2021 Cedar Creek Day 2 - Ridin' Solo

 Cedar Creek Reservoir

Time: 7:30 AM - 3:00 PM
Air Temperature: 51 - 70 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 63 degrees
Lake Level: 581.58
Weather Conditions: Sunny. Clear. Heavy winds. 12 mph to 15 mph W.  Sustained.

Today was day 2 of my month on Cedar Creek.  I hit it solo today.  I started out on the south shore near the Britton Bridge boat ramp and picked up a couple quickly with minnows under a bobber up against the logs.  They had an extremely soft bite this morning and setting the hook was very difficult. The wind got up and made it tough to stay in position.  I tried moving out a little deeper and pick off suspend fish over deeper structure and managed to pull a couple out of about 8 FOW with jigs and the livescope.  

The wind forced me to move on so I went to the bay by the pump house and pulled out a couple shorts.  I then intended to go under the bridge over to the good south side blow down, but there was a boat in the spot, so I went up the the north blow down in the bend instead.  As I mentioned yesterday, it is in pretty poor shape this year, but I parked on the east side and tied off and was able to put 3-4 out of it with minnows.  I worked several more small areas on the north shore but struggled to stay out of the wind.  Fish were very scattered, but I picked up a few along the way in 3.5 FOW to 1.5 FOW.  Fish were about 50/50 keepers vs shorts.

I ran up to Lost Creek, and the wind was terrible.  I intended to fish around the docks on the west side to stay out of the wind, but there was a boat there too.  I instead fished the dogleg bay on the eastern shore.  I jigged a couple out of the deeper water with the livescope.  Once finished, the boat was still in my preferred spot, so I just headed back towards the bridge.  

I tried to fish my 1st spot of the day again but the wind made it impossible.  I took another pass near the pumphouse with now luck.  As a final effort to fish out of the wind, I crossed under the bridge and headed to the south shore up against the road to be sheltered from the wind. 

Bingo.  This was the ticket.  I began pulling crappie out of the log jams and bushes in the rear of this area.  Fishing was strong and steady and they were striking the minnows hard again.  I pulled in several here to finish the day with 11 keepers and 11 shorts and one yellow bass.

As I mentioned, the fish were scattered and the wind made it extremely tough, but overall, I was very satisfied with what I managed to catch.  I'll head back Thursday with my Dad and brother-in-law.