Three's Company

Cedar Creek Reservoir

Time: 7:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Air Temperature: 51 - 65 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 
Lake Level: 580.68
Weather Conditions: Cloudy. Winds N-NE 7-15 mph.  Windy.

Doug and Douglas joined me today for our annual Cedar Creek crappie outing.  I was tougher than my last trip for sure.  A front moved through a couple days earlier and I think they may have changed things a bit.

We started a repeat of my last trip, but fish were difficult to find in the shallows.  We caught a couple scattered here and there, but no big numbers at any spot in particular.  After a hard time in the shallows, we set up on deep structure and pulled 5-6 fish out of the deep on jigs tipped with minnows.  The deeper fish seemed to be bigger females.

Action picked up a little bit after lunch and we pulled a few decent fish out of the Lost Creek area around boat docks and creek inlets with minnows under a bobber.

We had a good day, but it was definitely tougher fishing.  We ended up with 16 keepers.  Should have had another 5-6 more for sure, but we struggled a bit with hook sets. 

Douglas took the fish home and cleaned them.  4 of the 16 were female.  Seems we're still fairly early in the spawn.  

Drinking the Kool-Aid

Wheeler Lake - Elk River

Evening of July 31 - Morning of August 1
Air Temperature: 72 - 80 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 91 Degrees.  HOT!!
Lake Level: 555.6
Weather Conditions: Rain drizzle and overcast.  Wind N-NW 6 mphs.

It is time to do our annual fish fry fishing trip and there is no better way to stock a freezer than with trotlines.  I recruited Doug and Douglass to help me out for a couple days in hopes of filling my freezer and theirs.

We put out 100 hooks per person in and around the Elk River.  We put one 50 hook like just north of the HWY 72 bridge and one 50 hook line in deep channel water out in the body of the lake around 45 feet deep.  These two were to be experimental.  The one in the Elk was baited with 40% live bluegill and put in a spot that might attract flatheads.  The deep water line was to see what was lurking in the deep and if a thermocline has any impact on summer fishing.  We place a 100 hook like out from the island towards the channel and another 100 hook like on the Courtland side below the bluffs.

For bait, we had plenty of freezer shad and for giggles, I decided to play along with the trend of chicken and, yes, Kool-Aid.  We soaked two pounds of chicken gizzards overnight in Kool-Aid and garlic powder.  We baited every other hook shad then chicken. 

When we deployed lines on Saturday evening, the recreational traffic was insane.  We had to be very careful due to all the boat traffic.  We ran into a couple snags putting lines out due to traffic and being out of practice, but got all of them out shortly after dark.  Now to let them soak...

We got up early Sunday morning as was immediately met with rain showers.  The weather forecast was calling for scattered early showers, but as time went on, the rain set in and was going to stay.  We delayed an hour, but eventually had to go out there.

We ran the 50 hook like in the Elk first during a break in the weather.  I believe we caught 6 off of this line, but it was shallow and we had some casualties due to the stagnant, hot water.  Soon after, we headed to the other deep water 50 hook like and Douglas pulled this one as well.  We did better in deep water.  All fish were alive, but no monsters like we were hoping for.  However, it was nice to see that no lack of oxygen in the deep existed and this line actually did better than the shallow line likely due to cooler temperatures at depth.  

We headed over to the bluffs and Doug pulled this line.  It was a solid line.  We had weighted the center of the line and caught fish all throughout.  At this point, we were very impressed on the performance of the chicken and Kook-Aid.  We had been keeping all fish between 2-6 lbs and had threw back a few on each end of the range.  

Finally, we headed back towards the island to pull in the last long line.  I pulled this one in.  As soon as the anchor was up, I could feel good fish.  We caught stead fish, but with about 40 hooks left, I could feel something nice.  I made comments along the way, " yes, I still feel it".  10 hooks later, " yes, its still there".  " It's big.",  "This is a nice fish, guys."  After about hooks of feeling tugging, we finally came to the last 2-3 hooks and finally surfaced our big fish.

As she surfaced, she was fighting hard.  I had to let line spool back out like a drag.  Finally we tried to net the fish, but even my big net wouldn't due.  We got it up against the boat and I reached into its mouth and hauled her in.

