Cedar Creek Lake April 3, 2010

Cedar Creek Lake seems to be the new hot spot in Kentucky big bass fishing. The timber laden water is usually clear and calm as it was on this day after a small front moved through and the winds died down in the late afternoon.

Reports at the dock were positive as I put in, around 3:00pm. My fellow comrades in arms had found good luck around various points and shallows, some in deep water off the main ramp near the dam.

Bass seem to be staging in deeper water ready to move up into shallow waters to spawn. The spawn is coming and the great feast just prior to it, should be on now.

I found not quite the same luck as my fellows, however as I moved into a small cove up from the second ramp, mainly to get out of the winds blowing my small jon boat around the lake. I tossed a black and red flake Chigger Craw on a jig head up against a tree for which the lake is so aptly named and took a swing and a miss on a interested party. This may have been an early spawning sow that only wanted to move my lure out of her well prepared nest. I was unable to get her to take it again.

I tried a few other tactics in the area with little luck. They seemed not aggressive enough to attack any type of small crank bait. I was sure my Sexy Shad diver would anger them enough, it did not. I decided to try something a bit bigger and through an over-sized spinner, of the same color, at them. After a few unsuccessful attempts I tossed it way back into a pile of floating lay-downs. I was attacked with vengeance nearly as it hit the water. She was a very angry girl and not happy with my disruption. After careful pulling her up and over a few logs and dislodging her from under another she came into sight. She was indeed a fat girl, more of a lineman than a wide receiver. She was a healthy 3 pound 12 oz lady at about 18 inches.

I stayed in the cove until some crappie guys came to run me out, actually they were very nice and asked if it was ok it they fished for some blackies behind me. I really didn't mind I just wanted out of the wind.

I decided it was time to venture back out into the breach. The wind had died and the water was flat calm.

I tried the flats with a lipless crank and the spinner without any luck. I went to the roadbed where the bottom drops from 6-8 ft to 12-15 ft rather quickly. The depth finder showed some activity but my soft plastics where unable to do the job. One big swing One big miss.

I decided to try the creek channel at the north end where I sight fished spawners last year. None yet.

Then as always to the berm. Everyone knows it, everyone fishes it. Well, it is a highway. Road bed, big drop, rocks and timber. If I was a fish I would go through there too. Nothing.

Beside the berm is the second highway (deep creek channel), I decided the big watermelon lizard was a good choice. And as I hooked up on something heavy, it seemed I was right. And she ran, the problem was she ran through the woods and pinned herself under a tree. I tried to convince her I would let her going and that I only wanted to meet and chat for a min, perhaps take a photo. Evidently she didn't care and tossed my bait and hooked it into the same tree in which she made her temporary home. I dislodged my lizard and tried again. She had spread the news of my arrival. No takers.

As I put my small Jon boat on the trailer the guy at the dock seemed to think they were staging in about 20 foot of water, where he had plucked 5 earlier. 2 over 5 pounds. His pictures showed that he was not a big fat liar, if they had indeed been taken today, one can never tell.