Have you tried tolling the hell pet? I bet you will get bit using that technique. Thursday I located several schools of fish. If I stopped and threw a Mepps #4, some groups would take it while other would not. Since I didn't have my Mepps #2 with me, I trolled and the group that didn't want the Mepps #4 would clobber the pet spoon.

We had the same thing yesterday. Marked lots of fish that didn’t want to bite. We finally caught about 70 yesterday evening at the Tennis Courts and Rock Pile Hump on MAL and #4. Good luck.

Went back out after lunch and not any better. Found fish but couldn’t get them to bite.

Best concentrations of fish I found were on spillway point, didn’t matter as they wouldn’t bite. Also had a huge school at the rock wall that wouldn’t bite either.

Ended the day with only a handful of fish. Last time at CC, end of June we caught 115. What a difference 45 days makes!!

That sounds like fish were on the small shad. To catch them I use the #2 Mepps method that I show in the YouTube video link in my signature block below. Else, use the hellpet trolling method to catch them.

I will add that when we caught them on 4s Thursday, we had to reel the Mepps really fast to get them to bite.

I have marked fish many times an spillway point and have come up empty handed. I sometimes call it sucker point. Directly east of that position is spillway hump and like usual there were good concentrations of fish on Thursday.

I gotta thank you DC. The Mepps lure/technique you talk about is so much fun!! I got into a school of whites in 13 FOW on Lavon and they would crush the #4 Mepps Aglia.

Nice Buffalo! what a fish!

Awesome report Dennis.

August 5: Took golfing buddies Rob and Bobby out for the 1st time. Took us a while to find fish. Ended up catching about 10 at the Rock Pile and about 57 more at Enchanted Isle Ridge. One was a hybrid and almost all the rest were sandbass. Both were able to learn the Mepps technique, even though they had equipment problems. Bobby discovered upon reaching my dock that a part of his reel was missing. So he used a spin-cast rig of mine. But that had the line break leaving it empty of line. He then used one of my casting reels and, since he was not used to them, he was backlashing constantly. Finally, we spooled line from one of my reels on to the spincast rig, and he caught some fish. Rob's problem was that he didn't have a full spool of line on his casting reel, and the line was very stretchy. He couldn't reel it fast enough to get a bite, and if they did bite it, the stretchy line made it very difficult to feel. So, I traded reels with him, and he started catching fish. Understanding the issues with his rig, I was able to compensate and catch fish on it. Here are pics of Rob and Bobby with fish:
Rob


Bobby

August 11-12: On the 11th I took out Chris, who is new to the area, and my friend Gordon, and on the 12th I rode with friend Cliff and his friends Dave and James. Fishing was the same for both days - we could find plenty of fish, but getting them to bite was a constant challenge. We ended up catching over 60 on both days, but threw many casts into fish and got no bites. We did learn something to help induce a bite yesterday. First, let me say that it appears more and more of the fish are on the newer, smaller hatch of shad. For me, that means fishing with the Mepps #2. I would try a 4 at each spot but there would be no takers. Switch to a 2 and I could catch some fish. The 2 things we learned yesterday that helped induce a strike on the 2 were (1) to wait 5 to 10 seconds after each drag of the bait, i.e. let it sit on the bottom motionless, and (2) Do a one turn of the reel drag followed by a 6 or 7 turn of the reel drag. Those 2 things substantially increased our bite per cast ratio. So add those to the Mepps 2 technique shown in the YouTube video (link in my signature block below). I think the need for these two additions is temporary and won't be necessary in a few days as the shad get a little larger.

I spent about an hour today testing a Mepps #1 set up like a #2. It caught white bass on most casts and also caught two hybrids about 20 inches long. The fish are feeding on the new, smaller hatch of shad, which makes it hard to catch them. The smaller #1 Mepps seemed to match the hatch.

What time of the year is the best schooling action on Cedar Creek?

I'm not the guy to ask since I don't go looking for schooling fish. Ask that question as a new topic. I know there used to be a group of guys that got out early every day looking for schooling fish. Hopefully one of them will address your question.

Awesome thread.

Got to sunken island this morning at the break of day and started fishing in about 13 fow or so and was trying a #4 Mepps. Tried using it for about 30 minutes or so with no luck. I then tied on a #3 and started catching fish. Just as Dennis had said, they were feeding on the smaller shad. The wife kept using a #4 with no luck. I was right on the edge of the drop off just off the 8 to 10 fow and the fish seemed to be in more quantity coming when I was casting to the shallow water. Fish started schooling like crazy and they stayed up for at least 30 minutes. We just kept following them. I never dreamed they would stay up that long. Guess the cloud cover had something to do with it. There was some small fish and also some good fish mixed in. While sitting still, I was casting the Mepps and reeling it back to the boat just like you would when using a #4. Seemed to want a slow retrieve today, just fast enough to make the blade spin. Ended with 25 keepers and threw lots of smaller fish back.