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.

Eve of Christmas Eve

Wheeler Lake - Mooresville / Arrowhead Landing

Time: 7:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Air Temperature: 28 - 61 degrees during trip
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 551.57
Weather Conditions: Sunny. Winds North- North East 2-12 MPH.

Returned to Arrowhead today on a solo Christmas vacation trip.  Glad I did!

Early in, the fish wouldn't touch a jig.  Had early success fishing minnows under a bobber and caught consistently.  As it warmed up, I was determined to get them to hit jigs on the Livescope.  I tried all my trusty colors, but couldn't get them to commit.  I could seem them come inspect my jig, then move on.  Finally I put on a white tube body with chartreuse skirt and tipped it with a minnow.  Bingo.  

I fished this way from lunch onwards as the wind picked up with great success.  I ended up getting into some skipjack, too, so I put 9 in the live well for future catfish bait.  

Caught 60 total crappie today with 15 keepers.  Caught another 9 or so bluegill, bass, etc.  Ended the day with right around 90 total fish caught.  Excellent day.  

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.

2021 Cedar Creek Day 2 - Ridin' Solo

 Cedar Creek Reservoir

Time: 7:30 AM - 3:00 PM
Air Temperature: 51 - 70 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 63 degrees
Lake Level: 581.58
Weather Conditions: Sunny. Clear. Heavy winds. 12 mph to 15 mph W.  Sustained.

Today was day 2 of my month on Cedar Creek.  I hit it solo today.  I started out on the south shore near the Britton Bridge boat ramp and picked up a couple quickly with minnows under a bobber up against the logs.  They had an extremely soft bite this morning and setting the hook was very difficult. The wind got up and made it tough to stay in position.  I tried moving out a little deeper and pick off suspend fish over deeper structure and managed to pull a couple out of about 8 FOW with jigs and the livescope.  

The wind forced me to move on so I went to the bay by the pump house and pulled out a couple shorts.  I then intended to go under the bridge over to the good south side blow down, but there was a boat in the spot, so I went up the the north blow down in the bend instead.  As I mentioned yesterday, it is in pretty poor shape this year, but I parked on the east side and tied off and was able to put 3-4 out of it with minnows.  I worked several more small areas on the north shore but struggled to stay out of the wind.  Fish were very scattered, but I picked up a few along the way in 3.5 FOW to 1.5 FOW.  Fish were about 50/50 keepers vs shorts.

I ran up to Lost Creek, and the wind was terrible.  I intended to fish around the docks on the west side to stay out of the wind, but there was a boat there too.  I instead fished the dogleg bay on the eastern shore.  I jigged a couple out of the deeper water with the livescope.  Once finished, the boat was still in my preferred spot, so I just headed back towards the bridge.  

I tried to fish my 1st spot of the day again but the wind made it impossible.  I took another pass near the pumphouse with now luck.  As a final effort to fish out of the wind, I crossed under the bridge and headed to the south shore up against the road to be sheltered from the wind. 

Bingo.  This was the ticket.  I began pulling crappie out of the log jams and bushes in the rear of this area.  Fishing was strong and steady and they were striking the minnows hard again.  I pulled in several here to finish the day with 11 keepers and 11 shorts and one yellow bass.

As I mentioned, the fish were scattered and the wind made it extremely tough, but overall, I was very satisfied with what I managed to catch.  I'll head back Thursday with my Dad and brother-in-law.

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.

Crappie Fishing Ahead of a Weather Front

Wheeler Lake - Tennessee River @ Mooresville/Arrowhead Landing

Time: 7:30 AM - 12:00 PMAir Temperature: 33 - 49 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 45 degrees
Lake Level: 551.31' ~ ?? cfps
Weather Conditions: Light winds, 6 mph NNE.


Today was a repeat of my last trip to Arrowhead. I used a single pole/single jig with the LiveScope to pick crappie out of the blown down tree tops.


I fished the same tree top as previous near the mouth of the creek and had a very good day. The LiveScope showed fish stacked in there. I started with an orange/chartreuse jig and picked several out, but it was a little slow. I changed jigs several times, but couldn't hardly get a bit on any other color. I switch to a similar jig - the classic red/chartreuse tube jig and BINGO. That was the ticket.


I ended up pulling 31 crappie and one bluegill out of the tree tops in 6-12 FOW. There were extremely light on the bite and finicky, but it was a solid day. I kept 15. Lots of shorts today, which is good as it shows a health spawn over the past couple of years and growing fish to replenish populations.


Still getting the hang of the LiveScope, but very impressed.

Garmin Livescope - First Day on the Water

Wheeler Lake - Tennessee River @ Mooresville/Arrowhead Landing

Time: 7:30 AM - 12:30 PMAir Temperature: 37 - 58 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 42 degrees
Lake Level: 551.63' ~ 85,000 cfps
Weather Conditions: Light winds, 5 mph NNE.


Today was the inaugural Livescope day. It was perfect.


I set out to repeat my tactics from the last couple trips to Arrowhead, but to focus on learning the Livescoope this trip. Immediately when the transducer pole was deployed, I was getting good images. I worked to dial in the setting for the first hour to hour and a half. I was mainly playing with the gain controls and found for muddy water, mid 50's on gain was a good setting. I normally use minnows and corks, but for the purpose of today's tests, I went with a single pole, single jig setup for vertical jigging so I could target specific fish and cover.


