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Mixed Bag for Springtime Fishing

I've never met anybody who is indifferent about whether they catch fish when they go fishing. To one extent or another it is always about the fishing. We always want to catch them.

During my April trip to Newton Lake it was about catching some big bass and slab crappie. Rare 80 degree air temperatures and lots of sunshine made one day of bad wind more tolerable. The water temperature at the power plant lake was 76 degrees at the boat ramp, with the “cold” arm being in the low 70's.

The plan was to put my 10-fish, 10-inch limit of crappie into the livewell and spend the rest of each day trying to catch some of those huge bass for which Newton is noted.

My first stop was a tree at the mouth of the largest cove in the cold arm. Immediately a keeper crappie took my 1/16-ounce tinsel jig. I call them tinsel jigs because the skirts look like the tinsel that mom used to place on our Christmas trees. It was sunny so I was using the silver color, but I've had success with gold and red on darker days.

After catching two non-keepers, the action halted entirely so I headed for my second favorite crappie tree located farther up the cold arm.

I fished down to 12 feet in 16 feet of water with only two small fish taking the jig. My depth finder was marking tons of shad in the underwater brush and larger fish in the midst of them.

I had an Aqua-Vu underwater camera with me so I eased it into the water to take a look. Sure enough, crappies were there but they were swimming one foot off the bottom in 15 feet of water.

My next cast I let the jig sink to the bottom and worked it up one foot to the level that I saw fish. I knew they were there, but they didn't care what I knew. I caught a couple more small crappies before the action stopped completely.

You can find good cover, locate some fish on it, and even identify the fish, but you can't always make them bite. I decided that the crappies were not going to cooperate and left the area to fish for largemouths.

My next stop was a main lake point with stumps that usually holds at least a few bass. The wind blowing directly onto the point helped my confidence and so did the first fish, a 17-inch bass that liked my blue fleck worm.

I caught a few more bass and left to work other windy, stumpy main lake points. There were bass on the other points, but also bluegills and catfish. The bluegills kept me jerking my arms out of the sockets while they nibbled at the worm tails. A couple actually got the hook and made the short flight to the boat.

The catfish were also partial to my blue fleck worms. I missed a lot of them also, but did manage to boat six by the end of the day, two of which were livewell size.

When I tired of the bluegills and catfish not being able to leave my worms alone, I switched to a small rattletrap and caught some respectable white bass in addition to small largemouths.

I finished the day fishing several colors of jigs for bass with little success until I snagged a line with a jig attached to it. I tied the watermelon jig with brown twin- tail plastic trailer onto my line. I figured that somebody must have thought this jig catches bass and, sure enough, I caught three bass during the next hour. These bizarre aspects of fishing are why all fishermen are considered liars, but they always put a smile on my face.

At days end, I hadn't caught a ton of fish or any huge ones, but five species of fish made for an interesting and fun day. But this day and the other days of the trip were special in a way that had nothing to do with fish or trying to catch them.

During my many trips to Newton I have been fortunate to see an abundance of wildlife that includes coyotes, wild turkeys, raccoons, beavers, river otters, and countless families of deer. Waterfowl sightings include cormorants, herons, geese, mallard ducks, turkey vultures, and bald eagles.

You never see all the wildlife this area has to offer during one trip, but you always see enough to make you appreciate the beauty of nature and make you realize that even though it is always about the fishing, sometimes it's just about being there.