This was the toughest fishing I have ever seen at Cedar Creek. Of course the big norther blew in Thur afternoon and Fri had NW wind gusting up to 30+. Saturday dawned clear and dead calm. Fishing behind a cold front in spring has always been difficult to find fish eager to bite. The first 2 hours of the day were really slow for most teams. Most teams didn't start picking up fish till after 10:30. Fish were on docks or on BPs less than 15 ft. One team did report catching fish in 22-26 FOW. That was the exception. Water is off color over the entire lake and north of Enchanted Isle it gradually gets more off color. Not typical Cedar Creek.

DIV I had 18 teams and DIV II 15 teams. Despite the difficult conditions, there were some good weights brought in. And plenty of fish 1.4 lbs and bigger.

DIV I




DIV II

That sure was the toughest I've seen that lake! Most of our fish came from way back under docks! JB special and shadowboy thump chubbies hauled em out of there! Was glad I finally got to put the 5'8" Boneheads to work! They've been sitting in the boat too long collecting dust!!

I would agree that was really tough fishing for CC. Ken's description was dead on, and Slewfoot is also accurate about having to get WAY back under docks to get bit.
This time of year that lake usually gives up limits pretty easy with the occasional 2 pounder, but that was definitely not the case yesterday. Most of the previous CAT tourneys on CC have yielded single digit stringers as well, so the low weights weren't totally unexpected. You just had to be patient and keep trusting they would bite eventually. Again, that's not the norm for CC and especially not for docks.

People always say that folks don't share info any more, so....Here's how we ended up with the winning stringer:

The wind would not allow us to pre-fish the spots we wanted on Friday, so we just had to trust past year's knowledge of some good docks and BPs.
I had a handful of docks and BPs in mind, and we prioritized them based on the ones that tended to put out an occasional big fish.
We only had one keeper in the first 2 hours, then left our fist good dock after 2+ hours with only 4 keepers.
Our next spot didn't produce, but the third dock produce 3 good stringer fish. Around noon we hit our 4th dock and it also produced 3 good keepers.
Then we hit a good BP on a ledge 15-18' deep and added a couple more good keepers.
Our last dock and BP didn't produce even a bite, so we were done.
We just slowly culled up to our final weight, and we didn't loose any fish or have any die.
With the lake being up high, we literally had to lay on the deck of the boat to get shots far enough back at times.
Our best color on docks was a red/chart or purple/chart, and the best color on BPs was blue.
Patience was the key. I knew from previous years esperience and side scan that those docks we were fishing were holding fish. Normally when you don't get many bites under a dock you move, but with the fishing being as slow as it was we just stuck with it.
So basically, we fished 6 docks and 3 brush piles all day.
6 of our best 7 were caught between 11-12:30pm, and 6 of those best 7 came off docks (including our 1.74lb big fish).
So there you have it. Nothing special, just hard fishing...and patience.
It's not how big the stringer is, as long as it's heavier than everyone else's.

Now I know why there was a boat at every one of my favorite clear creek docks this weekend! I went out with a friend and was surprised to see so many crappie fishermen.

I agree with the assessment. The lake has been off color all year and those cold nights didn't help. The fish were WAY back on the docks with almost all of ours coming from the walkway to main dock interface.

FYI the fish turned ON the last hour before dark and we were able to grind out a limit including some CC studs.

Good job Chris.

Glad to hear the bite turned on. At the catch rate we had that morning, we would have to fish into May to get a limit.

Yes sir that morning bite was extremely tough. Glad to hear it wasn't just me!

Hope you and Max are well.

Good info!!! It has been a different year so far!!!! Congrats to the winners!!!! That darn Eric can catch fish in a mud hole!!!