lizards are everywhere

[jomatty]

i fish a reservoir that is filled with newts.  there are a bunch of them all over the place.  my natural first choice was to throw a lizard, and a green pumpkin with red flake matched the hatch almost perfectly.  unfortunately i got no action on the lizard and went back to senko and fat ika in the same color pattern and had success.  

i read up on these newts online and it said that they give off  a foul odor when attacked.  my son had one in the fishtank and i never smelled anything foul but im thinking that maybe these newts are not a good food source for bass.  

even if they are a food source it seems other things may work better jsut because there are so many of these buggers around.  kinda like throwing a lure that prefectly mimics a 1 inch shad into a school of 10,000 1 inch shads.  

just curious if anyone knows if bass do not eat some newts or what might be going on?

for those that are curious the species is the red spotted newt.

matt

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

I would think that there are lots of newts/lizards that bass won't touch.  Many are poisonous.  I don't know about the red spotted ones but usually, with many reptiles and amphibians, a bright color marking, especially dots and especially yellow, orange and red, signifies a "do not touch" type animal.

[flyphisher #]

I would think unless the lizard gave off some sort of odor or some other trigger, that a bass wouldnt have anyway of knowing he ate the poison one before it was too late. Think you are right about the #'s of them, making bass lose interest. I have seen this not only with bass but also trout on A.O.,C&R streams. I have seen many big hatches that will make even the wisest trout feed with abandon yet he will not eat your fly that is presented perfect and is a prefect imitation of the insects hatching. Then tie on something a little bigger, flashier, or looks a little different, he kills it. Same with the 10000 1inch shad and bass. Lots of time the biggest fish is going to eat the biggest or the shad/bait that stands out.

Try a red lizard....they might not hit it either, or you might get your arm broke.

[jomatty]

found a little more info on these guys.   at one site it says they can survive in aquatic environments with fish because they give off an odor when preyed upon and upset fish stomachs.  makes me think that something with a different color pattern would be better in this reservoir as there are so many of these newts around.  there are literally so many that my wife was getting frustrated fishing her fat ika and said "how am i supposed to catch anything with all these lizards all over my bait" and it was true almost every cast there were newts on her ika.  we are guessing that they might be trying to mate or something.

matt

[John J.]

found a little more info on these guys. at one site it says they can survive in aquatic environments with fish because they give off an odor when preyed upon and upset fish stomachs. makes me think that something with a different color pattern would be better in this reservoir as there are so many of these newts around. there are literally so many that my wife was getting frustrated fishing her fat ika and said "how am i supposed to catch anything with all these lizards all over my bait" and it was true almost every cast there were newts on her ika. we are guessing that they might be trying to mate or something.

matt

Same thing happened to my friends finesse worm when we had that tournament in Motts Run in Fredericksburg. Newts were all over the logs and such and when we tried to fish the logs the newts were I guess mating with the worm. Like LBH said, I am sure some newts are rather poisonous and I guess they all release that odor when they are attacked, which will deter any predatorial fish.

idk, maybe bass feed on the younger ones instead of the adult ones... :-/

[Raul]

Do not match the hatch, if the lake is flooded with newts all the same size, all the same color change the size of your bait ( I prefer larger ) and with a different hue to make it stand out from the rest.