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Two Great Weapons for Fishing Success
by Kevin Patton Eleven days after my October trip to Newton Lake, I was back on the hot water lake November 2, ready to have another go at the lunker bass who live there. I had decided after the last trip (see Fall Bass Fishing) that I needed to try some new lures and techniques. Football jigs and deep diving crankbaits catch lots of big bass for some Newton anglers and I wanted to give them a try. The longer I fish, the more I believe that your two best tools in fishing are being open minded and being versatile. It is so easy to get into a rut in fishing. You have a little success and pretty soon you are fishing the same baits in nearly every situation on the same bodies of water. I know that fishing rocky areas at Newton during fall produces, as well as fishing the backs of coves when the shad show up there in big numbers. It's not easy to abandon those tried and true patterns when you know that most of the time you will catch fish.
Day 1 The first day of my return trip was sunny with water temperatures ranging from 68 degrees mid-way up the cold arm to the lower 80's nearly all the way up the hot arm. I ran my usual pattern of fishing rocky areas up the hot arm early in the morning with spinnerbaits, rattle baits, and swim baits. I deserted those areas after boating mostly small bass, along with three 16-17 inch fish. My next stop was the back of a large cove, where shad were congregated in good numbers. Sometimes so many shad crowd into the coves, flicking on the top of the water, that it gives the illusion that it is raining shad. I found some larger bass in the cove and managed to catch two fish 17 to 18 inches long on a Nichols Hologram Rattle Shad and a white/chartreuse Chug Bug topwater.
Fishing went downhill after that, as I unsuccessfully tried to find more concentrations of feeding bass in the backs of coves. I finished the day with 22 fish, but none longer than 17 1/2 inches. Day 2 I again started the day fishing the rocks and soon boated a 17 1/2-inch fish on a Nichols Blue Shad Shattered Glass Hologram spinnerbait. Like the previous day however, I caught mostly smaller fish on the spinnerbait, rattle bait, and a Bagley's silver foil Bassin Shad. Here I was, a day and a half into the trip, and I was in my same old rut. So, I switched gears. Instead of chasing small bass feeding on shallow shad and only catching an occasional nice fish, I decided to try some deeper water with a different bait. I picked up my deep diving crankbait rod with a yellow/blue back (parrot color) Rapala Shad Rap tied on and went to a main lake area where I have caught several keepers during Fall. I not only maintain a "keeper map" for Newton of where I catch 18-inch or longer fish, but I also have separate keeper maps for the Spring and Fall seasons.
After motoring back and forth over an underwater point that extends 30-40 yards into the lake, I threw a marker buoy to show where the water drops from 10-12 feet to more than 20 feet deep. On my third cast to the point, I hooked up with a 19 1/2-inch bass on the crankbait. Needless to say, I was pleased that something new had worked so quickly. Unfortunately my success was short-lived, as I tried in vain to duplicate the presentation on a number of other main lake points. I finished the day with 17 bass, but only two nice fish. Day 3 I gave the rocks another try early on the next day and came away with a couple dozen bass on the Nichols spinnerbait, but nothing larger than 16 1/2 inches. I decided again to change baits, but this time I tried a black/blue football jig with a blue craw trailer. I alternately dragged the jig under schools of shad in the back of a cove and pitched it to downed trees. As with the crankbait the previous day, it only took a few casts before a 16-inch bass came from under a log to take the bait. I continued to work my way out of the cove to deeper water, intending to try some main lake points since yesterday's largest fish was on a point. In a pocket next to a stumpy point a 19-inch bass ran down the jig as I was reeling it in for the next cast.
The fish didn't hit when I was dragging it along the bottom, but instead attacked it when I was reeling it like swimming jig. Here again, something new produces. Since the fish hit right at the boat, what happened next was a real Hollywood minute. First, the fish became unhooked and flopped all around the floor of the boat, slimming up every thing in sight just like the Ghostbusters movie. He got my wallet, camera case, and anything else that he could find. Then he alternately took turns hiding under the pedestal seat and the console, so that I couldn't get a firm grip on him. I was looking around for Moe and Larry to help me because about now I was really feeling like Curly of the Three Stooges. After a couple photos, I released this bass with a bad attitude so that he can annoy the next fisherman who is unfortunate enough to catch him.
I finished the day with 19 bass and again the largest fish came on something new. Day 4 The last day I fished early due to the 3 1/2-hour drive home ahead of me. The rocks once again gave up nine small fish, so I headed to the back of the same cove where some of my better fish were caught. I caught two 16 to 17-inch fish on a pearl swim bait before heading to the main lake to seek bigger fish. The shad were not shallow and near the surface as they were the previous days, despite sunny skies. I stopped at a main lake ridge that has scattered stumps and a sharp dropoff into 25 feet of water. Instead of the deep diver or football jig, I decided to try a blue fleck, 7-inch, Berkley Gulp Turtleback worm and again the switch paid off. The first fish I caught was a 17 1/2-inch bass, the largest of the day. I boated a few more smaller bass and four catfish, which can't seem to leave the Gulp products alone on this lake.
I ended the short fishing day with 16 bass and three fish between 16 and 18 inches. Summary It is not necessarily a coincidence that trying new baits for Fall bass, deep diving crankbaits and football jigs, resulted in the two largest fish of the trip. I think many of us would be amazed at the variety of lures and techniques that prove to be successful on a given day at a given lake. If we listen to other anglers and aren't afraid to change baits, fishing depths, and presentations, it can only help our fishing in the long run. Before I left for home, I ran into two Chicago firemen at the ramp. They often make the four-hour drive to Newton and even purchased a boat with a 25 h.p. motor just for fishing the lake.
These anglers were catching bass up to 19 inches with yet another tactic that I haven't tried much at Newton. They were throwing split-shot rigs on spinning reels with 8- 10 pound line. The finesse rig consisted of a Texas-rigged, smoke-colored ringworm with purple fleck (Arkansas Shiner color) below a split shot about 18 inches up the line. They cast the bait into balls of shad on the surface in coves and on points. Despite the fact that Newton is a trophy bass lake where finesse tactics can result in lost fish, they were willing to try light-tackle tactics when more traditional methods didn't produce as well for them. Once again, these guys reinforced the idea that if we are open minded and versatile, our fishing can only improve. |
