Cedar Creek Reservoir (12/8/2007)

On Saturday (12/8/2007), Anthony, Jim and I headed out with guide Chuck Rollins of BigCrappie.com out on Cedar Creek Reservoir (over in East Texas). The weather was perfect!! A warm front had pushed through the metroplex a few days before bringing with it some rain and overcast skies. On this day, there was a cold front pushing through (in the early afternoon hours). So having these two fronts back-to-back, including overcast skies, one couldn’t asked for a better day to be out on the lake and fishing!! We experienced the oddest weather events that day. On one point, the winds would be cold and sharp; and then, these warm winds would blow through!!

We started out the morning a bit slow but the action became, to say the least, steady and wild!! Around 11:30am we began hitting some action on sandies (white bass), yellow bass and some hybrid stripers! Anthony nailed the largest hybrid striper while Jim took in the second of the two caught this day. Those sandies were hitting so well that we were even getting double-hookups!!! I was enjoying landing sandy after sandy and was getting a bit jealous at Jim and Anthony for landing those beautiful large hybrid stripers; but little did I know that I would make up the lack of catching any of those stripers later in the day!!!

Here’s a pic of one of the several double-hookups…

Anthony with his sweet, large hybrid striper…

Jim with his hard-fighting hybrid striper…

Soon the live-well was getting full … what a wonderful sound it is to hear all those fish slamming against the sides of that live-well!!

We headed off to another spot and was doing so well we decided to try our luck at trolling. This was a first for me to fish with a Magnum Hellbender. First we set out to troll going forwards and then a pass or two going backwards. Once that hellbender went down I was sure that I had a fish already!!! Boy did I feel foolish hollerin’, “FISH ON!” and reeling in my “catch“!! After learning my lesson and letting that hellbender get down with the lure and let it start working it’s action, I landed into something hot!!! That line was pulling and tugging but what was boated was a nice wadded up mess of fishing line, a hook, a lead weight, and what looks like a bit of trot line. Stuff like that just irritates the hound out of me!!! I wish these weekend “fishermen” would clean up their mess and not just leave it in the water!!

By 1:00pm or so, we headed to one of the marinas for a lunchtime snack. Afterwards, we headed back out for some crappie fishing. Now it has been years since I had been crappie fishing and I had just completely forgotten all the finesse techniques one needs to employ in order to bring in those delicious papermouths!!!

We headed out to a brush pile and started working it pretty hard but nothing was wanting to bite. We pulled lines and headed over to shoot some docks. No, we didn’t break out the shotguns and start firing away at the docks!!! Shooting docks is a process of using your ultralight rig like a bow and arrow (some will also call this ’sling-shotting’). See, you let out about 3 to 4 feet of line and while leaving the bail open, you grab the line with your index finger and hold it solidly against the rod. With your other hand you grab the head of the lure, making sure that the hook is facing away from your hand/fingers. If you don’t do this, you’ll catch something really quick the moment you let go of that jig head!!!

Next you pull back on the jig head until there is a nice bend in the rod. Let the jig go and when it begins its forward movement from in front of the rod, let your index finger on the rod loose and let that flying jig head take the line and get way up under that dock. Sometimes it will sail way up underneath… other times it will skip along the surface of the water before dropping in. It takes some getting used to but once you’ve got the technique down, you’ll be able to get that lure anywhere!!

Our guide, Chuck Rollins, was smoking!! He could thread-the-needle like I’ve never seen done before!!! Anthony was on fire after a few attempts and was really getting that jig way up under the dock. I, on the other hand (remember, I said it had been a while since I’d fished this method….) wasn’t looking so glamorous! I believe on my first attempt, the jig went a mighty 2 foot from the boat!!! There was no sense in trying to play it off or hoping that no one had seen what happened. One just takes a big swallow of pride and try again!! After a few more (failed) attempts, it started coming back to me and I was able to send that jig way up underneath the dock but, alas, no crappie were biting. Chuck brought one out but Anthony and I scored some zeros on that round.

Chuck then took us out to a nice ’secret’ spot. After locating the structure we were looking for, the jigs started hitting the water. Now I had been trying a couple of different tactics and wasn’t being very productive so this time I started watching Chuck and mimicking what he was doing. Good thing I did because that’s when this nice 2-pound (15-inch) “bard-door” crappie slammed my jig and decided to come into the boat for a ride!! He must have been tired from all that swimming around!

After a bit, the action tapered off and it was time to hit another sweet spot. Once we got there (and no, I won’t tell you where these ’sweet spots’ are!!!), it was time to get those jigs to working again. Well I set out my jig and tossed it out until it hit the bottom. Once it hit, I set the reel and gave it a couple of cranks. Something hit my jig. Something hit it hard. And something didn’t move. I thought that I had hooked into the brush and gave the line a few solid tugs. Nothing. I reached down and grabbed the line and gave it a steady pull hoping to dislodge my jig so that I could set it back out again. That’s when ’something’ began to move and it put a solid bend in the ultralight rig I was using.

