Renegade Bass Q2 – Newboro Lake

Well if you read our Renegade Bass preview for this season you know how we feel about Newboro Lake.  Definitely not one of our favorites.  Though last time we were on this lake we were in a different situation being that we were in 8th overall in the Team of the Year standings going into the event.  With it being the last of the qualifiers that year we knew any weight at all would assure us a spot in the Classic that season.  We pre-fished for one day in 2008 and struggled on tournament day but with a weight near 10 pounds we still made the Classic and finished 18th overall in TOY.
This year is a different story.  Every ounce will count moving forward with big weights predicted on the back to back Lake St. Francis events.  Sitting in 22nd spot after Q1 is nice but we need to remain there or move up if possible.  Len and I discussed pre-fish gameplan and we both perused maps for a week.  We knew the deep open water weedlines will be where the winning bag will likely come from.  Not our forte at all.  But we had to try it.
Day 1 of pre-fish we plunked a ton of milfoil.  A ton.  Found lots of pike and probably donated $25 in jigs.  We moved around a lot working on what we call “community holes”.  Fish were on them but small fish.  We made a run to one of the other adjoining lakes and found a pattern to fishing weedlines that put a bunch of fish in the boat for us that afternoon.  That late afternoon we hit another area to try our pattern there.  Same thing. After loading the Ranger and while driving home we started to hatch plans for the next day.
We returned to where we finished the day before to see if the fish were there in the morning.  They were.  We stuck a few and left.  We were confident with that area in getting us a quick 5.  Using a variety of baits on this area which included shallow cranks, jigs and senkos we felt good about it.  Len picked up his best Newboro fish yet in this area.
Then we began to do some running and gunning.  Shoreline fish are traditionally small on Newboro but we decided to look for what we call a “BigFishSpot”.  Every now and then you arrive in an area and you can feel it.  Usually the area will consist of a weed, rock mix near deep water.  Everything a big fish needs to be happy.  Len proved me right by sticking a high 4 pounder off the deep edge.  Quickly released with no pic with the promise to return to visit on tourney day.  We visited areas that we had fished in the past to check on things and found a few new specific pieces of structure to run to looking for that “kicker”.
We came across quite the cool site while out.  This Osprey had built it’s nest right smack dab in the middle of one of the lakes.
Our “spotlist” was created and one of the coolest spots I’ve ever fished was on it.  It’s a 30 foot stretch of shoreline surrounded by 2 feet of water for a long way  from shore, yet at the shoreline it is 5 feet deep and covered by overhanging trees.  That spot was screaming “BigFishSpot” to me all week and we nicknamed it “The Trench”.
At the end of pre-fish we were satisfied with our numbers and the pattern we had put together worked in 3 different areas.  Plus the addition of a dozen areas we think could hold a kicker, we were ready.  Knowing full well we’d have to get “lucky” with a few big fish to get us up the ranks but our hatred of this lake had subsided.
Tournament day arrives.  Neither Len or I slept well at all, lots of tossing and turning thinking about what the day may bring for us.
We made a run to one of our areas.  There we quickly had a limit with one decent fish (for Newboro) at 2.5 pounds.  We stayed and worked that area for 90 minutes then started our run.  First stop immediately produced our best fish of the day at 3.4 pounds.  On our spotlist was a certain boat house.  We plucked 3 fish from it in pre-fish, but today the door was closed! Ugh.
We decided to give “The Trench” a look.  In a 30 foot section of shoreline we plucked 5 largies off of it.  But none of them would cull anything out.  I swear that spot will kick out a big fish one day. We made our way through our run.  Fish at every spot.  Culled up a few times and then the wind howled!  We were relieved to have the weight we had at that point as it was making it difficult in the boat control department.  Further to our boat control woes after relying heavily on the MinnKota in the wind we wore the batteries out by 2PM.
We worked some real thick floating mat to end the day and found some more fish there but nothing to cull again.  We caught more fish today than we have in any tournament before, sadly without that real kicker fish we would be curious to see how the rest of the field would fair out.
The sight of a Renegade weigh-in. Controlled bedlam.
We weighed in towards the end as our flight was in the last groups to weigh in.  We took the time to finally have a bite to eat and something to drink.
Finally made our way up.
We weighed in just under 13 pounds and finishing in 27th overall. On what turned out to be a tough day for most and with the weights being down again much like Big Rideau we weren’t overly disappointed.  Newboro Lake had handed us our butts 2 years ago and with more time on this lake I think our weights will just continue to improve.
Big fish of the day went to Paul Shibata and Craig Lister with a 6.29 Largie.  Winning was Mark Robinson and Gary Rayner with 17.62.

In our run to making the Classic we now stand in 28th place overall.  Back to Back events on Lake St. Francis are up next in 3 weeks.  Here’s hoping Len and I can unlock the secrets of the Franny Bronzies!