Location: Cedar Creek Reservoir - Alabama

Time: 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Air Temperature: 55-68 Degrees
Water Temperature: 60-64 degrees
Lake Level: 578.87'
Weather Conditions: Light 0-6 MPH

Took a day off of work and fished solo today.  Water temperature and lake level were perfect.  From experience at Cedar Creek, I've learned the crappie really don't begin to bite until around 9-10 AM, so no since in getting here so early. 

I put in at the east boat landing today and rode down to the west bay and fished the small pockets.  I specifically concentrated on brush today.  I began catching crappie pretty quickly in tree tops with minnows under a bobber in 2' to 6' of water.  I realized after a while that some of the brush I didn't have luck with early in the day was because I was fishing too shallow on my slip float.  I went back over the deep brush fishing deeper (8') and caught some fish.  Most of the larger fish were caught deeper.

The successful pattern today was to catch 2-4 fish in a bush and then move on.  I was very successful in the west bays and pockets.  I picked up 2-4 more in pocked around the big boat landing bay.  I moved east towards the launch and fished the bay near the bridge and pump station on the north shore. I picked up 2-4 more there. 

Finished the day with 24 keeper crappie and threw back 2-4 shorts.  I caught a few yellow bass and largemouth.  Excellent day, perfect conditions!!

I cleaned the fish and ended up with 4 lbs of dressed fillets.  About 2/3 were females and eggs were milky.  Males were colored back with spawn colors.  Eggs seemed to be ready to release.

 

 

Location: Cedar Creek Reservoir - Alabama

Time: 7:45 AM - 5:00 PM
Air Temperature: Cold - 30 degrees in AM - 50 degree high
Water Temperature: 59 Degrees
Lake Level: 578.91
Weather Conditions: 6-8 MPH

Fished with Doug and Douglas Ainsworth today.  We used the same tactics as Doug and I did on 3-30-18, but started on the gravel shore immediately.  It was slow here and the fish were not on the bank like they were a few days ago, but the water also came up about 2 feet.  There is much more water in the bushed and brush now.  

We moved on and fished the north shore back towards the dam and picked up a few in pockets around brush, tree tops, dead snags, beaver dams, and log jams.  We were picking up more fish in the brush than we were last week.  We caught 4-5 more bass and a couple of short crappie.  

We fished 2' to 6' deep in 3' to 8' of water with minnows under a cork.  Ended up keeping 11 crappie total.  Good day.  Fish are either in a pre-spawn or early spawn pattern.  

 

Location: Flint Creek - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 7 AM - 11 AM
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature: 57 degrees
Lake Level: 554.32'
Weather Conditions: Windy.  9-12 MPH

Zero fish today.  Combination of wind and opposing currents made it very tough.  The water level is still a couple of feet short of where it needs to be to catch fish in here and in the brush. 

Location: Cedar Creek Reservoir - Alabama

Time: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Air Temperature: 60's
Water Temperature: 59 Degrees
Lake Level: 576.82 - A little lower than desired
Weather Conditions:

Fished with Doug Ainsworth today.  We fished the north coast from the center of the boat landing back to the large bay towards the dam.  We fished brush, tree tops, beds, docks, and gravel banks.  We only picked up one crappie in the bay where we launched the boat on the west bank.  We fished many bays and pockets as a guy at the gas station had described.  We started off slow.

We moved to the big bay westward and continued to fish pockets and brush. We began catching shoal's bass by throwing a minnow up on the ledge and letting it slowly fall over.  We finally picked up a couple crappie in the bay by the west road.  We fished along the north shore of that bay with the gravel bank around the drop off and some dead snags.  We picked up several fish in this area. 

We ended up keeping 8 crappie and threw 2-4 back that were shorts.  Minnows under a bobber 2' to 6' deep in 3' to 8' of water seemed to be the successful trend.  We ended up throwing back about 10 fish total which were a mix between bass and crappie.  Bushes did not produce well.  I believe the water is still just a bit shallow for bushes, but it appears we are in a pre-spawn pattern.  

A man walked in from the road and quickly caught 18 along the gravel bank we were fishing and kept 9.  He said he had did the same earlier in the week, too.  He knew his stuff and threw a small jig on a spinning reel.  

