Thread: Well, true to my word ....

I've heard that the line of trees across the lake from the dam ramp, is a good spot for keepers ... but, can't verify that.

I TOLD YOU THAT. Doubting me, huh, cp? :P

Well, I've been busy doing other stuff besides fishing lately. Finally got out and wet a hook last week. Went and got my trout permit and have been doing some fishing at a little pond in the Big Double Creek Park here (one of Kentucky's stocked trout areas). Caught my first trout last week... a 1.5 pounder, on a white rooster tail. Quite a bit of fun, and don't you think THAT sucker did the "bass leap" thing? I had no idea trout did that, but that one sure did. I caught him on my crappie rod, too, so that was definately a battle.

Over this past weekend, went on the second trip down to Lake Cherokee in Tennessee. Bought that whopping $41 annual non-resident TN license. Went for stripers, again came home empty-handed. My dad again caught one and skunked me out, but the one he caught this year PALED in comparison to the monster he reeled in last year. Went out in the evenings by my lonesome to see if I could get into any crappie. In riding around, found some awesome places that LOOKED like they might hold crappie, but, if they were there, they wanted nothing to do with my white curlytail jig. Ended up catching a 5-6" largemouth, my only fish of the trip. Oh well.

Since Dad and I have those annual licenses, we will undoubtedly be going back soon. Stripers seem to be in the transition of going from the shallows to the depths of the lake. Once they are schooled in the deep water, we'll whip out the deep-water jigging spoons and try our luck again here in maybe a few weeks. Still waiting to catch MY big 27" stripe!

Sorry I've not been on lately, but it's nice to see people still haven't given up on Cedar Creek. With the prices of gas lately, I think it will be hard to get my dad to head up that way with the big 19' Tracker. When we feel the need to crappie fish, we'll probably be heading to nearby Buckhorn.

Keep at it, cp. And I'm telling ya... around the end of July, get on ya a boat and throw a white curlytail around that line of trees I'm talking about. I've never been able to replicate the success I had fishing for crappie that day, and it was that day that got ME hooked. There were lots of BIG crappie there last year... I just hope everyone hasn't harvested all the big ones.

Good luck to everyone.

I have fished this lake for two years and this spring my wife and I fished it
a number of times during march and April. This year is the first time that
we had a number of 9 inch and over so I think there is so hope. I have caught
a few over 12 and 1 about 14. I hope this picture post as it is the first time
I have posted a picture. All the big fish were caught on popeye jigs.

Willie

I'm glad to see that there is "some" hope for Cedar Creek Crappie :D

Yeah Matt .... I was "quoting" you, not "doubting" you .... LOL!! I just couldn't remember "who" had told me that. What size curly tail were you throwing ? I'm not much on curly tails ... but, if it works, I get like it !! Any particular depth range, that they seem to prefer ?

Wday1 ... Welcome to Crappie.com !! Looks like you've got them figured out a little better than I have
Any particular color "popeye" they fancy more than any other ?? I can catch them on 1/32oz Chartreuse Roadrunners, and 1/32oz jigs (FloatnFly setup) ... but, being bank bound, I don't have a lot of options on places to fish from ... so I end up catching the little guys that hang around the bank from first light til 9 or 10AM. I suspected that they would be up in the shallows early in the year (Mar/Apr) ... I just never got the chance to get down there. Any particular area that seems to produce better for you (that you don't mind sharing).

I'm working on getting a boat fixed up, to use ... so I may be able to do a little more damage than just put hook holes in the dinks :p My youngest bro is selling his boat, and I'm fixing it up for him (while secretly stalling for time to get some use out of it, first ... LOL!!) Hopefully I'll be able to convince him that it won't sell for what it's worth, and he should just keep it (in the family) and let me use it.

You boys take care and keep up the good reports ..... luck2ya ... cp

We fish water 2-4 ft deep that has hardwood cover with a 1/32 popeye on a spinning reel with a small slip floater it can be hard to fish some times but we flip it like you would a bass rig. If you find a good spot you can caught a boat load of small fish. Keep another reel with a 1/16 popeye and fish close to the same spot but in deeper water 6-8 ft deep you will pick up bigger fish sometimes. We use Chartreuse or white popeyes. I have posted a picture of the kind of cover we fish in the spring. You should have no trouble on this lake finding cover like this.

For sure no trouble in finding a place that looks like that on Cedar Creek, darn tree-filled puddle of water it is.

As for the curlytail type, I (almost) always use a 2" white on a 1/8 white jighead. I think the curlytails I was using at the time of the wonderful sucess was made by Yum, and I bought them at Wal-Mart in a little bitty baggie. I also bought those jigheads from Wal-Mart, but can't remember anything other than that they were 1/8". The depth I was catching them at varied. At first, when it was still kinda late in the afternoon (4-5 pm?), I was catching them right under the surface. Later in the evening, I began letting the jig sink for about 5 seconds before reeling. I was doing a reel-reel-jerk-stop-repeat kinda thing. It seemed like most of the fish were hitting in the "stop" of that combo. Most other times I have ever caught crappie, that was the best reeling variation I found. It seems that erratic jerking just gets 'em excited, and then the stop gives them a chance to hit. I wasn't really watching my line... just waiting for resistance through the reel, then setting the hook.

CP, I am appalled at you not having a boat. Have you always fished from the bank? I am amazed you have so much knowledge about crappie fishing just from being on the bank for so long. It kinda makes me wanna convince Dad to come to Cedar Creek just so we can take you out for a little ride. And, to make matters even worse, cp has to "swindle" a boat from his KID BROTHER. Ugh. :P

Yes, that is what crappie in Cedar Creek looked like LAST YEAR. On the two trips I made there this year, I didn't even catch any, so who knows. Sounds like most of them are much smaller than that, unfortunately.

Keep tearing em up, wday, and maybe you can take poor ol' cp and I out and give us some pointers. :D