Fishing on Cedar Creek has really been hit or miss for me these last few weeks, as summer tried to hang on. Morning water surface temps had been a little below 80 degrees, but with temps in or near the 90’s every day, last week was the first time this fall that surface temps stayed below 80 in the afternoon. Finally, with this week’s two cold fronts, the surface temp yesterday was 73 degrees in the morning, and only rose to 75 degrees. That’s finally more like fall temperatures. Crappie fishing has picked up, and I had been catching some crappie in less than 10 feet of water regularly. When that happens in the fall, crappie fishing is going to be good for a while, on days when the wind allows it.
But bass fishing has remained tougher. I’m finally seeing some better fish, but the numbers aren’t there at all, except for a couple of days when I caught a lot of small bass. But there are plenty of other fish to be caught. On Tuesday a week ago, I caught 9 bass, 7 crappie, 14 channel cats, 3 white bass, and 2 drum. All were caught on either a Ned rig or a crappie jig, a reminder that almost any kind of fish will hit these two baits. One of the bass weighed 4.16 pounds, and a couple of others were over 3 pounds.
Last Thursday was tougher for bass. I managed just 4 bass, but 10 crappie, 9 catfish, including a 12 pound blue cat, 5 white bass, and one drum. It’s enough catching that I’m having lots of fun on my trips, but I sure would like to see more nice bass. The bass I’m catching are very shallow, but not there in the numbers that are likely when the water cools down more. On the lower lake Tuesday, I caught 9 bass. Yesterday on mid lake, I once again only caught 4 bass, but one of them weighed 6.02 pounds. I’d sure like to be catching more bass, but I won’t complain too much about a tough day when that tough day includes a 6 pounder. And I caught 15 crappie yesterday, most of them really nice ones. All of those were 13 feet deep, in deeper water. I didn’t catch any crappie in shallower water. With the lake now almost three feet low, my shallower crappie spots may have become too shallow. Rain is forecast for today and tomorrow. It would be nice to see enough to raise the lake a bit. We’ll see.
A beautiful, healthy 6.02 pound bass I caught at Cedar Creek yesterday.
A number of yesterday’s crappie were really nice ones, like this one.
