I got onto the lake around 630pm and it was warm out but the wind was really ripping from the south, making fishing shoreline structure all but impossible. I decided to throw a spinnerbait and just let the wind push me along the shoreline. Thinking a little outside the box, I chose a black 1/4 spinnerbait with silver blades. I landed 7 largemouth bass, 1 big yellow perch, and 1 smallmouth. The biggest fish was around 2 pounds. Most fish were caught next to knocked down trees or submerged grass mats.

This was by all means a slow night of fishing for Cedar Lake. I decided to call it a night around 9pm as it started getting dark and there was still some bigger boats on the lake, and I didn’t have a running light on my boat. On the way in I fought the wind and white caps on my trolling motor powered jon boat. It took twice as long as it usually does to get across the lake. The second I got the boat cleared out and my gear put away, the wind died down, and the lake turned into glass… Go figure!

The fishing wasn’t great, but it was one of those nights where the air is warm even with a strong breeze, and we had a great sunset. It was the kind of relaxing night I desperately needed…

Around 830pm people started lighting off their own fireworks around the lake, and by 915pm the barge started sending up its display.  Once it started there was no doubt that it was going to be a good show.  At least 3 times during the dispay I overheard “this must be the finale…” but it just kept on going.  Another popular comment was “they sure fit alot on that boat.”  The show lasted about 35 minutes, and was a huge hit with our 30-40 guests we had over for the party.

We are looking forward to next year, since I was told by a board member that the next 2 years have already been paid for and that the fireworks company is going to make up for the not having the second barge on the permit next year.

There was only one drawback to the fireworks display… The fishing has really slowed down over the last couple days, and will likely get worse really soon since they are treating the weeds next week.

Brian called me about an hour before I got out of work saying he had the night off and asked if I wanted to fish the last couple hours of daylight. He twisted my arm (not too hard) and I agreed to go.

We got on the lake around 630pm and started fishing some grass mats close to my backyard. We landed 5 quick fish on texas rigged senkos and wacky rigged senkos, but then the boat traffic really started to kick up so we had to move. We fished the eastern shoreline looking for shallow water hits and under the docks for fish looking for shade. We landed a couple bass, but nothing really noteworthy.

Once we got to the north shore of the lake we fished the large area of submerged vegetation with our senkos, and caught another 4 or 5 largemouth with the biggest being about 2 lbs. I tried throwing a topwater banana boat, but since I was bringing it over 3 foot cresting waves from all the boat traffic, it turned out to be fruitless. We had to leave the weeded area since the pontoon brigade decided it was time to run a train right through our fishing grounds. We have now dubbed that area pontoon road since everyone on a pontoon boat feels that have to drive directly through the weed beds as close to shore as possible.

We moved on to the area of the lake where the weeds have breached the surface of the water, where I had caught a 4-4.5lb largemouth on a stanley ribbit frog. I started throwing my frog again and had a hit on my 3rd cast right near the boat. The fish let go while fighting it in the weeds. Brian put on a sizmic toad and fished it across the top of the weeds, but managed only to catch said weeds. He did have a couple swirls, but no definitive hits. Just as I was about to give up on my frog I got an explosive hit and the fight was on.

The fish went deep into the weeds and I had to horse it out. I got it to the boat and it was a 4-4.5lb largemouth (quite possibly the one I had caught in that area on a frog two days prior). We snapped a quick photo and released the fish.

Reserved for photo if Brian ever sends it to me.

On the way back to my house we caught a few fish on spinnerbaits, including a few smallmouth,
and also found ourselves going over 4ft breakers sent out from the ski boats that feel the need to go as fast as they can as close to you as they can.

As the sun was shedding its last rays of light on the lake, the skiiers all went in, and the lake went as calm as glass. Too bad we were already putting our gear away, maybe we could have had some topwater action!

Number 2: The Spinnerbait

As an all purpose bait much like the senko, spinnerbaits give you the freedom and flexibility to fish almost any body of water or weather condition with great success. Matching one of the following retrieve methods to your particular fishing conditions will help you land more fish.

• Topwater Retrieve – For more agressive fishing conditions such as early morning or at dusk, a spinnerbait can be retrieved quickly along the surface of a shallow shoreline resulting in explosive topwater strikes. The key to this technique is keeping your retrieve at a steady speed producing a ripple effect on the top of the water.
• Deep Retrieve – In cold weather conditions, when fish are tight to deep structure, a spinnerbait can be retrieved slowly. Allowing the bait to bump the structure will entice even the most dormant bass to strike. Don’t worry about snags. Unlike jigs, fishing a deep water structure with a spinnerbait almost never results in a lost bait since the hook point is always upwards and guarded by the head of the lure.
• Start and Stop – When fishing submerged grass mats in 5-10 feet of water, a combination of the previous two techniques seems to provide the best results. A moderate speed retrieve interrupted by momentary pauses will produce a fluttering effect in your bait which will catch the attention of even the most finicky bass by simulating a dying baitfish and enticing a primal instinct to feed.
• Jigging – During the spring spawn, jigging a spinnerbait on beds will bring defensive strikes from protective females. I would recommend using a jig for this situation, but if you’re in a pinch and you see a trophy bass on a bed, give the spinnerbait a try.

