Time: 7:15 AM - 4:00 PM Air Temperature: 48 - 68F degrees during trip Water Temperature: Lake Level: 579.67 Weather Conditions: Mostly Sunny, windy, cool. Winds sustained North 10-14 mph
After my awesome trip a couple weeks ago, I got up with Kevin and we headed back to see how we could do. We had a massive cool front move through the night before and winds were picking up and temps were headed down into the low 40s for nightly lows. We weren't sure how we'd do with this sudden change in weather, but thought we'd give it a try.
The wind was definitely a challenge. We started the morning fishing east of Britton Bridge around the powerlines before the wind got up. We knew we'd be most exposed to the wind here, so wanted to get it fished early. We fished jigs tipped with tuffies in 12-14 FOW and had good luck immediately.
We moved around mid day and did some scouting around Slickrock and found a new spot that produced some of the best fish of the day. As we were leaving there, we found a school of crappie bunched up and not relating to structure. We chased them around with the trolling motor for a few minutes and pulled 3 out of there.
We moved out on the west side of the lake and fished the north shore as the wind got up. We caught a few crappie, but all were small. We did pull out 5-6 nice bass from this area.
We refished our morning areas after lunch, but the action had turned off. The wind really made jigging structure tough and we stayed snagged, but I felt we did pretty good considering conditions. Finished the day with 17 keepers and probably about as many throwbacks. Looking forward to the next trip!
Time: 7:45 AM - 4:00 PM Air Temperature: 54 - 88 degrees during trip Water Temperature: 75 Degrees Lake Level: 579.81 Weather Conditions: Mostly Sunny. Winds North 0-7 mph
I decided on a whim today to head over to Cedar Creek and crappie fish. Why is this a whim, you ask? Well, I typically hang up my crappie rods (quite literally, I have a very nice rod rack) from May until late November. I usually chase catfish during summer and fall months. However, I had a hunch I might could catch some crappie on submerged brush and there was a taste of fall in the air, so I gave it a go.
And limited out!
I concentrated entirely on the east side of Britton Bridge and mostly around the bay where the powerlines cross. All caught on white and chartreuse tipped with a tuffie or a slip bobber with a tuffie in 12-14 FOW. Caught 49 total and took my 30 fish limit home.
It was an all-around perfect day. Think I will try it again very soon!
Momma had to work today, so Thomas and I grabbed breakfast at Geez Burger and headed to Lucy's Branch to jug fish and eat ice cream at the marina. We call days like this "Dude's Day".
This fishing was terribly slow, but we managed one fish. Still had a great day with my buddy!
Wheeler Lake - Mouth of the Elk and near Lucy's Branch
Time: Morning Run Air Temperature: 75 - 81F during trip Water Temperature: Lake Level: 555.64
Weather Conditions: Nice, clear. Winds calm.
After spending about 2 years talking about it, I finally hooked up with Kevin to show him how I run big water trotlines.
YOUTUBE VIDEOS OF THE TRIP HERE:
I set out lines on Thursday afternoon and launched from Cowford and intended to run all the way down to the Elk river. It is about a 30 minute boat ride, but I wanted to enjoy my time on the water and the weather was great. I had two lines boxed and anchors placed in the front of the boat.
WARNING - GRAPHIC INJURY DESCRIPTION!!
I'm writing this after the fact, but I had the worst fishing related injury/close call that I've ever had while heading to put out these lines. Shortly after I launched from Cowford, I had gotten the boat up on plane running about 30 MPH when one of my anchor lines and marker floats came unwound. The pool noodle float flew up into the air like a kite on a string. I was somewhat annoyed and never slowed down, but instead attempted to grab the line with my left hand and reel the line back in. Suddenly, the float hit the water behind my motor wake as I grabbed the line and it was pulled underwater. The line became tight and started smoking through my closed hand. I felt the pain immediately, but couldn't get my hand off the line quick enough. I managed to pry my hand open just in time as the float ran out of line and pulled a 25+ lb steel I-beam anchor out of the front of my boat as sailed it right by my face until it crashed into the water. It all happed in just a split second, but it seemed to drag out forever. I slowed the throttle and realized I just had an extremely close call. The pool noodle marker float was in shreds behind the boat and the trotline anchor was gone for good.
I realized I hurt my hand pretty badly. I I took a look at it, it was bad. I has sustained severe rope burns on all five fingers and the palm of my hand. The line had burned away about 1/4" of flesh from my fingers and had cauterized them. It never bled a drop even given the severity. I was trying to figure out if I needed to go to the ER or exactly how bad it was. I was close to my neighborhood boat dock, so I decided it was best to pull in and walk to the house to check out the damage a little closer.
There really wasn't any think left to sew up and all a Dr. would could do is numb it, pack it, and wrap it. I decided I could do as much. I sprayed it down with Dermoplast, packed it with triple antibiotic ointment, wrapped it in gauze and tape, and put on a thick latex glove. That would have to do.
The pain was steady, but manageable. My hard-headed, stubborn ass decided that putting out the lines wasn't too bad and I had help the next day to pull them in, so I carried another anchor and float down to the dock and hit the water to fish. Gotta be tough to be dumb...
The culprit that made me cuss and left me with some new scars...
NOW BACK TO THE FISHING!!
I decided to put one line out on the west side of Lucy's Branch and the other in my favorite spot on the south shore across from the mouth of the Elk. This is the first time I put lines out since installing the programmable trolling motor and MAN, what a difference it makes in ease of deployment!!
I baited alternating hooks with cut bait and my Kool-aide and garlic soaked chicken gizzards. We returned at daylight to pull lines and it was a hit!! I won't spend a ton of time writing detail about the pull, but please check out the YouTube videos of the day above.
