Starting Spring Crappie Right

Cedar Creek Reservoir

Time: 7:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Air Temperature: 42 - 62 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 55 Degrees
Lake Level: 580.6
Weather Conditions: Partly Cloudy. Winds N-NE 3-10 mph

I decided to take the day off of work today and start my spring crappie season at Cedar Creek.  Glad I did!

I fished minnows under a bobber today in the shallows and caught every fish in the bushes/log jams/tree tops, etc in about 3-8 FOW.  I fished all my typical spots.  Fish were a bit scattered, but they are in the pre-spawn pattern with males beginning to stake out bed locations.  Males are starting to get their spawning colors.  

I caught almost exclusively males today.  Had a lot of stolen minnows and caught about half of the fish in the blow down in the bend of the small end of the river.  I picked up 2-4 in just about every place I stopped.

I caught my limit fish #30 right around 3:30 and stopped to recount.  That's when I realized that I had kept every single fish I had caught today - ZERO shorts.  Never had that happen before!  I think I started the day with four dozen minnows.  Had ONE minnow left when I finished with a limit!

I call that a success!

Teach 'em Right

 Had a Father-Son day today with my boy and decided to take him bluegill fishing on the bank at the pump house.  Probably caught + on worms we dug out of the flower beds at home.  Thomas reeled in his first solo fish!  Needless to say, he had a blast!

Grain Fed

 Wheeler Lake - Decatur

Time: 8:00 AM - 11:00 PM
Air Temperature: 36 - 62 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 46 degrees
Lake Level: 552.59 - Strong Current.

Weather Conditions: Clear and Sunny. Winds variable 5-9 MPH

I decided to get in a catfish trip before crappie season started.  I headed over to the grain barges in Decatur.  They were loading/unloading grain pretty rapidly and moving barges, so I back up a bit and anchored.  Current was very strong and it was all I could do to sit still, but I managed.

I used some frozen skipjack and casted behind the barges and fished bottom.  I've recently installed some new rod holders and acquired some new Abu Garcia reels and Ugly Stik Catfish Special rods.  This was a good time to try both of them out.

Almost immediately, I hooked a decent cat, but things got slow after that.  I managed to pull in two more, but wrapped up the day early before lunch.  Nothing spectacular to report, but never a bad day on the water.