Fishing did not pick up until mid-day.  Much better fishing as the day went on and warmed.  We started using a "Quick Fish" technique.  After 10 minutes with no fish, move on!

Very good day and we learned a lot about the area that will help in the upcoming spawn weeks.

 

 

Terrible at taking notes...and remembering.

Location: 2nd Creek - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time:
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 552.44
Weather Conditions:

Didn't take good notes today...

Location: 2nd Creek - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time:
Air Temperature: Cold!
Water Temperature: Cold!
Lake Level: 551.5
Weather Conditions:

Fished around the bridge.  Didn't take good notes today...

Location: Shoals Creek - Wilson Lake - Alabama

No fishing to report today, but did re-purpose our Christmas Tree!

 

Location: Shoals Creek - Wilson Lake - Alabama

Time: Morning - Mid Morning through Mid Afternoon
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 505.79'
Weather Conditions: Light Wind

Fished with Doug and Douglas Ainsworth.  We set out for crappie and fished the north side of the bridge.  We focused on the west bank on the drop offs and submerged tops.  No luck.  We moved to the flats in the bend where the 25' submerged beds are.  We immediately caught 3 good crappie, but it didn't last long.

Near the dock and "No Wake" buoy, we spotted good fish on the finder.  These turned out to be catfish.  We caught 4 catfish pretty quickly using minnow and jig rigs bouncing bottom.

Fish finder was showing fish like crazy from the "No Wake" area all the way to the north bank.  We fished this entire area and found it all to be drum.  Screen was nearly covered with fish.  Literally caught about 100 drum! We caught them everywhere we dropped a line.

We moved to the HWY 72 bridge in the afternoon.  We caught one small crappie and 2 good white bass on the same line at the same time.  Also caught a couple bluegill.

 

 

 

Location: Joe Wheeler Marina- Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 9:30 AM - Dark
Air Temperature: 60-65 degrees
Water Temperature: 52
Lake Level: 551.2'
Weather Conditions: Morning rain moved out.  Went fishing afterwards.

This is only my 2nd time on Joe Wheeler.  Spent much of my time exploring.  Fished east side rock banks and marked some good brush.  Spent a lot of time fishing boat docks at the marina.  Spotted good big fish marks on the fish finder.  Catfish!!  Caught 3 catfish around the boat slips feeding on a bait ball.  I was using minnows and Bobby Garland 2" swimming minnows. 

Lots of bluegill around the bank and drop off in 14' to 18' of water.  Caught one crappie there.  Caught a couple drum in the area. 

Moved to target points and mouths.  Spotted some fish that turned out to be drum.  At dawn, moved towards the mouth of the main bay where it meets the lake.  Lots of activity in the center of the bay around 28' of water.  Need to try there again. 

 

 

Location: 2nd Creek - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 6:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Air Temperature: 55 degrees
Water Temperature: 51 degrees
Lake Level: 551.03
Weather Conditions: Very Foggy! Rain set in after lunch.

Caught some drum and bluegill under the bridge.  Started out trying to fish tops under the rock wall across from the landing.  No luck.  Fished rock wall south of the bridge on the wes side.  Marked some good brush and caught some bluegill.  No crappie today.

Location: Tennessee River - Clifton, Tennessee

Time: All Day
Air Temperature: 43 degrees in AM
Water Temperature: 51 Degrees
Lake Level: - Current 50,000 gpm - Very strong current
Weather Conditions: Windy

Fishing with Cameron Mcdonald.  Started the morning drifting for sauger by bouncing bottom with jigs tipped with minnows.  We were fishing in 20'-35' of water.  The bottom was hard rock and we were below high cliffs.  After a few drift passes, we couldn't find any sauger, so we went to creek mouths and fished for crappie.  

Got on crappie in 12' to 20' of water.  Caught several small crappie and several large brim.  Moved to Beech Creek.  There we floated minnows in 9'-15' of water under a bobber.  Caught several more crappie, most small.

Ended up keeping 4 crappie and 8 bluegill.  Probably caught 12-15 crappie total and 20-25 bluegill.  Good day.

Location: Shoals Creek - Wilson Lake - Alabama

Time: Morning - 6:30 AM to Dark
Air Temperature: Cold! 24 degrees in the morning.
Water Temperature: 50 degrees.
Lake Level: 505.75'
Weather Conditions:

Caught no crappie, but practiced depth finder techniques.  Started catching monster drum.  Caught several around the "No Wake" buoys at the marina.  Moved down toward the rock face and bay on the west shore north of the bridge.  Caught more huge drum.  Found submerged tops under the rock wall.

