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.