for me - what I needed. But I lost the next five bites and there went my entire year. It was like I was under the curse of the bass this year. I couldn't make things go my way when I needed to."

Swindle was flipping grass with a 1-ounce Tru-Tungsten weight with a Zoom Super Craw and throwing a Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 112 in Misty Shad. He weighed in 7 pounds, 2 ounces on day one and 11 pounds, 12 ounces on day two for a two-day total of 19 pounds, finishing his week in 79th.

"I was fishing for both smallmouth and largemouth this week, but I couldn't seem to find the big largemouths," Omori said. "I fished for the smallmouths using the Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 112 [in Ghost Sunfish], and I was flipping shallow for the largemouths. This lake just keeps getting tougher and tougher."

Omori believes the fishing pressure continues making Lake Oneida a tough fishery, and said the fish didn't bite near as well as they did last year. He was only able to weigh-in one fish on Friday weighing 1 pound, 15 ounces.

Although it has been a tough year for Omori, he is thankful for his sponsors and for the support he has received.

"This is the year that was really tough," Omori said. "I don't know what happened really, but I made a lot of mistakes and bad decisions. As for the schedule, I couldn't use many of my strengths this year on the lakes we fished. I really thought I'd have a good tournament here, but I finished 89th. That's just the way my year has gone.

Bass Pro Shops angler, Rick Clunn, wasn't available for comment, but finished his week in 25th with a three-day total of 38 pounds, 5 ounces. After weighing in two solid bags on Thursday and Friday, weighing 15 pounds, 13 ounces and 14 pounds respectively, Clunn ended his day on Saturday with an 8-pound, 8-ounce bag.

The top 36 anglers in Angler of the Year standings receive a Classic berth, and Clunn barely missed it as he sits in 38th after the Oneida tournament. However, he still has a shot if one of the top-36 anglers double-qualifies. Clunn now has to sit back and see what happens.