Place: Newton Lake, Collingswood, NJ
Time: 6:00am-1:30pm
Event: Annual Club Pizza\HoagiesFest and Club Tourney
Date: Saturday, August 13, 2011
Weather: Cool 63 Degree air temps at the start. Warming up to mid to upper 80 degrees The sun began toast us a bit after 10am when we had blue bird skies. The 10-15mph breeze made for a day to definitley take advantage of various points and wood sticking up.
Water Temps: 82 degrees at start; rising ~84.5 Degrees by afternoon.
Water Clarity: Visability down to ~1.5'.
Wind Gusts: Tolerable as one made there way towards the fish ladder
Best Lure: Finesse worms and Kreature baits, 3'~5' running crankbaits; DS various colors; spinnerbaits with dark skirts.
Depths fished: 2'~4'
Bass Limit: 3
-----------------------------------------------------
All I will say is that Newton Lake is slowley becoming my not so favortie body of water!!!! Dude... I'm so tired typing this, I'll just present the cliff notes version. Yeah Right!!! I was in so much disbelief, I had to treat myself to see "Caesar" from the Planet of the Apes!!! this evening!!! LOL!!!
Today SJHT held there annual Newton lake Pizza\HoagieFest Club Tournament in Collingswood, NJ. We kicked off with 19 Club members and 1 Guest coming out to find all of NJBassMans's spots.. Once safe light arrived, we all jet setted around Newton to our specific spots.
There were No Limits caught. Yes..you heard correctly! All in All, only 13 Largemouth Bass were brought to the scales. 10 out of 20 Anglers weighed in a fish. Out of those 10 anglers, only 3 were able to weigh in at least 2 Bass. Total combined weight of fish were 17.44lbs giving an avg. weight of 1.34lbs per bass.
Anglers reported almost No bites at all in the pads, away from the shoreline, and even fishing deeper depths. Personally, I didn't get bit till almost 9:45am!!! and when I did get bit, the bass were only picking them up and slightly swimming away almost undetected. Go Figure!!! Oh I should add, I had the pleasure of fishing off of Jimbo's yacht on Saturday. The idea of drop-shotting and tossing Kreature, small profile type baits in pockets of open\dying pads with a bit of grass seem to be the ticket. Unfortunately, that was few and far in between. Retrieving a shallow to Mid Diving SK Crankbait Black Back\Chart Body\and orange spot belly also produced.
The bass were really scattered through the entire lake. Earlier in the morning, the bass seem to be focusing on the edge of the pond scum and almost like camalflouging themselves as our Kreature and Smallie beavers cross there eyes. Go figure!!!
Without further adieu, please give a big congratulations to another SJHT Guest and son of Bob Van S. Sr. Bob Jr.. for weighing in 1 Bass weighing 2.66lbs and Lunker . Second place goes to Jimbo" for weighing in 2 Bass going 2.35lbs.. Third Place went to Kerry *Big856* for weighing in 1 Bass going 2.19lbs.
Way to battle out there fellas and to Bob Jr. for taking our lunch money back to your Sr. year in College. Hopefully it will do you [b]some good as back to school is approaching.
1st Place and Lunker 1 bass 2.66lbs winner SJHT Guest Bob Jr.:
2nd Place winner 2 Bass 2.35lbs Jimbo "":
3rd Place winner 1 Bass 2.19lbs Kerry *Big856* S.
Here's the Official Newton Lake Tale of the Tape: Please Don't laugh!!! LOL
Other Notable Catches:
Hal's catch:
Rob's *Ram1212* catch:
Jay *SmellyHooker* catch:
Note: Anglers mainly stuck around after the weigh-in to get there grub on!!! LOL!!! If I could, I would have left earlier!! LOL!!
Have I said already that [b]Newton Lake use to be real good. Now, and I think I can speak for most of us, we may have to evaluate this body of water over the winter months. I think it may need a break from us and many others!!
Looking at the Tale of the Tape, one can see anglers for the most part NOTcatching bass. WTF?