On the first line, we caught 41 cats which I believe is my best haul ever on a single line. This was the line across from the Elk. We caught 20-something on the second line, which is more typical.
We ended up catching 60-something and kept 58, I believe. We had both livewells absolutely running over with catfish. Kevin came to the house and we cleaned fish for hours over a few cold ones. I believe we ended up with 50-something lbs of dressed fillets. What a haul!!
Air Temperature: Lows around 42-57 degrees, Highs 65-75 Degrees
Lake Level: 582.63 - 581.57 - High Water
Weather Conditions: Mostly Sunny, moderate winds.
FULL YouTube Video Here:
April 21st, Friday
Lance and I had such a good time back last summer crappie fishing at Cedar Creek that we planned to come back in the spring and bring our families to stay at the cabins at Elliot's branch. (https://bearcreeklakes.com/)
We arrived mid afternoon at set out. Our families would join us on Saturday, so we had the afternoon to our selves to fish. Friday would be the warmest day we would have, but it was cloudy with south winds sustained at 13-16 mph. This made it a bit tough on us on where we could fish and we needed to concentrate on southern shores. We were largely confined to shore bushes as the wind would make deeper jigging very difficult. We managed to pull in a few keepers despite conditions, but had a fantastic time! I think we ended up keeping 6-7.
April 22nd, Saturday
Wind and weather conditions were much improved on Saturday. We started the morning out on the west side of the lake fishing jigs over vertical structure. We caught several nice ones and eventually began floating minnows as the day warmed up. We come across one good log with several nice crappie under it. In the afternoon, we moved east of Britton Bridge and continued to fish shallow picking up some additional nice crappie. We kept 17 on one channel catfish. By the time we arrived back at the cabin, we had enough fish for dinner and our families had arrived. Let's Eat!
April 23rd, Sunday
On Sunday, we set out again in the morning to fish deeper structure with jigs tipped with minnows. The weather was much cooler and the winds shifted from the North from 6-10 mph. We headed for the power line area east of Britton Bridge. From the minute we pulled up, the fish finder showed the structure lit up with crappie like ornaments on a Christmas tree. It was ON!! I didn't take a lot of photos today but most of our YouTube video footage came from today. We absolutely slayed them and blue and white jigs were fantastic. We caught 57 total crappie with 35 keepers. Our families were traveling back home, so we rolled in a little early and cooked steak dinners. What a fantastic time!!
April 24th, Monday
Lance and I both had to head back today, but we fished for a few hours before making our drive home. I again didn't take much for photos, but we caught 17 with 9 keepers. It was an awesome trip and I can't wait to do it again next year!
Took Thomas and Jessica out this morning form some jugging. We threw out 24; 13 in the shallows in about 7-9 FOW and 9 in the deep in about 32 FOW. We used my "Guzzard Punch" bait, which is chicken gizzards soaked in Kool Aide and garlic powder. Had a fantastic time and Thomas pulled in a big one! Ended the day with 8 cats and 1 drum. Ready to go again.
Air Temperature: Lows around 45 degrees, Highs 70-78 Degrees
Lake Level: 579.42 - 5879.9
Weather Conditions: Mostly Sunny, moderate winds.
April 10th, Monday
This year my brother-in-law, Daniel, and my Dad joined me at the cabin at Elliot's branch. (https://bearcreeklakes.com/)
We were ready to hit the water around 1:00ish and decided to maximize fishing time, we'd just fist Little Bear this afternoon. This was only my 2nd time on the water, but figured it was worth a shot. The weather was gorgeous and we had a good time riding around, but we struggled to get on fish. It was probably around 3:00 when we finally found a few scattered crappie. We were primarily fishing treetops with minnows under a bobber, although I tried casting a jig also with no luck. I think we ended the day with about 8 crappie caught but only 3 keepers. We called it a day and had some fantastic burgers and hotdogs for dinner
April 11th, Tuesday
We launched at Britton Bridge at Cedar Creek around 8:30 and set out looking for crappie up in the bushes. We had a slow morning in the shallows so decided to try fishing deeper structure. That was the ticket. They were biting black/yellow and white/chartreuse jigs pretty well. We were tipping with tuffies too in most cases. We put several good fish in the boat until it seemed all we were catching were smalls. At this point, we moved back into the shallows and begin catching fish with minnows under a bobber as the shallows warmed up. We picked up most of our fish in just 2 locations, but caught a few fish just about every where we went. We ended up catching 27 crappie with 21 of them large enough to keep. We spent the entire day fishing around the Britton Bridge area. It was a great day and we headed back to the cabin for a fish fry.
April 12th, Wednesday
After figuring out what worked yesterday, we decided to hit deep structure immediately. We got on the water at about 8:00 and went to work. It was a good plan and we immediately begin pulling in fish with jigs. After a while, the fish got small and we moved to the shallows like we did the previous day, but fish were scattered and much difficult to find. After a long dry spell around lunch, we decided to head toward the dam and fish some deeper structure. Unfortunately after getting to our target area, it was covered up in boat traffic so we were forced to changed tactics again. After only picking up a couple strays, we head to the Lost Creek area and fish boat docks and inlets. This was a good change and produced another 5-6 keepers. We left as the day got late and stopped at a couple spots around Britton Bridge to see if activity has picked up in some honey holes, but it had not. We finished the day with 21 crappie with 13 large enough to keep. Time for a steak dinner!
April 13th, Thursday
Dad decided to head back in early but Daniel and I planned to fish. We cleaned out the cabin and checked out but as we did, a big storm system moved in. Although we might could have waited it out or fished through, we'd had a great couple days so decided to call it and all head home.
We had a fantastic time and are already planning for next year. I believe we ended the trip with 56 crappie caught and 37 keepers. Dad and Daniel both took home about 4 pounds of crappie.
