I had a great day of fishing at Cedar Creek on Wednesday. I actually went fishing on Monday too, but it was more of an exploring trip. I went to Richland Chambers. I hadn’t been on that lake in over 20 years, and wanted to re-familiarize myself with it, and check out the boat ramp on it that’s nearest to me, just 35 miles away. I made that trip because of the condition of Cedar Creek right now. Cedar Creek is now just over four feet low, and dropping over a half inch a day, with no relief in sight. Within a week or two, the free public boat ramp at Caney City, where I launch often, when I’m wanting to fish the lower lake, will no longer be viable for a boat the size of mine. There’s an expensive private ramp on that end of the lake, that’s even a longer drive for me than Caney City, but that’s all that’s still working on that end of the lake. I have access to a private boat ramp at mid lake, that will probably still work for a few more weeks, but the fishing at mid lake has been really tough lately. So I decided it’s time to consider trips to other nearby lakes. I didn’t catch much at Richland Chambers on Monday, but I like the boat ramp that’s closest to me on that lake, and there’s a nearby bridge where I can crappie fish in the shade on these hot summer days. I may do that some. And Richland Chambers is in great shape right now, at just over a foot low.

But Wednesday, I verified that the Caney City ramp was still usable, and had a surprisingly good day bass fishing. I abandoned the docks and most other shallow spots I’ve been fishing, and spent most of my time fishing deeper water for suspended bass. On this day, it worked well. I caught 16 bass, 4 of which were over three pounds. I caught a 3.12, a 3.20. a 3.76, and a 3.84 pounder. I won’t call 3 pounders giants, but they put up a great fight on the finesse tackle I’m using. I had a blast Wednesday, and still got home before the hottest part of the day.

I caught most of the fish on a Z-Man four inch Scented Jerk Shadz bait, rigged on a 3/32 oz hover jig. It’s still a finesse bait, like all the bass baits I use these days, and would still be considered a small bait by many bass anglers, but it’s a bit bigger and bulkier than I usually fish with. As I’m learning how and where to use this bait, it’s become obvious that the fish I catch on it will be, on average, bigger fish than what I usually catch on my finesse baits. I usually fish with a 1/16 oz hover jig with a size 1 hook, and fish very shallow, but for this bigger bait, I’m using a 3/32 oz jig, with a 1/0 hook, and fishing a bit deeper. That hover jig is the secret. The hover jigs I’ve used draw so many more bites than any other jig I’ve fished that they are the only jigs I’m using when fishing a jig and soft plastic for bass, right now. Suspended bass, especially good size suspended bass, are consistently among the toughest bass to get to bite, but this jig manages to catch them well. I know there will still be days when I won’t have this much success with catching suspended fish, but having a day like Wednesday is a reminder of what is possible on some days. And as the Cedar Creek water level drives me to other nearby lakes, I’m thinking I may need to try out Lake Fork, which is just over an hour away. It’s famous for its large numbers of big suspended bass. It’s tempting to go harass a few with this bait.

Wednesday’s best bass, a 3.84 pounder.

The Z-Man four inch Jerk Shadz and hover jig that all of the 3 pounders, and most of the other bass, were caught on.

Hover jigs change the action of plastic baits by changing the weight distribution within the plastic, compared to other jigs. As you can see, the entire jig body ends up completely inside the plastic. Inserting the jig a quarter inch or so back from the front of the bait, rather than in the very front of the bait, moves the hook’s line tie further back on the bait. And you can see that the weight distribution of the jig body itself is different than most jigs, with the weight spread out much further back than a typical jig, which has most of its weight near the hook’s line tie. Because of these two changes, the action of the bait becomes dramatically different than most soft plastic lures. When twitched on a slack line, the bait will dart off to one side or the other, and when allowed to sink on a slack line, the bait doesn’t sink straight down, it glides in a slow spiral down, which is an action many bass find irresistible. And this Jerk Shadz is made of Elaztech, a high floating material that sinks very slowly with this 3/32 oz jig embedded in it.

Looking back, it’s kind of surprising that it took this long to invent hover jigs, which have only been around a couple of years. The weight and action of this bait with the hover jig is very similar to a tube bait, and tube baits were invented over 60 years ago. The hover jigs I use are homemade. I pour them with a mold I bought from Bugmolds, a small company in Ukraine, which makes very nice jig molds and sells them for a reasonable price. I love these jigs. But for those who prefer to buy their jigs rather than make them, there are more and more brands of hover jigs to be found for sale now, as word of their effectiveness spreads.

