I had posted that by the last week of September, I knew of no working boat ramps on Cedar Creek, and would be making some trips to other area lakes. The week of October 3rd, I made trips to Purtis Creek and Tawakoni. Purtis Creek was really tough. I caught a half dozen bass at Tawakoni, nothing very big. Late that week, and on the weekend, there was widespread flooding in quite a bit of the state, but as usual, the main Cedar Creek watershed got very little rain. However, a flood in Athens actually put some water in Cedar Creek via Caney Creek, a major lake tributary that drains into the lower lake. The lake rose 9 inches, and the boat ramp at Caney City became usable again, but just barely, for a boat the size of mine.

On Tuesday, the 6th, I launched there and caught a half dozen bass, a tough day with all the new muddy water coming into the lake. But on Thursday, I caught 16 bass, just a 3 pounder being the biggest, but it was a really fun day, being back on Cedar Creek and finding a good bite. On Monday, the 12th, I had a great day of bass fishing, catching 20 bass, with the best being a 3.96 pounder. But the lake had fallen to over 5 1/2 feet low again, and launching at the Caney City ramp was tough enough that I knew that would be the last day I could launch there until the lake catches some water again.

I had made a run up to mid lake that day, and had my best fishing there. But I had also noticed a lot more boats on that part of the lake than I would have expected. That told me that there must still be a ramp on that part of the lake that’s working. The only one I could think of was the ramp at Lone Star Marina, so I made a drive over to it to investigate. Sure enough, it has been extended and is still working well. It will be where I launch for the foreseeable future. I’d launched there many years ago, back when the marina was called Don’s Port. The ramp is a bit of a pain to use. You have to back your trailer a long ways across a parking lot and then down the ramp, and the trailer parking is in a cramped area over a city block away from the ramp. But the ramp itself is working well, and the only one I know of that is, right now on Cedar Creek, so I’ll be using it.

Yesterday (Thursday), I launched there for the first time in many years, and fished the mid lake. I fished for bass for the better part of two hours without catching a single one, so decided to see if there was a crappie bite. I had my doubts, with the water temperature still close to 80 degrees. My crappie spots aren’t very good in the summer. But on this day, the crappie were biting, and really nice ones at that. I ended up catching 16 crappie that morning. I switched back to bass fishing and found a better bite in the afternoon, catching 9 bass. While crappie fishing that morning, for the first time since I bought the Lowrance Eagle Eye 9 FFS unit, I twice got to watch fish actually take my bait as I caught them. I have to admit, that’s pretty fun.

And speaking of the Eagle Eye 9, I realized that when I did the blog post about it, I neglected to post any photos of it. So I took a couple yesterday. This first one shows the down facing view of the school of crappie I was fishing.

And this next one shows the forward facing view.

That small depth finder below the Eagle Eye 9 is the 5 inch Garmin I’d had on my dash before I bought the Eagle Eye 9. I mounted it right below the Eagle Eye 9, and use it to see the depth right below the trolling motor, since the Eagle Eye 9 has a small blind spot at the front of the boat when in FFS mode, and I don’t want to use a split screen on it, I want the entire screen for FFS. This setup is working very well for me.

Here’s the 3.96 pound bass from Tuesday’s fishing trip.

And a really nice crappie from yesterday morning.