She's BIG!  51 lbs and some change and we had my larges trotline fish ever in the boat.  This fish is my 2nd largest fish ever and a boat record.  We took photos and released her back to the depths unharmed.

It was a fantastic day.  We caught a total of 50 fish which equates to one every 6 hooks on the average.  Learned that deep water in the summer is still a good bet and chicken and Kool-Aid is a real bait option.  

We cleaned 32 fish and dressed 17.5 lbs of clean fillets.  Were all set for or fish frys!

2021 Spring Crappie Finale

 Cedar Creek Reservoir

Time: 7:30 AM - 2:30 PM
Air Temperature: 61 - 78 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 
Lake Level: 580.24
Weather Conditions: Mostly Cloudy. Winds N-NW 6-12 mph

Doug and I took a day off today and hit the water for one last time for our spring crappie season.  It was a bit chilly and the cloud cover never lifted for long,

We started off fishing near the boat landing on the south shore.  The wind would soon get up and make the south shore tough, so we tried there in then shallows first with minnows and a bobber.  We struck out in our first 2-3 shallow stops, so we knew we needed to do something different.  

We decided to target deep water fully submerged structure like we had success with a couple weeks back.  We started on the east end of the lake on the big south bay in the bend of the river and quickly caught a few with the livescope and vertical jigging.  One we hit a couple locations here, we headed down to the far north west side of the lake and fished the narrow channel in the deep water we found fishing earlier in the year.  Once again, today we caught fish on ever single stop where we concentrated on submerged structure and jigging with the livescope.  The difference today was that we were pulling up good fish whereas a couple weeks earlier, only small, immature fish were in the deep structure.  

I don't believe we took any pictures today, but had a solid day.   Especially considering we had to completely change tactics.  We ended the day catching 20 crappie with 9 big enough to keep and one drum.  Once again, I was surprised to see 5-6 still hold eggs at the end of April.  Also surprised fish caught in 15-20 FOW over suspended structure hadn't moved up to lay.

Overall, I had a solid 2020/2021 crappie season averaging 24 crappie per trip and 12 large enough to keep each time.  Very solid improvement in progress over the past few years.  I'm changing over to catfish now and will pick up the long poles again in November.

Kicking off Cedar Creek Spring Crappie Season

Cedar Creek Reservoir

Time: 7:45 AM - 5:00 PM
Air Temperature: 58 - 78 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 63 degrees
Lake Level: 581.56
Weather Conditions: Sunny. Clear. Winds turning heavy. 6 mph to 15 mph SSE

Today kicked off our spring crappie season on Cedar Creek.  Doug and I cashed in a vacation day and hit the water.  We put in a Britton Bridge and fished the nearby south shore first.  Pretty much immediately, we got into the crappie while pitching slip bobbers and minnows into the stumps, bushes, and log jams.  They were hitting hard in about 3.5 FOW up to about 1.5 FOW.  Douglas and I pulled in several pretty rapidly.  Lots of short fish...

Afterwards, we went over on the north shore near the pump house and pulled out a couple, but is was slower, so we quickly moved on.  We headed under the bridge and looked for the structure I'd fished the past couple seasons on the other side of the road, but the water was too high to fish it by sight.

We rounded the corner upstream and fished the big blow down on the south shore and managed to pull several more out of there.  Again, many short fish.  I pulled 3-4 out of there on vertical jigs as well.

We tried the blow down on the north bank in the curve of the river, but had no luck.  The winter was not kind to the blow down and it is very rough in shape now.  

We headed all the way west towards the dam and went back into the cedar stands on the south shore to the area I did well last year.  We picked up about three largemouth there, but not much for crappie. We were well into a fish drought by this point of the day.

We headed back up to the north shore and tried all the typical areas, but struck out every time.  We did catch about 7 rock bass, but no crappie.

With our day getting short, we decided to head back to our first stop and re-fish that area.  Glad we did.  Doug pulled in two nice crappie and Douglas and I added several as well.  

Overall, it was a solid day.  Ended up with 15 keepers and threw about 20 back.  Caught a total of about 45 fish today.  