The 100 degree weather has arrived this week, and unsurprisingly, the fishing has gotten tough. I fished mid lake on Monday and caught 7 bass. I fished the lower lake on Wednesday, and modified my usual fishing plan to suit the extreme heat. After my early fishing, I took an early lunch break in the shade of a bridge, and mixed in some under bridge crappie fishing, both earlier and later. Just before my lunch break, I fishing my favorite stretch of docks on the lower lake. I made it all the way to the next to last dock without catching a single fish. I was ready to pronounce the Cedar Creek dock fishing pattern dead for the summer, but then caught a four pounder from that dock, and a chunky two and half pounder from the next one. So, I can pronounce the dock fishing very tough right now, but not dead.

I had caught three crappie earlier, but they weren’t that big, so had just released them. Just as I was ready to head home at 1:00 pm, I caught a really nice crappie. I couldn’t resist staying long enough to try for a three nice crappie dinner, and at 1:30, caught that third nice crappie, so cleaned them and then headed home. I ended up with 5 bass and 6 crappie for the day, a tough day, but I’ll take that on a 100 degree day without too much complaining.

This just before lunch break bass weighed 4.01 pounds.

And here’s the first of three nice crappie who came home as dinner guests.

It was another week of good fishing on Cedar Creek this week. I fished the lower lake on both Tuesday and Thursday. I caught 19 bass Tuesday, including a 3.12 pounder, a 3.40 pounder, and a 5.11 pounder. The bite on docks is still really good, but I’ve been mixing in some fishing for suspended fish in deeper water to try and catch some bigger fish. That tactic worked on Tuesday.

On Thursday, I caught 18 bass and 1 channel cat. None of Thursday’s fish were bigger ones. I plainly don’t have that deeper bite dialed in well enough to catch bigger fish consistently. Temperatures in the 100’s are predicted for a couple of days this coming week. I’m still going to get out, but will likely go home earlier, and spend more time fishing under bridges, in the shade. I’ve had such great fishing trips so far this summer, I won’t complain too loudly if things get tougher in late summer. We’ll see.

Tuesday’s 3.12 pounder.

This bass weighed 3.40 pounds.

And the day’s best bass, a 5.11 pounder.

I got out on Cedar Creek Lake on Monday and Wednesday of this week. On Monday, I fished mid lake. Wednesday, I was on the lower lake. And just as it has been lately, the lower lake was better. I didn’t get any really big fish this week, but caught quite a few bass. I caught 11 bass Monday, and 25 bass Wednesday. Wednesday has to be one of the best bass fishing days I’ve had in the heat of the summer on Cedar Creek. I suspect that has a lot to do with the baits I’m using. That hover jig paired with Ned rig plastics just draws a lot of bites. My best bait on Wednesday was a new “kind of” tube bait I was trying out. It’s a Z-Man TRD TubeZ. It just looks like a regular 2 3/4 inch finesse bass tube bait, but it isn’t really a true tube bait, because the front half inch or so of it is solid, rather than hollow like a regular tube bait. Because of that, you can’t use a regular tube bait jig in it. They intend for you to use a Ned jig head, but I love the hover jig with this bait. I’ll post about the TubeZ again, since it has inspired me to try more finesse bass tube baits, and I want to post some thoughts on them after I try out some.

Monday’s best bass, a 3.22 pounder.

Wednesday’s biggest bass, at 3.60 pounds.

Summer in Texas has arrived. Afternoon temps are in the mid 90’s. Lake water temps are in the mid 80’s. Cloudy or rainy days are fewer; the sun reigns. Fishing tends to get tough for me when summer sets in, but so far, I’ve still been catching fish, at least at Cedar Creek.

On Tuesday of this week, I fished mid-lake. I hadn’t fished mid-lake lately, and wondered how tough it might be, with this hot weather. Sure enough, it was a bit tough. I caught nine bass and two catfish. Best bass of the day weighed 3.52 pounds, and several others were nice chunky bass. Tough, but a good enough fishing day that I won’t complain about the fishing on that day.

Thursday, I fished the lower lake, and had a really nice day, catching seventeen bass, three crappie, one drum, and one flathead catfish. That’s in spite of the lake being very busy, with it being just two days before the 4th of July. All fish both days were caught on Ned rigs. I went almost an hour first thing in the morning on Thursday without catching a fish, so thought the really tough fishing might have arrived, but when I switched to a new jig for the Ned rig, the fish bit it well and I had a blast, catching fish. Best bass weighed 3.78 pounds.

I’ve posted about the jig I was using Thursday, before. It’s called a hover jig. It’s a very different jig. It’s weight is further back from the hook eye than most jigs, and when rigged, it is fully enclosed in the bait. Rather than inserting the hook into the front of the bait, you insert it into the top of the bait, 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch back from the front of the bait, then thread the bait onto it. That, plus the way the jig is made, put the weight much further back in the bait than with other jig heads, and that completely changes the action of the bait. If you twitch the bait on a slack line, it will jump sideways. As the bait sinks, rather than sinking straight down, it glides in a large spiral as it sinks. Those two properties make it a great rig for catching fish. I’ve been tinkering with different hover jigs for a bit now, but just now seem to have settled in on which one I like best, and how to best retrieve it. I’m going to be fishing these jigs a lot more in coming days.

