A Georgia angler who targeted smallmouth bass only won the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Northern Open on Oneida Lake today

Wil Hardy II, 26, a fishing tackle company co-owner from Harlem, Ga. won the three-day competition, besting 195 other anglers in the pro division with a total weight of 53 pounds, 13 ounces.

The tournament, based at Oneida Shores County Park in Brewerton, started Thursday morning. The final day of competition was today and the awards ceremony was held at 3 p.m. in the parking lot at the Bass Pro Shops store in Utica.

Leading after Friday, Hardy said the only time he ever fishes for smallmouth is during the Bassmaster Northern Opens. His plan of targeting smallmouth only worked well. He turned in the biggest five-fish bag  (18 pounds, 4 ounces) of the 12 anglers who qualified for today’s final.

Both largemouth and smallmouth bass are plentiful in Oneida Lake, and often the largemouths are targeted because they tend to run bigger. Not in this competition.

Jacob Wheeler of Indianapolis, Ind., finished second with a three-day total weight of 50 pounds, 9 ounces. He also targeted smallmouth only.

“These smallmouth tend to roam on Oneida a lot,” Wheeler said during Friday’s weigh-in. “They roam around the grass. They roam on the flats. It’s not like Lake Erie smallmouth fishing, where you pull up to a rock pile and (know) the fish are going to be on that rock pile.”

Rounding out the final Top 5 in the pro division were Jamie Hartman, of Newport, N.Y., third place, 50 pounds, 6 ounces; Kurt Dove, of Del Rio, Texas, fourth, 50 pounds, 4 ounces; and Larry Mazur, of East Aurora, N.Y., fifth, 48 pounds, 11 ounces. See complete results for the pro and co-angler divisions on bassmaster.com.