Moved to my marked positions on the flats.  More big drum.  Moved to ledge/point on the northwest side and fished drop off.  More big drum.  I was catching 20+ pound drums.  Also caught a couple catfish.

 

Location: 2nd Creek - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time:
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 552.'
Weather Conditions:

Main point of trip was to explore depth finder settings.  I had been studying how to use a depth finder in more detail.  Fished under the bridge.  Set on low frequency.  Was amazed on how well the fish showed up.  Caught a bunch of drum and bluegill.  New depth finder settings made it possible to actually target the fish I was looking at on the depth finder.  Literally caught the fish I was looking at.  Very successful using these new techniques!

Location: 2nd Creek - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: All Cay
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature: 52 degrees.
Lake Level: 551.04
Weather Conditions: Still warm for the fall/winter pattern.

Fished all my normal spots.  Caught a bunch of drum.  Caught one crappie early under the bridge.  Fishing was very slow. 

Moved down and fished south of the bridge.  No luck.  Tried fishing south shore in bay near dam.  No luck.  Fished around the lock by the dam in the slack water.  Caught a couple drum.  Nice place to fish.

Returned back to the bridge on the way back towards the landing.  Started picking up nice bluegill and crappie after lunch.  Caught a couple of catfish, too.  Ended up keeping 5-6 crappie and 5-6 bluegill.

Dressed out to be about 2.5# of fillets.  Used Minnows and Bobby Garland 2" swimming minnow jigs. 

Location: Cedar Creek Reservoir - Alabama

Time: Morning
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 576.09'  - Falling
Weather Conditions: Windy and Cloudy

Fished around flooded timber for crappie, but had no luck.  Spend some time scouting the lake.  Headed west towards the dam and found a creek on the north shore.  Good drop offs and channels.  Caught several bass while spider rigging.  Marked some brush.  Probably a good spot to spring fish.

Wormy.

Location: 2nd Creek - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: Morning - 7:00AM - 3:30 PM
Air Temperature: Cool 60ish in AM - warmed up to 80's.
Water Temperature: 78
Lake Level: 553.92'
Weather Conditions: 7 - 10 MPH North - North West.

Fished 2nd Creek for crappie.  Fished with minnows and jigs.  Fished in front of the landing at first.  Caught 1 crappie in 18' to 24' of water.  Slow.  Moved to other side of bridge to fish flat beside south side of the road.  Caught 5 white bass pretty quickly.  Jessica came up to join, so I fished under the bridge while she was coming.  Bumped bottom and caught 2-3 catfish quickly.

She and I headed out towards the lake and fished the large bay to the west of 2nd Creek, but wind changed and we moved to large bay on the north bank of the main lake.  No crappie, but picked up a nice 16"-18" largemouth and several small bluegill.  Bound the bottom of the bay to be very rocky.  Will be a good spot to shellcracker fish in the spring.

Came home to clean our mixed bag and found the white bass to be full of parasites!!  Will not eat these jokers again, at least for a while...

 

 

Location: Cedar Creek Reservoir - Alabama

Time: 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Air Temperature: Hot, 85 degrees.
Water Temperature: 80 - 82 degrees
Lake Level: 580.56'
Weather Conditions: Calm

This was my first time fishing Cedar Creek.  The North Alabama Crappie Facebook page showed people catching 40-60 crappie frequently, so it peaked my interest and thought I'd give it a try.  

The lake is not as big as I thought.  Tried fishing spider rights first.  Had a hard time finding suspended structure, but fished in 25' of water.  Quickly picked up 1 crappie, 1 white bass, and 1 catfish.  I was surprised to find 30-40' deep entire stands of timber underwater.  Fished slip float in trees, but no luck.

Spent most of the day just exploring the new lake, but didn't catch many fish. I think there is  good potential for deep water winter fish.  Explored 60% of lower lake.  Caught fish on minnows. 