Below is a four inch Big Trd bait cut down to three inches, and rigged with a 1/16 oz hover jig. Below that in the photo is the hover jig by itself.

Tuesday’s best bass, 3.52 pounds.

And Thursday’s nicest, at 3.78 pounds.

I took off Tuesday morning for Lake Athens, and had a very tough day of fishing, only catching three bass. The same thing happened in late June last year, with the fishing becoming very tough. I’d been fishing a bit bigger Ned rig off the edge of weed lines where the water drops off deeper fairly quickly, and had been catching some nice bass that way. I thought that pattern might last a while into summer, but apparently not. I’m certain there are some deeper bass to be found in the summer at Athens, but the couple of guys I’ve talked to who’ve had some success at summer fishing there both mainly fish the thickest shallow vegetation they can find. It takes heavy tackle to land decent fish caught that way, not the finesse tackle I use. I probably just need to fish elsewhere until Athens has some cooler water this fall.

Yesterday (Thursday), I fished the lower end of Cedar Creek, and had a much better day, catching 20 bass and one channel cat. All fish were caught on Ned rigs. The summer fishing will eventually get very tough at Cedar Creek too, but it seems to hold up longer into the summer than at Lake Athens. I’ll likely soon be just fishing under bridges for crappie, and even that will be tough fishing, but even in the dog days of summer, I usually manage to catch a few really nice crappie that way, and fishing under a bridge in the summer has the added bonus of being a cooler fishing spot than out in the sun. But for now, with the bass still biting well, I’ll keep playing with them for a while.

I’ve been fishing a bit bigger Ned rig lately. Ever since I started fishing Ned rigs a couple of years ago, I’ve mainly fished the Finesse Trd’s, which are 2 3/4 inches long. They are great baits that catch not only a lot of bass, but lots of other fish species as well, including some really nice crappie. I’ve been fishing Lake Athens a lot lately, and it’s bass are bigger on average than Cedar Creek’s bass, and I thought a bigger bait might be better. So I took a Big Trd, which is 4 inches long, and cut it down to 3 1/4 inches. I’m still using it on the same 1/16 ounce mushroom head jig I always use. It’s caught fish well at Athens, and even better at Cedar Creek, so has become my standard Ned rig lately. That bigger high floating Trd makes you work the bait slower, in order to keep it from coming too close to the surface, and slower is better, it seems.

I’ve also done some experimenting with a even bigger 3 1/2 inch Trd, on a heavier 3/32 ounce jig. I thought a Ned rig that size and weight might work better in a big wind, and in situations where I want to fish deeper. I’ve caught a few fish on it, including two fish yesterday in water that was too windy for my usual size Ned rig, but haven’t used it enough yet to really prove its value. We’ll see.

All three bass from Athens Tuesday were chunky, pretty fish. But there were only three.

I caught this nice bass first thing yesterday morning at Cedar Creek. It weighed 3.56 pounds.

Here is the Ned rig I’ve been fishing lately, a 3 1/4 inch cut down Zman Big Trd, on the standard 1/16 oz homemade mushroom head jig I always use.

Post spawn fishing has been tougher than usual for me this year, both for crappie and bass, and both at Cedar Creek and Lake Athens. I’ve been getting out twice a week, but not catching good number of fish at all, usually fewer than 10. That streak ended the day before yesterday, when I caught 20 bass and one drum at Cedar Creek. Cedar Creek has had a small rise in water level, and the lake is now not quite 3 feet low. That may have improved the fishing. But Lake Athens has been full, so I can’t blame this year’s tougher fishing on water level there. There is quite a bit less vegetation in the lake this year though, compared to last year. With the lake at similar levels as last year, I have no idea why that is.

But even while my catching numbers have been down, I’ve been catching some nice fish, including a 4.64 pound bass Tuesday from Lake Athens. Here are a few photos from recent trips.

This 1.82 pound crappie came from Cedar Creek on May 28th.

I caught this 5.20 pound bass at Lake Athens on June 2nd.

This 4.62 pound bass was caught at Lake Athens on June 4th.

I caught this 4.64 pound bass at Lake Athens on Tuesday of this week.

Oops, I’ve been guilty of neglecting my blog since that great two days of fishing at Lake Athens four weeks ago. The fishing since then has been much tougher, both at Athens and at Cedar Creek Lake. I’ve only managed 10 or 15 fish a trip since then, whether I went to Athens or Cedar Creek, and whether I was mainly fishing for bass or crappie.

