The bass bite on Cedar Creek has been pretty consistent the last couple of weeks, with great fishing on the lower lake, and tough fishing at mid lake. On Monday, November 17th, I caught 16 bass on the lower lake, and 4 big crappie. One thing about bass fishing docks with finesse baits, you can also catch some big crappie. Small bass baits are also big crappie baits. Best bass of the day weighed 4.52 pounds. I kept the 3 best crappie for dinner.

On Wednesday, the 19th, I only managed 9 bass mid lake, but once again, caught some really nice size crappie. I kept 3 more, so did a good job of restocking my freezer that week.

This Tuesday, I visited the lower lake again, and caught 32 bass. As usual, I caught some fish in a Finesse TRD, but the best bait of the day was a 4″ Jerk Shadz. Shaking my rod as I retrieved it did the trick. Yesterday, I fished at mid lake, and found a very tough bite. The wind blew much harder than forecast, and I just couldn’t get many bites in the areas that I was able to fish. There were lots of people on docks, to be expected on Black Friday, and that kept me from fishing some of my more productive docks. I only caught 3 bass, 2 crappie, 1 drum, 1 hybrid, and a handful of white bass. But yesterday’s 3 bass were nice ones. Two went over 3 pounds, and the other was a 5.46 pounder. I won’t complain too much about any day where I catch a 5 pounder.

A 4.52 pound bass from November 17th.

Yesterday’s 5.46 pound beauty.

Back from vacation in Florida, I was eager to get back to some Cedar Creek fishing this week. A big cold front last week had cooled things off a lot. Surface temperatures on the lake went from ~75 degrees two weeks ago to 61 degrees Wednesday morning. Fall fishing is here. And my best fishing last fall was at mid lake, so that’s where I went Wednesday. But the bass fishing was still tough for me. I bass fished most of the day and only caught five bass. I stopped by a couple of crappie spots and caught 6 nice crappie in short order, so the crappie bite is still there mid lake, but I don’t have a good explanation for why the bass fishing is so much tougher than last fall.

On yesterday (Friday) I decided to spend the day on the lower lake. Besides the tough day I’d had Wednesday mid lake, the south wind was really blowing yesterday, and with a big south wind, the lower lake is easier for me to fish, and more productive. That proved to be a wise decision. The wind blew even harder than forecast, but in spite of a very slow morning of fishing, the bite really took off just before lunch, and I ended up catching 22 bass before heading home. Best fish of the day was a beautiful bass that weighed 4.20 pounds, unless you want to count the ~8 pound hybrid that bit my Ned rig. Most fish were caught on a finesse TRD on a Ned rig, but shaking the rod fishing a jig and Jerk Shadz version of the Ned rig caught a few, as did a new experimental finesse version of a Carolina rig I’m calling a bridge rig. More on the bridge rig in another post, once I get more dialed in with it, but it really is looking like a new bait I’ll be using quite a bit.

A really nice crappie from Wednesday’s trip.

The 4.20 pound bass I caught from a Cedar Creek dock yesterday.