 

Location: Browns Ferry - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 7:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 554.93'
Weather Conditions: Fairly Windy

Catfishing with Amy McGovern.  Attempted to goo out night fishing last night, but winds were very bad!!  Still very windy today.  Fished with shrimp.  Tried to fish the boils and discharge at Browns Ferry with rod and reel, but didn't have any luck.  We had some jugs floating to the SW along the flats on the Decatur side.  Did OK on jugs.  Didn't fish long, but caught 3-4 good catfish. 

Location: Browns Ferry - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: Afternoon
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 555.24'
Weather Conditions: 

Didn't take good notes today, but Jessica and I fished Browns Ferry in the evening for catfish.  Looks like we had a pretty good afternoon.  Caught at least 3 catfish.  I imagine we were using shrimp.

 

Location: Browns Ferry - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Air Temperature: 75-85ish degrees
Water Temperature: 86 degrees in boils
Lake Level: 555.85'
Weather Conditions: South - South West 7 mph.  Hot, but good weather.

Catfishing with Kyle Macomber.  Had trouble catching good baitfish again today.  All shad were very small.  Caught 1 gizzard shad for bait in over 1 hour of trying.

Got to Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant at 9AM and fished the discharge water in 32'-37' of water.  Fished the drop off of the underwater gas line.  Depth changes from 24' to 32' fast.  Fished with shad and also raw shrimp.  Kyle caught one stripper.  We bounced bottom for about 2 hours and 40 minutes and caught 15 catfish.  Biting and striking upwards much of the time.  Mostly blues, but some channels.  Shrimp did just as good as shad.  Had trolling motor trouble, so left early because couldn't troll anymore.  Overall good day!

 

Location: Browns Ferry - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 8:00 AM - 1:30 PM
Air Temperature: 72-85ish degrees
Water Temperature: 82 degrees in boils

                                 76 degrees in main lake
Lake Level: 555.84'
Weather Conditions: Light West wind, low humidity, sunny.

Catfishing with Dad.  Launched at Cowford Landing to try to get bait.  Had a hard time finding baitfish again, so had to use frozen shad.  Fished 32-37' of water along the boil line on the discharge from Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant.

Started the day by anchoring and casting slip sinker, but saw others doing better trolling and drifting.  We caught 2-4 then changed to bottom bouncing rigs.  Immediately began picking up more fish.  Maybe 20 minutes between fish, but most weighed 5-10# each.  Probably caught 12-15 cats.  A few channels, but mainly big blues on cut gizzard shad.  Some of the cats had big bellies.  Not sure if they have spawned yet, but  appeared to be full of eggs.  Fished around the green buoy.  

Location: Browns Ferry - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 8:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Air Temperature: 70-82ish degrees
Water Temperature: 77degrees
Lake Level: 555.9'
Weather Conditions: Light West wind, low humidity, sunny.

My dad came down to visit and we went out hunting for blue cats. Launched at the home ramp. Struggled to find bait fish. Very few shad except for small fry hatchlings. 2+ hrs looking for bait wasting time. Finally caught some shad at the Cowford Landing.

Rode to discharge water at Browns Ferry. We anchored in about 35' of water. Cast with slip rigs and tightlined the bottom with cut shad. Dad caught 6-8 drum and 1 largemouth bass. I caught 1 hybrid bass and 2 blue cats. Could potentially be a good place to troll for hybrids.

Several boats in the area catching fish. Worth revisiting the area.

 

Location: Bent Pine Pocket and Cowford - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: Lunch to Mid Afternoon
Air Temperature: 80-82 degrees
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 555.7- nice level for the area
Weather Conditions: Bad Windy. 8 - 15+ mph South.

Jessica and I set out from our home ramp. Extremely windy. Intended to go to swan creek, but couldn't with the wind and had to head back. Went into Bent Pine Pocket to escape wind. Caught some shad for catfish bait with the casting net.

Threw back excess shad and immediately noticed whit bass hitting to water shad we threw back. Started Jessica casting a Bobby Garland Money Milk and immediately caught fish. 5-7 white bass very quickly, almost every cast. Also caught 1 large mouth. Jessica was on fire!

Later moved to the swan creek area when the wind calmed, but it was too shallow.

Instead, we set up over a deep hole out from Cowford for catfish in 14-20' of water. We anchored, cast, and tightlined over the edge of the hole. Caught one beautiful flathead, 1 blue cat, and one 15-1/2" largemouth bass. Fun day for sure.