Going Fishin!!

[TCook]

Well I cant take it anymore, I already have a serious case of cabin fever. Gotta get out of this house and do some fishin so me and a couple buddies are going to check out Newton Lake in Illinois this weekend. Its a warm water discharge lake and recent reports say the hot side temps are in the low 70's and fishing has been good. Only 3 1/2 more months of this winter crap ......

T

[thedude]

i'm going to turtle creek in a few weeks. but i'm taking a shotgun, not a fishing rod.
it opens back up for fishing jan 29th i think.


BTW - happy birthday

[cr]

I'm having a hard time myself , hope you whack-em .Trying to save money for a trip to Florida the end of Feb. If the gas prices stay down I might make it . My parents live outside of Zephyrhills , so I can sleep on their couch , which leaves only the price of gas and food. Lots of little lakes around I've been wanting to try, plus I'd like to get on the chain of lakes in Winterhaven. When I was single , many, many, moons ago, I used take the ski-boat down every year for a couple weeks . Great body of water . Seemed like alot of money till I compared it to the price of a trip to El-Salto .....

[TCook]

Thanks Justin, it feels strange turning 30, my 20's went by way too fast. We might hit turtle creek in a couple months or just keep going south. Good luck killing things, dont shoot yourself in the thigh.  

[Dan]

Hey T I have some pictures for you. Email me your address and I'll send them to you. I took them down to Cherokee, but you guys were hard to find.

[TCook]

Dan, it was hard to meet up with anyone there, and having a dead cellphone and a broke charger did not help. Where we stayed was isolated from the pack, and fishing from sunup to sundown every day ate up all our time. both tournament days took me hours just to get my gear out of my boaters boats and get loaded up on the other ramp. My first day boaters buddy broke down and he had to tow him back and that took over 3 hours to meet up with my group who was waiting on me at the other ramp, it was hectic. Hope you dont have one of me weighing in my one little spot, thats something I would like to forget. Any other pics i would like to see my email is Tcook1238@yahoo.com

Thanks Dan

CR I think you got the right idea making a trip to FL and doing it in a cheap way, hope you catch some toads!!

[djkimmel]

If it wasn't for my trip to Mexico coming up next month... I'd be insanely jealous !!! (I'm still jealous - always heard good things about Newton. I hope I don't jinx my trip...?!?) Just got back from Arkansas... but no fishing. Although I did get to drive a bunch of cool boats up and down Bull Shoals!!

[TCook]

What are you getting a new boat or something? Have you heard anything that might be of any help on Newton? None of us has ever seen the lake before.

[fishstick]

I've been to newton before its an awesome lake and it looks a lot like chocolate milk. I was there more towards late winter/spring but I caught my fish pitchin jigs and crankin but spinnerbaits and chatterbaits should work well to. There is a 25 horsepower limit on the lake when I was there unless they changed that. So I'd suggest either find a jon boat or bring extra batteries because the DNR or whatever they have down there watches it pretty well. Those fish aren't normal down there they are huge! although I never found any of the real pigs the lake is known for but I did catch a 5-10 that was only 20 inches long! Good luck!

[Firefighter Jeff]

Best of luck Tim.  Make sure you post some pictures!!

[djkimmel]

I've always heard it is a great jig and crankbait lake.

And no new boat. They had some just sitting around... but said I could not have them (I asked )

[Bender]

And no new boat. They had some just sitting around... but said I could not have them (I asked )

I figured you would have dragged this one back from down there:

The one-off carbon fiber Z21.

[djkimmel]

I saw and drove quite a few I wouldn't mind driving back home. But alas... it was not meant to be (...yet )

[Cheetam]

And no new boat. They had some just sitting around... but said I could not have them (I asked )

I figured you would have dragged this one back from down there:

The one-off carbon fiber Z21.

Wow, that looks SWEET.  I have to wonder how it would hold up after bumping a stump or two on Kent?

[djkimmel]

It's a Ranger!!! It would look just like it came out of the mold!!!

[TCook]

Thats one smooth looking ranger right there. I wonder how much it weighs in comparison to the fiberglass, I seen the thread on BBC and the guy from Ranger never said.

[thedude]

hopefully its just for looks... one of the nice things about glass boats is the weight really improves the ride and how they handle in rough water at speed. I get tossed around like a rag doll in my tin boat when i don't have full wells or a passenger.

[skeeterman190]

 Well didnt we picked a great weekend to go to Newton lake. I think the national weather association put a small craft advisory on that lake! haha. The wind BLEW and it BLEW. Forcast called for 20-30 with gust to 40 both days! (We didnt have a 25hp motor so we were going on trolling motor) Earlier reports made us optimistic though. Fishing was kinda tough. It was good though to set a hook on some fish in DECEMBER. There was a tourney there on Saturday, a guy that seems too do real well there only had one keeper(WHICH IS 18"). After reading that i think our days there were awesome. Saturday wasnt that great for the others in my boat. i will say that, i feel bad. I got some really good bites and shouldve been in that tourney the way it sounds.. oh well we were there having fun!! Southern lakes are like no other. They dont fish like anything up here. Its not," hey lets go to the big grass flat or the sand flat" they make you think!!! Add too that, no boat docks im in trouble! Electronics are so valuable on them and a good map.   

  Saturday started out a cold, dark and gloomy day. Wind was kicking hard out of the SW and pretty much blew us into an area i thought might be good. With these warm water discharge lakes a small fluctuation in water temps is huge. The power plants on the far north end and the launch on the sw corner alot of water in between. We get into the creek arm and i see that the water is 56-57. its about 3 degrees warmer than the launch.I was pumped up just to be fishing, now i gotta get my head right. Im no southern fishing expert and need alot more time on the water down there! but i really felt that if i kept the main creek channel to my advantage i would catch some fish!  In my mind those fish relate to that so much. Deep water near by its a no brainer. We fished alot of areas and i pretty much keyed into 2 factors after a bite or 2. The fish were on points(a no brainer) but they were on small little points also the kind you pretty much have too examine the shoreline and pick out the little differences. Sticking to the knowledge i found on saturday, put a pretty nice little sack in the bag. (I didnt measure but im pretty sure i had 3 keeps(18") that would have gone around 11 1/2 or 12. And wouldnt you know it all the reports i heard were talking up a jig and crankbait. I never touched a fish on either one. Thank god for stick baits. Every single fish i caught down there came on a Nemesis stik(philbilly magic) a little something i had in my head that needs to be refined a little. Sunday was alot different and we only put 1 keeper in the boat. i think the hurricane like winds put a damper on things.. Tcook smoked some good fish and i had an alright day if you were back here. pretty much all 15-16 inchers. Time smoked a good 19" that prolly went around 3.5-4.-skeeterman-

[TCook]

Sounds like Newton is fishing good again. Tournament there last weekend took 27.7 pounds to win with 6 fish, big bass 6lbs. This was with 15 degree temps and 15-25 mph winds, lake temp was 48-50 according to some reports. Might have to try and make another trip if we get some mild weather since its only 3-3 1/2 hours from here. Skeeterman whats up??

[TCook]

Report from the last two days said the jig bite is on at Newton. The generator is back up and warming the lake to the high 60's in the hot arm. Mon the guy said he cought 40 and Tues 50 with 30 over 18" and a 7 pounder for big fish of the day all on jigs. So who wants to make a trip that way with me? LOL