I was absolutely amazed to see the fish on the livescope system. You can clearly see schools of fish swimming together coming on and off screen. You can see the panfish coming in and out of structure. I was astonished to see the fish behavior and to watch the fish swim up to the jig, follow its motion, and decide to strike or pass.


My setup was perfect and all the work I had done on the installation and rewiring worked perfectly. If I had any criticism, I'd like to see the pole mount to be a little more rigid, but that is a minor picky point. Overall, it was perfect.


I fished two blow downs almost exclusively with the single pole, single jig method and as floored to see how quick I was putting fish in the boat. I didn't have my counters ready and lost count on the first few fish, but ended up catching at least 27 crappie with at least 19 being big enough to keep. I only caught one fish other than a crappie and that was a nice white bass.


Action slowed as the day went on, and I could see the crappie had moved below the structure and was hanging tight to the bottom. At this point in the day, I was ready to leave, but being able to see where the fish moved allowed me to know how to change my technique.


I was concerned how my new battery setup would work, but I only lost 0.1 volt over 5 hours, so that was perfect. I can't wait to get out there again. My initial impression is simple amazement.

LIVEACTION!

Well, after about 3 years of want, lust, and unhealthy desire, I finally made a commitment to her and bought my darling Lowe boat a Garmin Livescope!

All jokes aside, I managed to save up the money and while I was at it, I figured I'd address some of my boat electrical issues alongside the install.

I was able to find the Garmin 93SV unit bundled with the Livescope black box and transducer as package deal from mygreenoutdoors.com.  Kevin is the owner and made an impression by actually texting me and carrying out a conversation about the system when I was shopping around.  Garmin marked the chartplotter units down to $599 for the holidays and the $1,400 Livescope system had a $200 mail-in rebate, so it was a deal I couldn't pass up.

I decided while I was at it, I'd rewire the electrical circuits in the boat.  Since I bought the boat, all electronics were wired to the cranking battery.  It came this way from the factory and I added to the circuit on the cranking battery when I installed the Lowrance units previously.  This resulted in having a significant amp draw on the cranking battery and I'm constantly having issues running the cranking battery down when using electronics on the water.

I decided to install a dedicated battery for all electronics.  In doing so, I wanted to also install a new fuse box to clean up the wiring.  It's a birdnest from the factory.

I decided to put in this 12 circuit fuse box.

I bought a new Diehard Gold 29MH for my electronics battery.  This massive battery has a 210 minute reserve, which was my driving reason for buying it.  Finding a place for the new battery was a challenge.  There isn't any more room in the back of the boat and I didn't need the additional weight in the rear.  I found that there was a hollow spot to the starboard of the front livewell that was directly in front of the steering console.  I cut open the firewall from the front storage compartment and the hollow area was the perfect size and shape to house this battery. Additionally, the location in relation to the steering console made it perfect for running wire to the console.

The new Garmin black box is really the brains and processor of the Livescope system.  I needed a safe place to mount this that was out of the way and secure.  I found that the deck stiffening struts under the front deck made a perfect place for a shelf, so I cut a piece of lightweight aluminum to fit the area and mounted the black box.

 

Next, I mounted the screen.  I made a mounting bracket that lifted the screen up and over the trolling metal foot well.  I think installed a ram mount and mounted the screen.  I was able to pass the power wires through the existing plastic panel where the trolling motor plugs in and feed the transducer cable under the foot pedal.  I installed the 54UHD transducer for side/down imaging and traditional sonar on the trolling motor.

Now that the major components were in place, I began the rewiring process.  I removed all electrical circuits off the factory fuse box and carefully labeled them all.  I installed the new fuse box under the console and reinstalled all circuits to the new, labeled fuse box.  Any circuits that needed new wire were ran with 14 AWG. I made sure that all holes drilled through the boat were lined with protective rubber grommets.  4 AWG battery leads were installed between the fuse box and the battery.  I also installed a new 5 amp on board charger.  I didn't want the cord getting in the way, so hid it behind a panel and wired a female recessed receptacle so I could simple plug in an extension cord when ready to charge the battery.  This installation was slick. Once everything was wired, I tested all the switches and circuits and everything worked perfectly.

 

Now that all the wiring was finished, all that was left was to install the Livescope transducer.  I wanted the transducer pole mounted such that it could be independently pointed and was not reliant on trolling motor direction.  I used 1" CPVC for the pole mount.  I used reducers to step down to a 3/4" PEX and slid the 3/4" PEX through greased 1" to act as a sleeve for the swivel motion.  I epoxied the PEX connections.  I installed a 1" coupling to the bottom of the pole because the Livescope perspective mount bracket fit that coupling diameter perfectly.  Once all assembled, I sanded the CPVC and applied paint.  I used a couple Scotty ball mounts and a couple U-bolts to attached the pole to the boat.  I made a vinyl arrow sticker to mark the direction the transducer is pointing.  Below is the final result.

 

I think with every expense accounted for, I have about $2,700 in the complete finished install.  I'm very pleased with the entire project and it came out very clean and professional.  Now to get it in the water and try it out!