Thanks again to all SJHT members and to our 1 guest for venturing out to Newton Lake on Saturday. I wish there was more of a bite.
Newton Lake in past years has produced good numbers and at least a 4lbers and 5lbers. I don't know what to say!!! Typically...someone always figures them out and what action\color of lures the bass want. Today, Bob Jr. and Jimbo threw the right bait....at the right time and Da duh!!! and they won some nice cash!!!
Note: Bob Jr. I owe you an additional $11 due to only calculating 19 anglers when we actually had 20. So an additional $5 for Lunker and $6 from the pot. Jimbo.... I'll donate your additional $4 to DS annonymous!!!! LOL! Sorry about that guys!!!!
Congrats to the winners and catchers on a tough day. Mine came white spinner bait right before that park in the back. I fished mostly the middle but it is not very wide back there. Right before the water turned all nasty was where I caught both of them.
BN, thanks for the grub yesterday! That food was really needed after that long day.
I ran my boat as fast as it would take me to try to get to the dam first, hoping that the tide world offer up some fish. I was in a race with Jackson and Jay and his dad. It was the race of the turtles as Jackson put it right before his boat lost power, all I hear from him next is " I'm out" as he fades away it's between Jay and myself then they turned off and the prize was all mine.(some prize) Feeling good now that I got my spot to start out the day and no one near by I turn on some tunes and start throwing a buzz bait along the edges up to the dam, nothing. No worries though I'm at my spot now I drop anchor and pull out my DS rod and toss in this should be good I thought I'll limit here maybe with just three small keepers then go looking for one to give me some weight. It started off good got bit set the hook but nothing okay no problem I must have been late on the hook set. Toss out again and again some results they would take my bait but no fish. So I start flipping out, a jig that is, near the pads after a few I hook up with what should have been my first keeper he jumps out of the water flips me the bird and spits my jig out. F@%k!! I know that that was not good given this lakes reputation those are hard to come by oh well that's fishing, so I get back to it. I now pull up anchor and make my way back to the ramp on my way I managed two dinks that was it for the rest of the day. As I was sitting there thinking about pulling out I hear some screams as I turned around I see this lady tumble down the bank head over heels tangled with her shopping cart and land hard on the pavement since I was otherwise unoccupied at the time I got out to help her. Now you think the fishing gods would see that and reward me, nah nothing. I guess there was no reward to be given out of that lake Bob already caught it. See you all at lake Lenape.
Well...7.5 hour touenament. Caught 3 shorts, 2 being real close. 2 on a senko. 1 on a brush hog. Highlights of the day. Catching my 2nd fish sitting on my deck under the Lees lane bridge past the playground, seeing a big SNAKEHEAD up by Cuthbert (yea i tried to catch it), and the food.
So thanks again BN and SJHT for the grub it made up for an otherwise painful day. See you guys at Lenape
bates wrote:
the best thing about sat was after the T,thanks BN..looks like the bucket brigade that fish at the dam area 12hrs a day with pa plates and no license are finally affecting the newt.good job nj fish and game!
Drew...I'm almost ready to throw in the towel for Newton. I know it gets beat up pretty good during the course of the Open and Closed season, but 2-3 yrs. in a row, it's starting to wear on me.
Don't look at me complaining because it still beats a day in the office looking out the window, but collectively we gotta take a look at this at the end of the season.
Dale....Great job lending a hand to the old lady. Nice Day on the water report.
Glad everyone enjoyed the food.....
BN06
Edited by BigNasty06 on 08/14/2011
BN06, President
Nice job BN on the food and drink presentation with our club banner hanging at the table, even it looked a little discouraged at the weight in. Congrats to Bob on the win and lunker! and to all those who brought fish to the scales. Way to hang onto second place Jimbo.
