Cedar Creek Fishing Report for June 2021

I want to take a second to brag on our guide RD Myers for his accomplishment last Saturday, June 19th. With the help of some very awesome clients, including Texasmade Outfitters owner Anthony Jones, they accomplished a feat I’ve never seen before in my 11 years of full time guiding on Cedar Creek. At 11:09am, I got a text from Trent Tatum, another fisherman on board that day, that they already had their four-man limit of 100 crappie. That accomplishment alone is rare. What made this day so special was that by 1:30pm, they had already added a four-man limit of sandbass on top of their crappie, for a total of 200 keepers. That’s 200 fish in 6.5 hours of fishing, which equates to a keeper coming in the boat every two minutes from start to finish. As the owner of Ft. Worth Fishing Guide Service, I can say I was honestly both very proud of this group, and very impressed. Talk about a day to remember! Below is how our company landed those 200 fish last Saturday, plus what we’ve been doing on our other trips to help us have success during the month of June.


CRAPPIE FISHING

What makes the months of May, June and July so good for crappie fishing is consistency. The crazy weather we often see in Texas starts to calm down a bit, which allows for both the fishermen and the fish to start seeing normal patterns in their day-to-day routines. Crappie are going to be hanging out in thick schools on brush piles anywhere from 14-22ft for a large remainder of the summer, which makes for some very easy fishing and large fish fries with your friends and family.

At dawn, we will fish hand tied jigs from Slab Syndicate (www.sscrappiejigs.com) and Thump Chubbies from Constant Pursuit Outfitters (www.constantpursuitoutfitters.com). As the day grows warmer and the fish get lazier, a live minnow on a number one gold Aberdeen hook will be tough to beat. For the jigs, I really like to have our customers pitch out over the pile, as that falling motion is incredibly deadly on crappie populations. Just make sure to watch that line for any sharp twitches as the jig falls through the water column. As for the minnows, dropping to the bottom and reeling up two to three turns seems to be the ticket at most stops.


Preferred Tackle Setup and General Information

Water Temp: mid 80s
Water Condition: lightly stained
Favorite Rod: 8ft Epic from Todd Huckabee Rods (www.toddhuckabeerods.com)
Favorite Reel: Pflueger President or Shimano Sahara
Line: 8lb Mr. Crappie hi-vis monofilament
Best Artificial Lures: Palmer Pile Driver hand tied jig from Slab Syndicate (www.sscrappiejigs.com) and Ghost Minnow Thump Chubbies from Constant Pursuit Outfitters (www.constantpursuitoutfitters.com)
Jig Head: 1/16 ounce unpainted jig head with a number four sickle hook
Favorite Live Bait Rig: small live minnow on a number one gold Aberdeen hook with an 1/8 ounce split shot weight roughly 12” above the hook.


SANDBASS AND HYBRID STRIPER

If you’re simply looking to catch as many fish as possible in the shortest amount of time, it doesn’t get better than sandbass, and Cedar Creek happens to be absolutely loaded with them. At dawn, look for surface action on windblown points and shallow flats, as schools numbering into the thousands will move up for their heavy morning feed. When the fish are in this type of frenzy, the angler can throw practically anything that’s shiny and has a hook, and will have great success. As a guide, I think it is literally more difficult to throw out in schooling sandies and not catch a fish, than it is to throw out and catch one. Watching large fish chase shad in an area often larger than an acre is really an incredible way to start the day. After the heavy morning feed subsides, trolling a HellPet rig or bouncing small slabs off the bottom will be your best bet for success. For most of the day, with the exception of the shallow morning feeding frenzy, the best depth right now is 10-18ft throughout most of the day.

For those looking to take advantage of some large hybrid stripers, I would recommend you use live shad right at dawn, or fish weightless swim baits around deeper docks with bright lights in the middle of the night. Live bait fishermen will want to use either 4-6” gizzard shad on Carolina rigs, as they drift across main lake humps in search of large schools of big fish. My favorite technique is to have the baits bouncing along the bottom, which stirs up mud and attracts a lot of good quality fish. In regards to which depth is best right now, I would suggest fishing in 15-30ft of water.

For the nighttime guys, too me it’s tough to beat a weightless swim bait that is casted across a dock light and into the shadows, only to retrieve it incredibly slowly, or with some baits, a nice twitch and pause retrieve works best. Our two best baits we have going right now for night time fishing is the White Hot Thump Boss or Heavy Glow Thump Daddy from Constant Pursuit Outfitters.


Preferred Tackle Setup and General Information

Water Temp: mid 80s
Water Clarity: lightly stained
Favorite Casting Rod: 7ft Okuma Shadow Stalker
Favorite Reel: Pflueger President
Line: 20lb Berkley Big Game
Favorite Live Bait and/or Trolling Rod: 7ft Falcon Medium Action
Best Artificial Baits for casting to sandies: Tandem Rigged half ounce White Shad Slabs and Sausage Gravy Thump Buddies from www.constantpursuitoutfitters.com
Best Trolling Rig for Sandies: HellPet rig
Best Live Bait rig for hybrids: Carolina Rig with a one-ounce weight and 4-6” live shad
Best Artificial Bait for nighttime hybrids: weightless rigged White Hot Thump Boss or Heavy Glow Thump Daddy from Constant Pursuit Outfitters


BOOKING YOUR TRIP

We’re incredibly fortunate that we get to earn our living making memories with people from all over the world, many of which have become really good friends over the years. It truly is a blessing. Too see our open dates, please visit our website www.ftworthfishing.com, pick between a half day trip or a full day trip, and then pick your favorite lake. We offer trips all around DFW, and would love to share a boat with you this summer. Half day fishing trips (4-5 hours) are $350 for two, with each additional person being $100. Kids 12 and under are half priced! Prices include all necessary fishing tackle, iced down bottled water for everyone and we filet/bag your catch after we take some great pictures. Trips are guaranteed, in that if we go out and only catch 5-10 fish, you don’t owe us a dime. We want to make sure you get your money’s worth!

Thanks for sharing those details. I’m still trying to figure out these dang crappies!

Good numbers a d good quality too. Impressive stuff

Great report & pics, Thanks for report Laner, good to hear from ya.

As always great report and IMPRESSIVE day to land that many so quickly.

Awesome catch guys. I think the lake is a lot lower now.

Great Post and Pics.

Nice post and fish. Good job.

As of the last few days, the patterns have remained exactly the same for anyone looking to get out on the lake.

I'm about to start my running offshore trips for the summer, but if you want to get in on some of the action with RD, we have spots open in July and would love to show you a good time! www.ftworthfishing.com