Well it has certainly been an interesting week down here at Cedar Creek. The bite was incredible, the freezing temps and winds were incredibly uncomfortable, the bite was still incredible, the temps sky-rocketed, the bite plummeted, the winds picked back up, and the bite went back to awesome. Another day in the office I guess...
The days leading up to the frost, I had three two man limits in a row, fishing jigs and minnows, on brush from 12-20ft. The day after the front, we pulled 45 keepers off of three spots, again from 12-20ft. Thursday and Friday, everything got warm and pleasant, except the crappie bite. Friday and Saturday mornings was where guides either get paid or lose money, depending on how hard they want to work. We finished up with 20-30 keepers on those mornings. Finally, Saturday afternoon the bite returned. We ended the day with 37 keepers, which all came from water 8-15ft deep.
A River Cane Slab Bandit, a High Noon Thump Jumper, and a small minnow have all been working well. I'm asking my customers to vertical jig a couple feet off the bottom, with not a lot of movement needed. The fish seemed to pick up the jig or minnow, instead of giving it a hard thump, for most of the week.
What was so much fun about this week was not only getting to limit three times in a row, but the sheer size of the crappie we've been seeing. We've been catching a couple of fish per outing that top the two pound mark, and I had the pleasure of releasing two 15" inch fish last week, in hopes that they'll one day reach the three pound mark.