Started out with buzz bait after following the crowd under the bridge, but no takers. Went down on the left throwing the buzz out in front of the pads, in the pad pockets, nothing. Pitched the jig every now and then, nothing. Tried DS at the railroad brige in 6' nothing then threw a small soft jerkbait for a while, nothing. Then decided to put a smaller jig trailer on and caught 2 shorts. and that was it for me for the rest of the day! Looking forward to Lenape new one for me!
Good follow up report Jiggen Den. Unlike Stone Tavern, where the bass were slightly picking up my DS's and Kreatures off the bottom, it was pretty non-existent at Newton Lake. I understand it's totally 2 different bodies of water, but in the learning process, I tend to hope\believe that one can apply Lessons learned from one lake to another.
Outside of navigating from say the playground area and working our way back to the boat ramp area and then past the train tressel, for me, the bite was totally not there. I went through a gambit of different baits like Yum Dingers Pumkinseed\black fleck 5" french fries, GY 5" Black\Blue Chart Double Tail Grubs, SK Black back\chart body\orange belly 3'-5' crankbaits, to a 3" GY Chartreuse grub on a 1/0 Gammagatsu EGW. I caught a couple of dinks. Even one with a nice solid belly but the .25" didn't make the 12" min.
Ok here is my day on the lake!
Mr Nasty and I started the day by throwing plastics in the Pads with some bites, but no hook ups... I then started in with a little "buzzjet" action along the pads, no takers. We got to the grass field and I throw some DS with one bite and again no hook up. The bites where coming , but they where extra subtle! I also foul hooked a 4 inch shad of some type.
We next went under the bridge and hit the bank where the grass was. I switched up and started throwing a shakey head with a smallie beaver and found my first keeper in some rip rap! We worked our way down one bank all the way to the next bridge then back down the other side. I had another bite that I didn't get a hook up on, around the playground.
I did pick up my 2nd keeper about 300 yrds down from the playground! The shakey head with a smallie beaver was the trick again! We did find the bass in the same places, off the bank and where the grass was a little thinner. I had a few more bites in the back, but again very subtle pick ups...
We now decided to make a run toward the other end of the lake. We worked our way back to the ramp with BN picking up a 11+ incher on a Crankbait, and the both of us grabbing a 11+incher in the pads... We worked the other side of the ramp almost to the fish ladder with only one fish brought in on a DS (10 inches). I had to have BN back to the ramp by 1pm so we ran full throttle back, AND I dropped him at the ramp and headed back to the pads we hit in the morning! with about 10 minutes to go I notice the pads being knocked around, so I flip my beaver right in front of the movement! POW! line starts to take off I set the hook the fish gives me a couple head shakes, and I try to force him out of the pads and TWANG! line snaps...You may have heard me GO IKE just a little! I didn't know at the time I just missed 1st and maybe lunker! I just know I didn't get my limit once again!
I've had a tough time getting my 3rd fish this year, at any lake except for Manasquan of course...
Thank's for the grub Nasty and Al for setting up this anual food feast!
I'm thinking Lenape is going to fish tough, but there should be some nicer fish brought to wieght in!!!
Jimbo
Congrats BVS on the win and lunker! Great info guys. My day was spent driving through torrential rains in NC and then a 30 mile traffic jam in VA, making a 10 hr drive almost 13 LOL...Glad everyone had a good time. Sorry to miss this one again. Jimbo, lift that leg up a bit more and you look like the Karate Kid LOL...
I started my day right of the ramp. I hit all my usual spots and all I had to show for in the first 4 hours was a 5lb catfish under the train bridge. I than shot all the way to other side of the lake with just a few nibbles in between. I finally went back to the train bridge side with about an hour and a half to go. I started to throw a 4" silver senko on the shallow side of the lake near the houses and started getting bit. I caught 4 fish in the small stretch with 3 of them hitting the 12" mark if I pinched the tail. I should have brought them all in for a courtesy measure. With 4 min left while in line behind Den to go back under the tunnel, I caught my only keeper on the right under a tree. BTW I fished a tourney on Newton last Sat and it was great. Its not always this bad.