There are still some bedding bass at Athens, but just a few stragglers. And they are tough to catch, and not all that big. I’ve only caught one four pounder at Athens since that great week, and nothing that big at Cedar Creek until yesterday. I’m not sure why Athens is this tough. Last year, I found some really good fishing in the post spawn period, but not so much this year. At Cedar Creek, I usually try to mix in some bass fishing and crappie fishing at bridges and docks. I’ve posted before about how my more shallow bridge spots are much tougher with the low water (Cedar Creek is still almost 3 1/2 feet low), and the same is true of dock fishing.

Some docks that have been good in the past are just too shallow for either bass or crappie now. And even the deeper docks are tougher. There seem to be a lot fewer crappie on the docks, and with the more shallow water under them, crappie are holding more shallow, and it’s tough to work a swimming jig slowly enough to interest them, without dragging the bottom. And dragging the bottom is not a good way to get them to bite. They tend to hold off the bottom. I posted before about how I solved that problem at my bridge spots by using a jig and bobber setup, rigged deeper than I normally use that kind of rig. The same solution has worked on the docks.

I’m still not catching the numbers of crappie off docks that I would expect in a normal year, but I seem to catch several really nice ones with a jig and bobber set for 3 to 3 1/2 feet deep. And of course, fishing a Ned rig around docks will catch some big crappie, in addition to the bass that bite it. Than happened yesterday at Cedar Creek. First thing in the morning, I caught a 4.50 pound bass on a Ned rig, then 10 or so casts later, caught the second biggest crappie of the day on the same bait. It’s a good reminder of why I love those baits.

I also saw quite a few of these very different looking ducks yesterday. I’d never seen them before on Cedar Creek.

It turns out they are black bellied whistling ducks. Their natural range didn’t used to be this far north, but they are here now. I always enjoy the great variety of wildlife I see on my fishing trips.

I caught this nice chunky 4.50 pound bass first thing yesterday morning.

A really nice size crappie from yesterday afternoon.

I made trips to Lake Athens on both Tuesday and Wednesday this week. I caught 25 bass Tuesday and 22 bass Wednesday. The best fish weighed 5.16 pounds. There were bedding bass everywhere on the lower lake. But there are also bass fry in big numbers in all the spawning areas. That tells me the spawn is just about over. I’m thinking I’ll try Lake Athens again next week, but I’ll have rods rigged with other baits besides bed fishing baits. I’m hoping there will still be fish on the beds, but I have my doubts. You would expect the spawn to last longer than early April, but it’s been a really warm spring.

Most fish were caught on TRD’s rigged as a tiny child rig. I also caught a few on a ShadZ on a jig. I was surprised at catching this many bass, considering the incredible fishing pressure Lake Athens receives in the spring. But just like at Fork, many anglers don’t sight fish for bass much, and the ones who do seem to fail to see lots of bass. The late spawn seems to suit me better on this lake, rather than the earlier bedding bass that are more easy to see on the beds in shallow coves, and cast to by so many anglers.

Wednesday’s 5.16 pounder.

It was another very windy week this week, but I got out fishing a couple of times anyway. I went to Lake Fork on Monday. The water is still pretty murky, as I mentioned before, and between the wind and mostly cloudy day, I really had a tough time spotting bedding bass. I managed to catch 10 bass in a long day of fishing, but once again, they were all under four pounds. I decided on the way home that making that one hour and twenty minute drive to Fork just wasn’t worth it this year, with these water conditions, when I could catch bass that were just as big at Cedar Creek or Lake Athens, both much shorter drives. I decided to give sight fishing a shot at Athens, and that’s where I went Wednesday.

Wednesday was an even darker and windier day than Monday, probably the windiest day I’ve been out fishing this year. But Lake Athens is a small enough lake that it can be safely run on a really windy day, and so any protected water on the lake can be reached. I’d only fished for bedding bass on the lake once, so had to spend some scouting time, looking for bedding bass. I knew that it’s late enough in the spawn that the lower half of the lake would likely be best, and that’s where I concentrated my scouting. I ended up catching 15 bass. Like my Fork trips lately, everything was under four pounds. But with Wednesday’s wind and clouds, I may have just not been able to see larger fish on beds. They do tend to spawn a bit deeper than smaller fish. I’m looking forward to being on Athens on a less windy day. I’m thinking that’s where I’ll be doing the rest of my bed fishing this year. Lake Athens is only thirty minutes from home, with much clearer water than Fork, and I had a blast with yesterdays fish, which included several over three pounds. We’ll see if I can find anything bigger next time.

One of Wednesday’s better size pretty fish.