Chuck asked me if I could tell what it was. I told him it wasn’t no crappie, that’s for sure! He took a second look and said that I had landed into a catfish! My first thought was that I was going to fight with it a bit and then the line would break and off it would go. But God had something else in mind that day!!! The more I’d reel in, the more that fish would take out! It wasn’t long before we all realized that this was something big… really, really big.

By now, everyone had pulled in their lines. Chuck manned the trolling motor while Jim and Anthony started reporting the action as seen on the fish finder. At first they couldn’t see anything, but then one said, “That fish is just a big black spot on the screen!!” Those guys were most helpful letting us know what depths that fish was moving to. At one point it was at 30 feet and then seconds later is was up to 13 feet. I needed this information so that I could tell when to reel in line and when to let this fish take line.

About 10 minutes had passed when I started wondering if I was going to be able to bring this fish up judging by the way it was so easily peeling line whenever it dove down.

15 minutes passes and we’re still fighting. Me on the rod, Chuck on the trolling motor, Anthony and Jim glued to the fish finder.

20 minutes…. this joker is just swimming along like there’s not even a hook in its mouth. It would shake its head a time or two but for the most part it’s just swimming along and cruising at various depths.

25 minutes…. my arm is starting to cramp. I’m wondering just how long this fight will last. How long will the drag on the reel hold out? Is that line ever going to break? What the heck is on the end of my line?!!!

30 minutes…. I feel like grabbing the line and swimming down to whatever is down there, knocking it out somehow, and then swimming back up and throwing it into the boat and howling like Mike Iaconelli (just watch a BassMaster show on Saturday mornings and you’ll know what I mean!).

35 minutes…. my eyes are riveted on the water just hoping to at least get a glimpse of what is on my line. I’m beginning to wonder if this ultra light rod is about to break from the constant bend that it’s been in.

40 minutes…. whatever it is, it’s weakening and swimming much more shallower than ever before.

Soon we stare into the water in utter amazement!!! There it is…. a whopper of a flathead catfish!!! Chuck grabs the net and tries to get it in. The fish easily fills the net and there’s still about half of its body that’s not in the net. He lays flat on the deck and I’m wondering if I should put my foot on his butt just to keep him from going into the water!! Jim is hurriedly trying to get the camera ready but by the time he’s ready, that big ol’ fish is in the boat!!!

Time fought: 45 minutes

Caught on: Shimano Sienna / Ugly Stick (rod/reel combo); Mr. Crappie 6 lb test line; Blakemore Road Runner Crappie Thunder 1/16 ounce Chartreuse Sparkle jig.

Weight: 25 pounds

Lenght: 34 inches

Girth: roughly 22 inches

There are several things so amazing about this catch:

1. That was a huge fish to be caught on such light tackle!
2. It had been quite some time since I’d landed a big fish.
3. I couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help!
4. That was a huge fish to be caught on such light tackle!!
5. Only the hook point and just marginally past the barb was all that was embedded into the fish’s upper cartilage.
6. When we took out the jig, we noticed that it had just swallowed another catfish!!! How greedy can this fish be??!!
7. That was a huge fish to be caught on such light tackle!!!

You can tell from the picture above that this line was just about to give out. About 8 inches from the jig you can see where the line really gets stretched out and begins to look like it’s been wadded up.

Although this was one huge catch, it didn’t set any records. But that doesn’t matter… it was just a blast seeing everyone getting so involved in getting the fish in the boat!!! I just felt bad that Jim and Anthony missed out on some quality fishing time but I’m indebted to them for all their help!!

By now it’s after 4:00pm and it’s time to head back to Chuck’s place. While he’s feverishly working away at cleaning the fish, Anthony decides to drop a line around the dock to test his luck at catching catfish. He pulls in several in the 10- to 12-inch range; and I begin to get curious if there are any big ones around. Remember how I said that big flathead was a greedy thing because it ate another catfish and then my jig?? Who’s greedy now??!!!

In about 15-20 minutes, I pulled in 6 nice-sized blue catfish. I think Chuck was getting worn out from filleting all those fish so I decided to keep three (around the 6-pound mark) and toss the others back in. Did I mention I love to go catfishin’?!!

All in all it was an awesome day indeed!! I can’t thank Anthony enough for arranging the trip. I can’t thank Chuck enough for being such an awesome host and guide (I’ll definitely be sending and taking more business back his way!!!). Here’s the catch count (it is most likely understated as I’m still basking in the ‘afterglow’ of the fight and catch of that big catfish!!):

• Hybrid Stripers = 3
• Yellow Bass = 3
• White Bass (Sandies) = 60
• Blue Catfish = 3
• Flathead Catfish = 1
• Crappie = 8 (this is the only count that I think is understated)
• Total catch = 77
• … and then there’s one other fish … it was an odd one indeed and one that deserves more research. It’s Latin name is now “Anthonius Ursinieus”, and this fish loves to jump in front of lures while they are being cast so that he can try to get himself foul-hooked in some manner!! Sorry about that man!!! I don’t know how that jig got caught up in the neck of your shirt!!!

No one could ask for a better bunch of guys to go fishing with!! Oh… by the way….. we let that catfish go. Who knows, maybe one day you or I will catch it!!!

Fish on!!

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