Let's Stay at Elliot Branch (AGAIN!)

Cedar Creek Reservoir

April 21-24, 2023

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!

Hottest Crappie on the Face of the Earth

Cedar Creek Reservoir

Time: 8:30 AM - 2:30 PM
Air Temperature: 81 - 95 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 83 degrees
Lake Level: 580.74
Weather Conditions: Sunny - Hot.  Winds  SSE 5-11 mph.

Last fall at a wedding, Lance and I talked about getting together to fish one day this year.  He came down with the family and after a short discussion, we decided to try something I've never done - Summer Time Crappie.

I must admit, I'm a crappie idealist.  I fish when they are very patternable and predictable.  That's what makes the winter and spring bite so attractive.  I usually catfish all summer long, but crappie have to eat and they can be caught all year long if you know how they behave, where to look, and how to fish them.  I'm definitely not a summer crappie expert, but I was up for the challenge.

It's a long drive out to Cedar Creek, so we didn't get on the water until close to 8:30 AM.  Out of simple curiosity, I started out in a couple shallow spots I normally fish during the spawn.  I didn't expect to get bites, but crappie follow the bait fish and bait fish relate to structure and will go shallow.  However, no bites, as expected.

Pretty quickly, we defaulted back to classic summer approach: Finding fish over submerged structure just off of drop off areas and underwater features.  We set up in 12-14 FOW over some marked structure and turned the LiveScope on.  There were crappie hanging on there like ornaments on a tree.  We went after them with a single pole, single jig approach vertical fishing.  They were particularly suspended in about 8 FOW in and above the structure.  The fish immediately showed interest, but were very finicky to approach and slow to commit to the bite.  However, with a slow presentation and a little patience, we hooked up on the fish. They didn't seem to favor any one color over another.  They were picky in general, but I'd say we caught a fair even amount on white/chartreuse, orange/black, red/chartreuse, and minnow tipped and untipped.  

We fished about 4 marked areas and put about 10 keepers in the boat by lunch. We lost 2-3 top water trying to hoss them into the boat instead of using the net... I knew better, but laziness gets the best of me from time to time 😆.

After lunch, we headed to the far side of the lake to fish some other marked structure, but when we got there, the wind had picked up and shifted in a manner that made vertical jigging next to impossible.  We couldn't hold structure or catch any fish, but the water was super clear and we did identify a lot of sunken tree stumps and structure that we marked for next spring's use.  

We headed back to re-fish our morning spots, but the heat was brutal and the fish had slowed tremendously in the heat of the day.  We pulled about 3 more keepers out and called it a day at 2:30.  

We ended up catching 2 channel cats on jigs too.  We finished the day with 13 keeper crappie and 2 catfish.  Should have had 15-16 keepers had we been using the net.

Although we didn't bring home big numbers, I absolutely would call today a success.  I'd never fished crappie in 95 degree heat and 83 degree water, but we found fish and put fish in the boat and learned a lot in the process.  Lance and I had a great time fishing and catching up.  Hot day, but absolutely worth the effort.  Looking forward to doing it again next spring and I'll definitely be more open to summer crappie in the future.