Newman Lake Recap - 2nd Place

Finally starting to recover from that marathon 12 hour night tournament Saturday night.  It was worth the sleep depravation though, because I finished in 2nd place.  I was thinking about this yesterday and it is my fourth 2nd place finish on Newman.  Good news is I can catch them there. Bad news is I finish just short. I can't complain though, Newman is a fun lake and I'll take 2nd place anytime. 

Here's how I did it:

It may seem like a repeat of all of my other recaps, but once again a black Eco Pro Tungsten jig and Aaron's Magic Roboworm accounted for most of my fish.  I started off quick and caught four on the drop-shot and Roboworm and then another small keeper on a Paycheck Baits Repo Man topwater. Limit by dark.  That was my goal and I had around 8lbs at that point. I then hit the same bank over and over and tried to keep my boat right on the deep drop offs, but still close enough to pitch docks. The Lowrance night view was a lifesaver for my eyes and really makes the Navionics 1ft contours stand out.

Once it got dark I tried all kinds of stuff. Topwater, the Ima Disrat, Dirty Jigs Scott Canterbury Pro Buzz and Z-Man Chatterbaits. Nothing was working until I started to pitch the jig to docks.  I caught several nice ones doing this and the way they hit it is why I keep coming back for night fishing.  They crush it! One change I did make was going from a Zoom Super Chunk Jr. to the full sized version. The bigger size makes much more action and I like this in lowlight or dark conditions. 

I had a limit for around 13lbs when the sun was starting to come up around 4:45.  I still had one 13inch keeper, so I decided to hit a smallmouth spot and immediately caught one on a Strike King Tour Grade Football jig. That one was almost 3lbs and got me up to the 15lb range.  My total was 15.63 and my biggest was 4.10. The others were all about 3lbs and was enough for me to put together a solid limit.

Next I decided to make a move and my cranking battery wouldn't start!  12 hours running lights, two HDS 12s, livewell, Oxygenator and more added up to a dead battery.  I was also charging my phone all day and running WiFi on my graph so I could map all night with Navionics SonarChart Live.  Bad move and dead battery.  It wouldn't even jump from my trolling batteries or a cranking battery from a boat that was close by.  I spent the next hour on my trolling motor crossing the lake and missed out on any more of the morning bite, but I made it!