Little Bear / Cedar Creek Reservoir
April 10-13, 2023
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.
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