What Vacation Days are Really For...

Location: Cedar Creek Reservoir - Alabama

Time: 7:30 AM - 3:00 PM
Air Temperature: 56 degrees AM, high of 73
Water Temperature: 62 - 66 degrees
Lake Level: 580.47’ - In range, but I like it about 1 ft higher.
Weather Conditions:  3 mph.  Light.  Wind not a factor.

I took off again today to try fishing Cedar Creek.  Its been a very tough season with cooler weather and inconsistent water levels, water temperatures, storms, etc.

I caught  a couple quick ones at the pump house bay and picked up one in the bushes on the other side of Britton Bridge levee.  Very tough, very scattered.  I ran down the lake towards the dam end and fished a couple spots along the way; the beaver dam, the boat docks, etc. with no luck.  I tried the spot in the flooded timber where I caught some last week, but a boat was sitting on the spot.  I spent some time just exploring and enjoying the day.  I pick up a few bass and bluegill along the way - I think 3 of each if I recall. 

I fished my way back towards the ramp and tried the bay by the boat ramp again where they were 1.5 ft deep last week and picked up a few more.  All the fish were very small today and I believe they were all males.  I caught 7 but only ended up keeping 3 crappie.  I enjoyed the day, but fishing was once again terribly slow!

7 Crappie caught, 3 keepers, 6 other fish (not crappie) 

Big Bertha

Location: Browns Ferry - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 6:00 AM - 7:30 AM
Air Temperature: 51 Degrees
Water Temperature: 

Lake Level: 555.75' Strong current - 156,692 cfps

Weather Conditions: Light winds from NW - 6 mph.  Storm rolling in.  Moderate rain.

Yesterday I tried to fish Browns Ferry, but the wind was just too bad.  I instead putted around in the bay by my house for a little while with minnows under a bobber.  I caught one nice channel cat and one bluegill, but only stayed about an hour and a half.  I turned the catfish loose, but kept the bluegill for potential bait. I went home and reworked my transducer on my depth finder.  I've had trouble holding bottom at any decent speed, but I think I have it fixed now.  I also put a new drag that I made in the boat.

As the day cleared up, I decided to try to put out a 50 hook trotline.  I had a bluegill, some frozen shad, shrimp, and a handful of small bluegill I caught early in the week in a minnow trap.  I headed down past Browns Ferry at 6 PM and dropped the line behind the island where the power line comes across in about 12 FOW. 

I got up this morning and it was already starting to rain.  I knew a storm front was coming in, but the weather forecast it to start a little later than it did.  My goal was to get the line ran and in the boat as quick as I could before weather got really bad. 

I made it out no problems and began pulling the line.  I could see one fish splashing about 6-7 hooks down.  Otherwise, it didn't feel like there was much on the line.  As I got close, I saw the fish was pretty big... but I didn't realize how big!

I pulled this fat lady in and practiced CPR (Catch, Photograph, Release).  She was a hawg! It weighted 40 lbs!  That easily puts this fish in my top 5 of all time and possibly the top 2 or 3.  I pulled in one more channel cat down the line and found an empty hook were I had lost one.  Not a day full of lots of fish, but Bertha made the trip totally worth it!

Big Bertha!! 40 lbs.

Hitting the water to put out the lines.  My community boat ramp.

50 Hook line boxed and baited.  Ready to roll.

A new line drag I built.

Did some work on my transducer earlier today - Holding bottom now at 35 mph FULL SPEED!!

Where There's a Will, There's A Wind...

Location: Cedar Creek Reservoir - Alabama

Time: 7:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Air Temperature: 44 degrees AM, high of 74
Water Temperature: 59 - 64 degrees
Lake Level: 581.35’ - Right like I like it.
Weather Conditions:  12-22 mph.  VERY windy.  Wind variable.  Very cold windchill and very tough conditions

I took a vacation day again today to give it a go for crappie.  This was the warmest day we've had all week and it wasn't raining, but the wind was TERRIBLE. 

Fishing started out very tough.  I did manage to catch a couple out of the log jam in the bay by the pump house, but not many.  The blow down on the other side of the bridge levee didn't produce, nor did the big blow down up in the curve of the river upstream.  I ran all the way to the dam and fished my holes up there, but nothing produced either.  I was having a terrible time in the wind and really the only thing I could think of to get out of the wind was to try the south shore.  I haven't hardly explored the south shore at all.

