Fantasy Fishing: Oneida experience key

I'm sitting in the 56th percentile and yet I write to you prior to each event to spew fantasy wisdom. What I'm trying to say is that you would be better off keeping KVD and Skeet on your team as you have all season while I toil away trying to pick from the fringes of favoritism.

However, if you, like me, need to make a hard charge in the season's final event, then perhaps you can glean some scrap of useful knowledge from the final fantasy preview of the year.

This event, like none other this season, takes place on a lake unique to the schedule each year. Oneida doesn't fish like any other lake the Elite Series visits. To fantasy managers, that should put a premium on past performance. There have been three Elite events on Oneida, two regular season tournaments and one Major, where contestants fished for the first two days before moving on to nearby Lake Onondaga.

One angler has made the top-12 cut at each of those events: Mike Iaconelli. Ike grew up in New Jersey and has dominated on Oneida. That alone should make him the must-have choice among fantasy managers. Add in the fact that his fishing has been absolutely on-fire as of late, and you have a man that will be hard to stop.

Ditto for Dean Rojas, champion of the Oneida event in 2009. Oneida has been won on largemouth every trip north for the Elites and Rojas had them dialed in. After a disappointing finish on the Mississippi River that now has him fighting for Classic contention, Rojas will be rebounding in a big way. He has a legitimate chance of repeating in Syracuse.

Looking for a riskier pick that will net bigger rewards if they come through? If so, don't overlook Peter Thliveros and Russ Lane. Peter T won the Major after the tournament switched over to Onondaga, but he qualified strong on Oneida to get there. He's been solid in Syracuse and considering just how poor his year has gone, Oneida is his last chance for redemption.

Lane on the other hand is really a long shot to make the postseason, sitting in 21st place and would need to dominate the weekend to have any shot at moving up nine places. Since making the cut in 2006, the first year the Elites stopped in Syracuse, Lane has hovered within striking distance of fishing Sunday, but has come up just short. He'll put everything on the line with a chance at September and will either hero or zero. That's just the way it is.

Finally, don't ignore Alton Jones. His confidence is high, even if he spent his time off on an unreasonably good Falcon Lake, and he has nothing to lose from his standpoint. Being third in the TTBAOY race means that he's a virtual lock for the postseason and can only close the deficit on KVD and Skeet. Jones will be a dangerous man on Oneida, where he scored a sixth-place finish in 2008.

KVD Watch:

I don't even know why I bother telling you to put this man on your team. Over 61 percent of you already have him and the rest probably haven't looked at their team since the Classic. Well, I'll let a little secret out of the bag and say that I don't have him on my team. But that's not because I know a secret you don't. Really, I just need to make up so much ground that I can't put him on my team. Those of you that have stuck with the man all year, well, you need to keep him there. The smallies are biting and he should manage to bring in a consistent 14 pounds a day to stay right around the 12-cut.

Think you know more than me? Fine, I would love to hear your thoughts. Humble me anytime on the Fantasy Fishing Message Board.