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.

The drought has made March fishing quite a bit different for me than past years. And I’ve made fewer trips this year, with what seems like one health issue after another. The last half of this month has been terrible bronchitis, brought on some kind of bug. It was just about the time I was going to get back to a full exercise schedule. Instead, I’m still on my fat-adding, muscle-losing no exercise routine instead. Hopefully, I’ll be back exercising soon.

Cedar Creek has remained four feet low. Even in drought years, we usually get some decent spring rains, and the lake doesn’t get this low until summer, but here we are, end of March, four feet low. My best jig and bobber crappie spawning spots require a full lake, so those are off the table. I’ve explored several new spots that I thought might work on low water, and found a few with crappie. It hasn’t been a spectacular year for shallow spawning crappie, but I’ve caught between 10 and 18 very shallow crappie every time I’ve gone, a bunch of them really nice crappie, so I can’t complain too much.

The other pattern that’s usually so good for me this time of year is the shallow bridge piling pattern. There are a lot of bridge pilings with between 6 to 12 feet of water that seem to hold a lot of crappie this time of year, likely pre-spawn and post spawn crappie, but I suspect many do spawn in these areas too. Too many people seem to try and sit right on top of the crappie and lower jigs to them, but crappie at that depth tend to be too spooky from someone that close. I’ve found that casting and slowly swimming a double jig rig usually works much better. That’s become my standard go-to for these crappie.

But with the lake four feet low, that hasn’t worked well this year. With all the jagged concrete at the bottom of pilings, and all the rocks everywhere around it, with the water that low, you can’t retrieve the jigs slow enough to keep from getting snagged almost every cast. If you speed up the retrieve enough to stay off all the snags, it’s too fast a retrieve for the crappie; they just don’t bite. So I decided to try something I don’t otherwise do: I rigged a jig and bobber at 3 1/2 to 4 feet deep. That lets you stay back far enough to keep from spooking the crappie, but retrieve very slowly without getting snagged. It’s worked pretty well. I caught quite a few crappie on shallow bridge pilings this year.

But a bobber clamped 4 feet above a jig is just too awkward to cast well. A better setup is a bobber rig I hadn’t used in quite a few years: a slip bobber setup. A slip bobber rig lets the bobber stay close to the jig while casting, then allows the jig to drop to its preset depth after the cast. I ended up experimenting with different bobbers and bobber stop setups to find what I liked best. And I ended up surprisingly deciding that I’m going to start using this type of crappie setup more often. As soon as I saw how it performed, I started thinking of situations where I would want to fish a jig from 8 to 12 feet below a bobber, and became enthused enough about the prospect that I built myself a jig and bobber rod just for that. So far, I’ve only used it for the 4 feet deep setup and the 12 to 14 inch shallow bed setup I always used the jig and bobber for. But there will be summer and fall situations where I want to use a deeper jig and bobber, and I’m looking forward to trying it out.

All that said, my March fishing isn’t usually dominated by crappie fishing at all; it’s usually almost all sight fishing for bedding bass at Lake Fork. But the drought has severely impacted that too. Lake Fork is three feet low. That ends up having more implications for the bedding bass there than I would have suspected. First of all, like Cedar Creek water clarity, Lake Fork water is becoming muddier every year. It usually has so much vegetation in the shallow water, that that helps clear the shallow water some, even as the rest of the lake is muddier. Not this year. With the lake three feet low, all of usual vegetation is on the bank, or at least too shallow for bedding bass. So it’s just a sand bottom everywhere. There are spawning bass to be found on some of it, but the big bass are nowhere to be seen. I suspect they are spawning just deep enough to not be visible in this year’s muddier water.

Another problem with spotting bedding fish at Fork is the fact that the majority of bass anglers who fish for them don’t have enough sense to set their trolling motors more shallow than usual to keep from muddying the spawning areas. This is always a problem at Fork in the spring. But with the usual amount of vegetation, even after an idiot has severely muddied a spawning area with his trolling motor, it will clear fairly quickly. With no vegetation in the area this year, it isn’t happening. The area just stays muddy for hours. Much to the aggravation of those of us trying to sight fish who have enough sense to not muddy the water.

In three trips to Fork, I’ve caught 10, 10, and 13 bass with my sight fishing. But out of all of them, only one was over 4 pounds, a 4.20 pounder I caught Monday. There were a few 3 pounders yesterday, but not one was close enough to 4 pounds for me to bother weighing. I still love sight fishing, and will make the longer drive to Fork and play with the smaller bedding bass when I can’t find anything else. But I don’t think I’ll be making as many trips to Lake Fork under these conditions. I’m likely to shift my late spring fishing back to Cedar Creek sooner this year. I guess it could be worse. I could be stressing over work issues rather than fishing issues. I do enjoy being retired.

Monday’s 4.20 pound bass.

Winter has arrived, and as usual, the tougher bass fishing with it. I usually spend a lot more time crappie fishing than bass fishing in the winter, but with the Cedar Creek water level over 3 1/2 feet low, fishing has been tough at my winter crappie spots too. Some of them I can’t reach at all with the lake this low. Between the holidays and doctor appointments, I’d only gotten out once a week the past few weeks, and while I’d caught enough crappie to keep the freezer stocked, and a few bass as well, the fishing had been what I would call tough. I did manage a 4.16 pound bass last week.

But the weather had been milder lately, with water surface temps back up to 53 and 54 degrees, fishing was better this week. I fished mid lake Monday and caught 11 bass. Tuesday I was on the lower lake and caught 8 more bass. 19 bass in one week in mid January is not bad fishing, in my books. I didn’t catch any really big bass either day, but a bunch of solid, chunky fish. The weather has turned colder now, so the bass fishing is bound to get tougher again. I need to scout those crappie some more.

Last week’s 4.16 pound bass.

One of Tuesday’s pretty fish.

I managed to get out fishing on Tuesday and Thursday this week. It was pretty chilly both days, but Thursday sunshine warmed it up a bit in the afternoon. Fishing was tough. Tuesday’s wind kept me from being able to fish some of my lower lake spots. I managed to catch nine bass, the best of which weighed 3.62 pounds. Some of the morning water surface temperature was just 51 degrees. That’s getting close to winter water.

Two days and one cold front later, on mid lake, there was again lots of 51 degree water, and for most of the day, the bite was even tougher. Early afternoon, I had only managed to catch two bass, and no other fish at all. With the sun warming things up a bit later, I managed another seven bass the last couple of hours of fishing. Best bass of the day was a 4.46 pounder. As I type this Sunday night, the forecast is for a hard freeze tonight with lows in the 20’s, so I’m thinking winter fishing has arrived. I’m still going to fish for bass some, but crappie fishing may be my mainstay for the next couple of months.

Thursday’s 4.46 pound bass.