Social Distancing

Wheeler Lake - Tennessee River @ Mooresville/Arrowhead Landing

Time: 7:30 AM - 12:30 PMAir Temperature: 36 - 56 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 45 degrees
Lake Level: 554.13' ~ 111,111 ?? cfps
Weather Conditions: Winds turning heavy. 5mph to 24 mph SSE


For the first time in more than a year, I finally put COVID aside and had guests in the boat. Doug and Douglas Ainsworth joined me today for a crappie trip to Mooresville.


Overall, today was a terrible day to fish. The only thing attractive about the whole situation was a high temperature of 56, which didn't feel like 56 with the high winds. We had to bust 3/8" of ice just to get to where we were trying to fish. The water was very turbid and swift. Lake levels were about 2 feel shy of full summer pool. Very tough conditions for this time of the year, but there is never a bad day on the water.


Douglas and I fished up front with vertical jigs while Doug fished the back with minnows and a cork. Minnows proved to be a complete bust on the day. Jig fishing was very tough, as well. We started with red and chartreuse and only managed one fish. After a few color combinations, black and chartreuse finally seemed to be the ticket.


We fished tree tops and managed to catch 13 crappie with only 4 being big enough to keep. We caught most of these in 10-13 ft of water. Very tough day, but still had a great time fishing with these guys. Will definitely do it again when the weather improves.


Went home and cooked ribs and spent the afternoon with the family.

Trotlines and Fun Times

Location: Wheeler Lake - Cowford to Courtland - Alabama

Time: Morning
Air Temperature: 63 - 79 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 74 degrees
Lake Level: 555.85' - 51,566 cfps - Perfect conditions
Weather Conditions: A little choppy & overcast, clearing as day goes.  S-SE winds 4-10 mph.

Doug and Douglas joined me on Friday afternoon to bait and prepare lines.  They had never run full scale lines, so I knew they would have a blast.  These are the lines they helped me hand build over the spring.  

We ran 100 hooks per person, which is allowed by law.  We started by running down towards Courtland and dropping a 100 hook line below the bluffs and across the mouth of a little inlet.  This one was baited 100% chicken gizzards and was in about 24 FOW.  We put the next one N-S between the island and shore in Mallard Creek.  We baited this one with live bait and it was a 50 hook line placed in 9 FOW.  We put the third line (100 hooks) on the flats behind my house and baited it with cut bait and gizzards.  We put the final 50 hook line behind the big island by Cowford landing in 6 FOW and baited it with miscellaneous gizzards, cut bait, and whatever we had left over.  

We were on the water by 7:00 AM on Saturday morning and started with the line at Cowford.  We pick up 5 fish off this line and it was a pretty normal run.  We did pick up one that weighed in at around 20 lbs and took a picture and turned it loose.  

The next line we ran was the one in Mallard Creek.  Our intent was to target flatheads on this line with live bait in shallow water.  We knew we wouldn't catch a lot on this line, but was hoping for something big.  We ended up catching 2-3 channels but nothing giant.  It still was a good run.

The 3rd line we pulled was the one in the flats behind my house.  This one did really well and caught one flathead and mix of channels and blues.  I believe we pulled in around 6-8 fish off this long line.

The final line we pulled was the one towards Courtland below the bluffs.  This one was HOT!.  We caught fish nearly every hook for the first 5-6 hooks and picked up fish throughout the entire length of the line.  Both end of the line were very heavy with fish and kept us hopping for a few minutes.  This line pulled in 20-22 nice fish and was an absolute blast.  It was an awesome way to end the day! 

In total, we ended up with 38 catfish caught.  We had turned the biggest fish loose immediately and then took to deep water for a photo op and to cull what we had kept.  We caught more fish than we needed, so we took photos and turned loose the smallest and largest of what we had.  We kept around 16 fish for the freezer.  Overall, it seemed gizzards did the best, followed by cut bait.  Deep water did the best and fish consistently were on hooks nearest the weights across all lines.  As a learning point, I will probably sink all lines in the middle from now on when running deeper than about 12-14 FOW.

We had an awesome time and I believe Doug and Douglas got a good feel for trotlining.  I think we are all ready to do it again! Our lines were all 100% hand made and I'm proud of everyone that helped us build these this spring as they proved they can produce.