I mapped out a spot that looked good and headed to a large forked bay on the south side.  It was covered in standing timber about 12 feet deep.  I trolled to the back of the bay and spotted a shallow blow down on the bank among the timber.  Finally, some mild success.  I quickly pulled three out of the tree in about 2-4 feet of water.  I picked up a couple bass along the way, but no more crappie.  I took the time to explore a bit and found a giant osprey nest. 

I headed back towards the boat ramp and thought I'd try the pump house bay again, but had no luck.  Just as I was about to leave, I decided to try one more very small inlet on the south shore right by the boat ramp.  Much to my surprise, I quickly caught 3 more from a submerged stump in about 1.5 - 2 ft of water.  Very shallow!  This got me to thinking I may have been fishing too deep, so I ran back under the bridge and tried a couple other spots on the south shore, but no luck. 

In total, I believe I caught 8 crappie (6 keepers), 3-4 Large mouth and a yellow bass.  Minnows under a slip bobber outperformed jigs today.  Fish were very scattered and the wind made fishing very tough, but it was still a good day.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

Location: Cedar Creek Reservoir - Alabama

Time: 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Air Temperature: 44 degrees AM, high of 70
Water Temperature: 65 - 67 degrees
Lake Level: 580.69’ - 6-8 inches lower that I like, but not bad.
Weather Conditions:  6 mph North, North-West. Much more manageable than yesterday.

Today was really a repeat of yesterday.  Same tactics, same locations.  Only difference is the air temp is about 10 degrees warmer and the wind isn't a factor.

The bay by the pump house was a bust entirely.  I quickly moved over the the bushes by the levee and pick up 2-3.  I then moved over to the blown down tree top I've been having good luck with and pulled out another 4-5. I then moved upstream to the new blow down I found in the channel bend over deep water and picked up another 3-4.  I then ran up to Lost Creek to the boat houses but that was a bust today too.  I ran quickly back over all my spots again after lunch, but the bite had turned off.  Much like yesterday, fish were scattered and driven deeper.  Ended up catching 12 crappie and 7 were big enough to keep.  Also caught 3 largemouth and yellow bass.  Females were again deeper than males, but of the couple females I cleaned, one had eggs ready to lay.  This is the first one I've seen that has been ready to spawn.

Crappie hit about equally well on minnows under a bobber and vertical jigging a red and chartreuse tube jig.  3-8 FOW.  Going to give it a few days break since another storm front is moving through tomorrow and bring in several days of cold weather.  I will plan on trying again on Friday.

Cold Front Crappie

Location: Cedar Creek Reservoir - Alabama

Time: 7:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Air Temperature: 44 degrees AM, high of 60
Water Temperature: 66 - 68 degrees
Lake Level: 580.93’ - 6-8 inches lower that I like, but not bad.
Weather Conditions: Terribly windy.  12 mph North, North-West. Gusts of 20 mph.  Very cold wind chill effect.

A storm moved through on Thursday morning and brought a serious cold front with it that settled over us Thursday night.  This made for a chilly start of the morning with an air temp of 44 degrees and a wind chill of about 39 degrees.  The north wind was very cold and made fishing some of my favorite spots too rough to stay in place and be able to fish bobbers or vertical jig.

I tried my typical spots, but the pump house bay didn't produce at all and the bushes by the levee only had a few stray fish in there.  I couldn't stay in place over my tree top where I had good luck on Monday and struggled to pull a couple crappie out of it.

I knew if I were to have any luck at all, I needed to focus on the north banks where I was protected from the wind.  I also decided to explore some of the far east portions of the lake that I had never visited before.

I found a nice bay around the bend and set up with my bobber and minnow setup and picked up a couple decent largemouth and a single crappie.  Then I found a very large deep water blow down tree top in the bend a little further upstream.  Here jigging worked better with my red and chartreuse tube jig.  I pulled 3-4 out of this area.

I repeated all my spots and only picked up a stray crappie or two along the way before deciding to go up to Lost Creek and try some spots I had good luck with in 2018.  No luck at all in the small inlets on the east side of Lost Creek bay, so I rode over to the boat docks on the west side.  The boat dock owners had sank several Christmas trees around the boat docks and I managed to pull 2-3 out of here.  I then went back and repeated all my morning locations with no more luck.

In summary, the cold front seems to have scattered the fish and driven the females deeper.  I caught 13 total with 8 large enough to keep, but these fish were hard to come by and definitely very scattered.  Hoping to try again tomorrow morning and see if conditions stabilize and I can do a little better.  It is supposed to be slightly better conditions.

A Change in Tactics Pays Dividends

Location: Cedar Creek Reservoir - Alabama

Time: 10:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Air Temperature: 83 degrees high.
Water Temperature: 68 - 72.5 degrees
Lake Level: 581.76’ - Perfect level and conditions.
Weather Conditions: Calm. Sunny.

