Newton Lake

[fishstick]

Hey just thought I would let you all know I'll be bass fishing this weekend . I'm heading to Newton Lake in southern Illinois for the big ten tournament. I will post a report when I get back. By the way has anyone been there before?

[bshaner]

Good luck bud!!  Keep us posted!

B

[fishstick]

Heres what went down, first the weather wasnt to fun high 20's in the morning with only a high of 36 on saturday, sunday was a bit nicer. It was sunny both days which I guess shuts down the fish bad there since the lake is a powerplant lake and already warm. so that combined with an 18 inch size limit made things tough. Also the lake has a 25 horsepower motor restriction so if you were in a bass boat you couldnt run but there were a lot of trackers with 25's. Saturday was supposed to be the practice day but due to lack of boats we had to split time with other members of the team. I got about 3 hours in before I had to trolling motor back to the ramp. I got a little pattern going on a crankbait and a Jig so I was glad to get the 3 hours. Sunday I was fortunate to get in a sea nymph with a 25 horse on it and a boat driver who knew the lake great guy BTW. It was a slow frustrating day I ended up catching two keepers one on a bandit 200 and the other on a DT10. we also caught some shorts and by shorts I mean 17 3/4 inch fish. Back home we would have had around 19lbs. Everyone struggled though I think one boat had 3 keepers out of 36 boats or so thats pretty bad considering 2 guys to a boat. Michigan State ended up coming in 4th we weighed in a total of 3 fish (for 8 guys) for just over 14 I think. It was a pretty dissappointing tourney but a good time none the less I was glad just to be fishing

Here are my 2 they weighed 9.55 and the big one weighs 5.7 I think it was the heaviest 2 fish bag of the tourney if not it was close

[fishndooder]

it was a good time sure am glad my partner doesn't suck "fishstick".  bummed we didn't finish first and that the fishing was so slow, but it was cool to fish a lake so different from what we see in Michigan.  Plus the bass in that lake were huge!!
I second that the fishing was tough.  I 0'ed with two fish over 17 inches at around 4lbs per fish.  It sure is hard to release bass that big in a tourney.