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Welcome to Chillsville

by Kevin Patton

Black/yellow Senkos caught four nice bass on day three, including one keeper and this 17 1/2-inch fish.

The severe storm front that passed through the area yesterday prompted us to start fishing in the hot arm on day three.

Fishing pros advise anglers to find warmer water, murkier water, or deeper water after cold fronts and the hot arm had dingier and warmer water.

The water temperature at the ramp had dropped five degrees overnight to 74. The wind had shifted to the northwest at 15 mph and was increasing. It was only 38 degrees on this dark, cloudy morning. Things had changed, to say the least.

We started fishing in a sheltered pocket on the west side of the hot arm, located in the second cove north of the boat ramp. I pitched a jig/trailer at wood cover and Tony chose a slow-falling, Senko-type bait, targeting wood and weed cover.

It wasn't long before the fish told us that today would be a weed thing, not a day to pitch to wood cover. Tony connected on several small fish and missed several others in the weeds on a black/blue Senko, so I soon put the jig down in favor of a green/white version.

There is a tough, gnarly shoreline vegetation called Water Willow that grows two to three feet deep in many areas of Newton Lake and that was where many fish were located.

Many anglers were fishing sheltered coves and catching bass. Brent Jacober of Highland caught this 19 1/2-inch fish on a green pumpkin Senko.

Bass were responding to a slow, vertical presentation, biting on the initial fall of the bait rather than a horizontal retrieve.

We had to work close to the weeds in many of the narrow pockets, so we moved slowly and tried to pitch the baits at a low angle for a softer entry into the water rather than cast them.

We moved up and down the west side of the hot arm, fishing pockets on the north side of coves, where water temperatures ranged from 74 to 78 degrees.

There are four major coves on the west side of the lake so we had plenty of water to fish as the winds increased to 25 mph.

Some fish were caught in the thick of the weeds, while others were on the outside of the weedline in five to six feet of water.

Black/blue Senkos caught most of the fish, but our only keeper came on black/yellow. The green/white tempted a couple 16 1/2-inch bass and one bit the salt/pepper Chompers grub that Tony had used to catch the keeper on day one.

At days end we had caught 21 bass, one keeper, and six fish that measured at least 17 inches. We felt fortunate to improve on the first two days of fishing and tomorrow we would try to finish the trip with a flurry.

Last spring we had our best day of the trip prior to a cold front and during its passage. This year, the day after a front was the most successful, but that's just fishing.

A variety of Senko and Fluke-type baits caught bass during this trip, including black/yellow, green/white, and black/blue.

Day 4- More Adjustments

The temperature dove to a depressing 27 degrees during the night and it was only 35 degrees when we launched the boat. Water temperature at the ramp had dropped another six degrees overnight to 68 and the wind was howling 15 to 25 mph from the northwest, making for another lovely, spring day in Illinois.

The only bright spot was that the sun did occasionally peek out during much of the morning, thus making the dummy running the boat a tad warmer. This was a blessing since he had left his snowsuit at home.

We started fishing the same pattern in the same areas as yesterday, but overnight the bluegill population in Newton decided that we were catching entirely too many bass. They attacked our Senkos unmercifully, as if they were gobs of wax worms.

We found that one other thing changed overnight. All of the pockets that we had fished yesterday were now muddied up to the point that water clarity was six inches at most.

A huge mud line had been moving down the lake since the heavy rain two days prior and it was now nearly to the south end of the lake.

We caught one 18-inch keeper each day, including this one during the final morning on a black/yellow Senko.

We fished our pattern from yesterday and tried some spinnerbaits in what was now a mud hole, but the bass weren't buying any of it.

The dingy water wasn't created by runoff from creeks in the backs of coves, but rather by the current created by power generation, which originated from the silted-in area near the power plant at the north end of the lake.

Having seen this water change occur many times at Newton, we guessed correctly that we might find some clearer water in the backs of coves, farther away from the oncoming mud line.

Mud had entirely covered the third and fourth coves north of the ramp, but there was still some clearer water in the back of the second cove and even more in the back of the first cove north of the ramp.

It was in the the first cove that we finished the trip by catching three small bass, two that measured 16 inches, and one 18-inch keeper on a black/yellow Senko. We hadn't lost much in water temperature by moving from the front of coves to the back and we did find some bass that would bite in the clearer water.

It's good to have a plan before you start fishing, but it's even better to be open-minded enough to make changes when the plan doesn't work. Each day is a different situation.

We started the trip fishing in the cold arm because of past experience detailed in fishing logs, but we moved and changed presentations when the weather changed, and then moved again when water conditions changed.

You have to be willing to making adjustments, but that's the challenge of fishing that keeps us going back for more, even during the nastiest of weather.