Got a late start and didn't get to the lake until mid morning.  Fished mostly around the Britton Bridge area today.  Concentrated on the bay by the pump house, cyprus trees, some bushes on the east side of the road way levee, and a tree top in a southern inlet to the east of the bridge.

I started my morning in with minnows under a slip bobber in the cyprus trees, but only caught one.  Fishing was slow.  I moved to a tree top in an inlet and caught one more.  At this point, about an hour and a half had passed and I decided to swap tactics entirely.  Conditions were perfect, so I had to find something that the crappie liked.

I swapped over to my 11' jig pole and tied on a 1/8 oz jig head with a red and chartreuse tube skirt.  I was trying to go ultralight so it would fall slowly  and be more sensitive.  I begin vertical jigging with this single pole, single jig in the tree top and... SUCCESS!  I immediately began getting strong hits in 3-5 FOW and started hauling the crappie in.  I proceeded to catch about 10-12 out of the same tree top.

After this area slowed, I moved down to some bushes on the east side of the road way where I had success in 2018.  Immediately, they began pounding the jig and I pulled 5-6 more out of this bush.  I then moved over to the pump house bay and jigged the log jams.  Same successful results as I pulled another 6-8 out of this area.

After the pump house bay, I went back to the tree tops and started over.  About 2:00, overcast conditions began to blow in and the fishing shut off like a light switch.  I tried switching back to the minnows and went down to the dam end of the lake, but nothing work.  The day was done.

I ended the day having exclusively caught crappie.  I pulled 27 out of the water but only 19 were big enough to keep.  I'll take it! Overall, this was an excellent day and showed that sometimes a change in tactics really pays off.  I cleaned the fish and they dressed to about 4 lbs.  About 60% were males, but this was an improvement that suggested more females were beginning to move into the shallows compared to the prior week.

We made fish tacos for dinner!

Thomas's First Time on the Water and Daddy's First Trotlines in nearly 20 years

Location: Wheeler Lake - Cowford/Swan Creek Area - Alabama

Time: 7:00 AM - 8:30 PM
Air Temperature: 58 degrees AM
Water Temperature: 62 - 67 degrees
Lake Level: 554.91' - 97,667 cfps - A little heavy on current, but level is correct for this time of year.
Weather Conditions: Calm. Sunny.


Decided to take the 50+ 2-3" bluegill I caught this week in minnow traps and do a trial run of my new trotlines with nothing but live bait.  Jessica and Thomas helped me to put a 50 hook line just east of the Cowford boat launch in about 9-10 FOW.  We put the line between the channel and the feeding flats in hopes of targeting flathead catfish with the live bait.  We placed it about 6 pm on Saturday and ran the line out and came back to bait it in the water. This was Thomas's first time out on the water! 

I came back out this morning (Sunday) by myself to run the line.  On hook number 2, I had my first fish! Although I didn't catch any flatheads, I did haul in 4 channels and one nice blue.  My line did get snagged on something pretty solid around 20 hooks in.  I did have to cut and re-tie, but that is just part of it.  Hooks 20-30 seemed to do the best.  Lots of empty hooks.  I think the bluegill got off the line rather than catfish throwing the hooks.  I think I ended up with about 20 lbs of fish.  They made a nice mess once filleted!.  These new lines are nice and I can't wait to run them again.

COVID Crappie

Location: Cedar Creek Reservoir - Alabama

Time: 7:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Air Temperature: 58 degrees AM - 75 degrees afternoon
Water Temperature: 62 - 67 degrees
Lake Level: 582.63' - Very high for conditions, starting to clear.
Weather Conditions: Light winds to Calm. Sunny.

Day two of my 2020 COVID crappie season 😂.  I ran minnow traps all week to try to stock up bait just in case.  I tried several creeks around the house and even let the traps soak for a couple days in the swampy pond beside my work location in Hartselle.  Only caught 4-5 creek chubs, but caught 50+ small bluegill around 2-3" long.  Also caught two crawfish and one bullhead catfish.  After all the effort, I was able to buy minnows in Hartselle on Thursday afternoon.  I think the bluegill are a little big for the crappie, so I will save them for a trotline.

I fished bushes exclusively with minnows under a bobber.  The lake was very busy, but most people were spider rigging.  Fishing was slower that my last trip.  I only caught 3 crappie, but all were big enough to keep.  I caught 5 largemouth and 1 yellow bass.  Going to let it settle down a couple days and see if the water will drop a little.  I will try again on Monday.