Cedar Creek

[Joe]

Crappie doing anything the last few days?
Joe

[Michael D]

Spent the day fishing on Cedar Creek on Saturday, May 6, 2006. We caught about 60 crappie using minnows under slip corks set about 7 feet deep and using 1/16 oz chartreuse curly tail jigs. The day was mostly sunny and brezzy. I fished around the cedar trees in the creek that leads to the Hwy 1770 bridge. We also caught some nice bluegills on purple popeyes tipped with wax worms. Crappie also hit this combination. Caught several bass on both the minnows and the jigs. Now the bad news, all the bass and crappie were too small to keep. The bluegills were large enough to keep, but we released them too. The bluegills were in about 2-3 feet of water right on the banks. This is still a very young lake and the future looks bright for it. Fishing pressure was fairly heavy on Saturday, but still plenty of water to fish.

[Joe]

Many thanks for the reply on the fishing at Cedar Creek.
When do you anticipate the Crappie will be keepers. Is the size limit 10"?
Joe

Spent the day fishing on Cedar Creek on Saturday, May 6, 2006. We caught about 60 crappie using minnows under slip corks set about 7 feet deep and using 1/16 oz chartreuse curly tail jigs. The day was mostly sunny and brezzy. I fished around the cedar trees in the creek that leads to the Hwy 1770 bridge. We also caught some nice bluegills on purple popeyes tipped with wax worms. Crappie also hit this combination. Caught several bass on both the minnows and the jigs. Now the bad news, all the bass and crappie were too small to keep. The bluegills were large enough to keep, but we released them too. The bluegills were in about 2-3 feet of water right on the banks. This is still a very young lake and the future looks bright for it. Fishing pressure was fairly heavy on Saturday, but still plenty of water to fish.

[Michael D]

Most of the crappie were about 7". The current size limit is 9" with a limit of 15 fish. I will guess that there are very few keepers out there right now. May be a couple of years as long as people respect the size and creel limits. The fish are small, but they are great fun to catch. Alot of fishermen on the water, but alot of them are bass fishing.

[Joe]

Thanks.
I guess the 7' crappie are stocked fish when lake was built.
Hope that the fishermen are honoring the size and creel limits.
This is a very convenient lake for those of us in Fayette Co.
Do most of my fishing in the Harris Chain [Central FL] in the winter. Had very good fishing this past winter. Go to St. John's on occasion. Got a 2# 5oz. that was mostly spawned out.
Joe

Most of the crappie were about 7". The current size limit is 9" with a limit of 15 fish. I will guess that there are very few keepers out there right now. May be a couple of years as long as people respect the size and creel limits. The fish are small, but they are great fun to catch. Alot of fishermen on the water, but alot of them are bass fishing.

[CrappiePappy]

Thanks.
I guess the 7' crappie are stocked fish when lake was built.
Hope that the fishermen are honoring the size and creel limits.
This is a very convenient lake for those of us in Fayette Co.
Joe

The Crappie that were stocked in Cedar Creek were 3" long .... 4yrs ago. I talked with people that had caught "keeper" Crappie from there, 2yrs ago. And they even said that they turned back a lot of 8.99" fish.
There were a lot of "minnows" released into the lake, as a jumpstart feeding tool. And the Gizzard Shad have made a comeback - either from being planted by anglers, or survived the kill-off that the KDFWR did before the lake was impounded. There was only supposed to be Bass, Channel Catfish, Crappie, Bluegill, and Shellcrackers in this lake. I've already seen/caught other "sunfish" species .... so, it is feasible that the KDFWR kill-off didn't completely work. I've also caught several Blacknose Crappie ... so they could have been part of the stocking brood, or additional stock that's been added since the original one.
There's a lot of Crappie in that lake .... and there's a lot of Crappie being taken out of it, not all of which are of legal size. The lake filled up faster than expected, and people started fishing it way before the fish had a chance to grow enough to be of any valuable size. I really wish they would have kept the lake closed for a year or two .... but, since it was intended to be a "cash cow" for Lincoln County & local businesses, everyone got greedy.

There's got to be some Crappie, in Cedar Creek, that are well over the 9" size limit. There's just so many dinks in there, that we may have to either adjust our fishing methods to find the bigger fish ... or wait a couple more years, and allow the numbers game to reach its potential.

............... luck2ya .......... cp