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.