Along with it’s versatility in retrieves, a spinnerbait will allow you to “customize” your fishing experience. If you want a noisy bait you can use large colorado or willow blades. If you want something more flashy, you can use silver or gold blades. You can add a trailer for accent color or to provide more action to the bait. A trailer hook can be attached, and will likely improve your odds of keeping a fish on after their initial jump.

Now that you’ve got your spinnerbait all rigged up, the best way to ensure success is persistance. Most fishermen lack confidence in the bait and are quick to put it back in their tackle box if they don’t have a hit on their first three casts. Give it time, be patient, and try the techniques above and you will catch fish!

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Number 1: The Senko

The fishing started off very slow, we only landed one fish in the first hour, but it picked up once we got to the grass mats along the northern shoreline, and we landed 6 or 7 bass.  We then moved into a shallow cove on the northeast tip of the lake, which yielded my mom a couple of largemouths off of grass mats.  Fishing the knocked down trees in the cove produced no fish, which was quite uncommon.  After that we decided to fish around the docks on the north shore, and I caught a 3lb largemouth on a texas rigged senko, but nothing else was noteworthy.

After minimal success on the docks, we moved back over the weed beds, I switched to a topwater banana boat, not expecting to catch anything since it was now noon time, and on my first cast I caught a 2lb largemouth. Thinking I was on to something I threw it for the next 10 minutes with no hits.  I looked through my bag and found some “Ribbit” frogs that I had bought on clearance and decided to give them a try over some weeds that had breached the surface.  The Ribbit frog rig is interesting, it comes with a bleeding red hook with a corkscrew on the top that goes into the head of the bait, and the hook goes in texas style with a slot on the back of the frog.  The action of the two legs on the back of the bait is pretty impressive as it swims across the top of the water.

I had never fished a frog on cedar lake because there are no lilly pads, but I figured since the fishing was slow I would give it a shot.  On my third cast, to my surprise I caught a 2lb largemouth.  I figured I might as well keep trying since I had a strong hit, and the fish got the hook on the first try…  2 casts later I had an explosive hit over the weed beds and the fight was on.

After a strong fight in heavy cover I got the fish to the boat.  I couldn’t tell how large it was until I went to lip it. I reached down, lipped the fish and brought it into the boat along with a pound of weeds. The result was a nice 4 to 4.5lb largemouth.

We stayed and fished that area for another 15 minutes with no luck before heading home.  In order to take advantage of the nice weather and my day off, I went home had lunch and then went out waterskiing with Erik and Randy.  We called it a day around 330P and I had to mow the lawn, be an electrician, and go grocery shopping.  Needless to say I was pretty tired around 9pm and fell asleep the second I hit the bed!

I will not be making special trips up there, but may stop in if I am in the area or I’m at a Huskies game. I would much rather order my stuff from Bass Pro Shops. I wish they would build one in CT since the closest is in Foxboro MA, next to Gillette Stadium.

Once we got back home we decided to have a couple friends over to go out on the lake and go tubing, skiing, and fishing. We got out at 5pm and started tubing, Kate and my friends Jeff and Robbie got out on the tube and had some fun… I couldn’t go today since no one else had a license to drive the boat, but the summer is young and I will have plenty of time to get out on the water. Jeff tried water skiing and was successful in getting up one time but once he was up he didn’t know what to do so he just fell down before he got hurt.

After skiing we decided to hit the grass mats on the north end of the lake with some senkos. We each caught quite a few fish (all largemouth), and it didn’t really matter what color we threw or if it was wacky rigged or texas rigged. The fish have been holding tight onto the weedlines and really have not ventured into the shallows, and haven’t been congregating near docks and structure like you would expect on the hot days. I also threw a couple topwater lures and landed a couple fish.

We decided to call it a night when some idiot buzzed at 40 mph and stopped right in front of us only to fish over our lines since he saw us catching fish. This has been happening way too much this season, and something really needs to be said at our next board meeting.

Overall we had a lot of fun, and it was nice that the storms held off and gave us enough sunshine to take part in some watersports.

The weather was beautiful, despite the dreary start to the day, so we headed out to my favorite weed beds and after a quick tutorial on how to use a spinning reel we all started fishing senkos. I decided to throw three different colors: black and yellow swirl, june bug, and green and silver swirl. The junebug senko was wacky rigged with an octopus circle hook so Randy could have an easier time setting the hook since it was his first time. Erik and I threw texas rigged senkos. As it turned out, it didn’t matter what color or rigging method we used, the fish were hungry and were going to eat anything. What a difference a day can make.

