I fished Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday morning with some good friends.

Friday- Fished the docks at Crappie Island and around into clear creek. Used shad colored Rattle traps and 1/2 Oz Rooster T's in white. Started at 6:00 home by midnight. Ice formed on everything including the rod guides. No wind and a late 1/2 moon. Caught several big hybrids out of the lights a hand full of sandies and two fairly nice LMB. A lot of fun.

Sat AM- The birds were everywhere driving Jay and I crazy. We chased them everywhere with no result. Flying and diving and in some cases hitting the water. We would no sooner move to them and they would move. So we gave up on bird watching and went up to the spillway hump. We slabbed there and worked down to the rockpile then across to key ranch. It was not great but we did pick up a couple of keeper hybrids and Jay caught a 23". It was freeking cold as the wind picked up so we headed homeward. It was a beating getting back and I saw no other boats.

Sat PM- Kean Joined us as we headed out to hit the docks at about 6:30. Home by 10:30. This night was a lot warmer than Friday but the wind made it very different. Hard to hold off the docks on the NW side of clear creek. We threw the same baits as Fri. but it was only moderately productive. Three or four very nice hybrids 2 more LMB and a few sandies. We headed to the opposit side of the creek to escape the wind but the fishing was poor.

Sun. AM was poor with a couple Sandies on Little Georges slabbing and blue bomber slabs.
But we did have a chance to meet a new Cedar Creek fisherman,
Bobby (bleed phillygreen)TFF who came over in the black and yellow Triton to say hi. It's always good to meet fellow TFFrs.
And BTW you can see Bobby's boat almost as well as Snaggin Steve's red Colbass.
Every fish returned to catch again. I would score the weekend a C+. With a few moments of spectacular tossed in. Can't beat the big hybrids to warm you up.

Thanks for a thorough report. You are certainly a better man than I to get out there and fight that frigid weather!!! I usually never fish from early Dec thru Feb, but hearing about such things as "dead-sticking" peaks my curiosity. When we have some warmer days with less wind I might want to go out and try it with someone who knows how.

When we have some warmer days with less wind I might want to go out and try it with someone who knows how. Yes Dennis.The wind is really the key. Even though we had ice Friday night it was still much more comfortable than Sat. because of the wind on Sat.

i caught three good ones from my recliner. they slowed down a little so i moved to my wife's recliner. Picked up 3 more there and it got cold. Moved on to the bathroom and had one come unbuttoned there. Then it started to stink so i went to bed. Must have been the high pressure system.

I guess I got there after everyone had gone in this morning. On the water about 1030 or so, went straight out to a main lake point, never left and totaled out catching 40 all together. Mainly large sandies, with some under hybrids mixed in. Pretty good afternoon.

Kevin,

Hats off to you for your early start on Saturday morning. I went out saturday morning, but I believe the time was 3:00 PM. only caught a few.

Karry

Parker you and I fished the same lake.

Thanks for the report, my Saturday trip backed out and today I got to go watch my little girl at a cheerleading competition. I must say it was a fun afternoon of relaxing and watching these girls show off there skills.
Glad you made it out, sorry the fishing wasnt better for you. When you were near the birds did you watch your graph? The fish we were picking up under the birds lately werent hitting the surface. They were suspended down about 15-30ft down in 40-45ft of water. Just asking, I know you probably did, sometimes these birds this time of year can fool ya. I see it alot this time of year. Some birds chase the loons or commoraunts around and others play chase my buddy around. When I see birds I generally watch them closely to determine if there on fish or what there doing. If there real spread out or if there diving in on commoraunts I generally dont mess with them. If I am not for sure then I'll drive up near them and if they take off they werent on fish. If there on fish you cant run them off. You might run the fish off eventually but not the birds.

I'll be on the water as usual this week. I'll let you guys know whats happening out here.
By the way I have a few open days this week if someone wants to book a trip. The fishing has been good/excellent.

Chuck the birds at times would cluster like they were attacking shad and in some cases would hit the water but just a few out of a large number of birds. We tried getting close enough to observe but not spook them. Most times they would migrate to another area. We did mark some fish in the areas under the birds from 25' depth to near the surface but the depth was 35' to 40'. We picked up a few slabbing those conditions but my confidence is low in water that deep even when the fish are suspended unless they are right on top.

the 40 I caught yesterday were all still in 11-21 foot.

I have not night fished in awhile and do miss it somewhat. I used to push my guide business at night but have not much anymore. am getting older and getting home in the middle of the night during dead winter isn't as attractive as it used to be.
If lake will stay full I may do a few night trips during spring, do have one client that enjoys night fishing. It's always a blast throwing a small swimbait under a dock light and getting that wham of a Hybrid grabbing a bait and running out to the middle of the lake.

It was great meeting you and the guys, Kevin. I'm sure we will be seeing a lot of each other seeing as we are practically neighbors.

Scooter Aggie and I had a rough day -- other than the cold and rain. GPS and Fish Finder were out along with the Trolling Motor.

Went and replaced 2 dead batteries and then got back on the water -- graphs were fixed but TM is still acting a little funny; got a guy coming to look at it this week.

After accidentally catching about a 2 lb blue cat off the dock, we headed toward the dam where Scooter got 3 sandies. Then we headed to Crappie Pt with no luck. Went along the ridge NW of Crappie Pt where we saw lots of action on the FF but I only got one Hybrid. All caught on yellow slabs.

Really was my first time to really fish the lake. Not used to fishing open water like that and am still learning to read the sonar and fish finder. Hopefully we'll get our act together sooner than later.

Quick question for you guys: how come my in dash sonar seems to pick up so much more than my up front fish finder??? Is there really activity under there???

Let's see, your up front FF is probably mounted on your TM and since it was out of the water due to problems... There you go!! Problem solved. Seriously that's why I only have one so as not to become further confused. Could be sensitivity differences.
BTW if you are looking for a good "on site" boat mechanic let me know. After 9 years on the lake I finally found a reliable, reasonable and knowledgeable, guy that I would recommend.