On his first cast Erik was explaining to Randy how to work the bait, when he hooked a nice bass which came off right at the boat. Randy then caught his first fish, a nice 2-2.5lb largemouth. While getting his camera phone, the fish found its way back into the lake, so here is a picture of his second fish (much smaller).


Not big but still fun! (Click to enlarge)

In total we caught about 7 fish on our first drift (it was a little windy at that time so it was a quick drift). We did a second and third drift and caught another 5-10 fish. At this point the boat traffic really picked up and appearently we were right in the party boat lane since everyone and anyone on a boat wanted to get as close to us as possible and drive directly through the weeds we were fishing. We went to another set of grass mats and landed 6 or 7 more fish. Randy caught 3 in a row off of a dock, and started bragging, asking me how many I had caught. I switched to a topwater banana boat, and landed 3 fish in a row which shut him up. Unfortunately one fish was quite possibly the smallest bass I have ever caught, and definitely the smallest I ever caught on a 4 inch topwater lure:

After the hits stopped at location two we moved on to my third grassy location, and only caught 2 fish using my banana boat. After that we decided to go back to our original spot since the boat traffic seemed to die off. Erik and Randy continued throwing senkos, and I switched to a firetiger pop and chug. They landed another 5 or 6 fish and I caught another 4 or 5 on topwater, the biggest being around 2.5lbs as the last little bit of sunshine was fading behind the horizon.

We went in for the evening and played some wii fit, and rampage total destruction. It was a fun night with good company, good fishing and even better weather. Randy is definitely hooked, and will likely be buying his first rod and reel soon!

Conditions: Calm to Breezy, warm, dusk, water temp 77 degrees

I got home and checked the radar and there was no rain within 500 miles so I got my stuff together and launched the boat. I got out about 10 minutes before Buddy got to my house so I started fishing around the small rocky island 50 feet off of my backyard. I had seen 2 huge balls of baitfish working the surface while I was loading up the boat so I threw a green wacky rigged senko where they were. After a few jigs I saw the bait come back up to the surface, so I put that rod down while it was still in the water and threw a small rooster tail into the school of bait hoping to catch one and find out what they were.

On the first cast I landed a large sunfish, and when I brought it into the boat it had all three treble hooks in its mouth. As I worked the hooks out, I feel my other pole tugging since I was holding it with my feet. I grabbed it with my right hand and set the hook. The sunfish then fell off of my lure with the treble hook still in its mouth. I inspected the lure and found that the loop had NOT been broken and the treble hook was sealed. I have no idea how it came off, clearly this was a “Houdini panfish”. I took the hook out and released the sunfish, then started working on the senko fish. I got it to the boat and it was a 1lb smallmouth. Definitely an interesting double!

Right as I landed that smallie, Buddy showed up and got into the boat and we headed to the other side of the lake to fish the weed beds I had been having good success on this last week. On the way we saw at least 10 more schools of baitfish working the surface. For some reason the sunfish were balled up tight and were quite active, but there were no gamefish sitting underneath them.

We fished the grass mats for a good 70 minutes with senkos, catching a few bass from 1-3lbs and buddy had two breakoffs (he is like Lenny from Of Mice and Men, when he fights his fish). I also threw a firetiger pop and chug and landed a couple nice bass, but there was no real consistent bite last night. We fished the shoreline on the way in and Buddy caught a razor-mouthed smallmouth that took a nice chomp on my thumb. It started to to get too dark to see so we packed up and called it a night.

We ordered chinese food (so much for the gym) and watched a TBS marathon of crappy movies starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. What an exciting evening …

Conditions:
Water Temp 76 degrees, calm, cloudy, dusk.

After eating way too many pancakes we went to stew leonards and did some grocery shopping. By the time were done the weather cleared and me and my buddy Erik decided to take the boat out and do a little fishing. Right around that time my mom and dad had called and asked if they could come up and fish from shore so I invited them to come out with us and they agreed.

We got out on the water around 530p and the wind was ripping from the south at about 20-25mph so fishing docks and shallow structure would be tough since our ski boat doesn’t have a trolling motor. I decided that anchoring south of submerged weed beds (6ft of water) and casting into the with senkos would be our best bet. It was a good choice. I landed a nice bass on my first cast and then everyone on the boat followed close there after. We stayed out for about 2 hours and landed about 25 fish in total. Most fish were 1-2lbs with a couple over 2 pounds.

Here are a few pics from our trip:

We didn’t get anything real big, but at least we had fun and the weather stayed nice…

Conditions:

Windy, partly cloudy, water temp 75 degrees, evening.