After minimal success we decided to try the docks on the west side of the lake since we hadn’t fished them in quite some time, and it turned out to be a good move. We landed another 10 fish on senkos from under the docks… The fishing wasn’t easy though since the fish were suspended way under the docks and pontoons boats requiring an accurately skipped bait under the docks. The recent rain made this even more difficult since the water levels were up a foot or so from last week.

Most fish that we landed were decent quality in the 2+ lb range and one monster topping out at around 6lbs.

Here’s a few shots of this chunky hog.

That is one fat bass… Especially for the end of summer!

Hopefully this pattern will hold up until the next time I have a few hours to spend on the lake. It has been cold at night lately so I would imagine the fish won’t stay on the docks for too long. If you are fishing this weekend, give the docks a try and you might very well land yourself a trophy! In case you were wondering, this fish was released unharmed to fight another day.

Nothing was real big last night but it sure was fun to have some hard-hittin’ topwater spinnerbait action!

I threw everything I had in my bag including senkos (wacky rigged and texas rigged), spinnerbaits, topwater, and jigs, but for 2.5 hours of fishing we only landed 5 fish, of which only 1 was a “keeper”.  Total tally was 1 on a wacky rigged senko, 1 on a texas rigged senko, and 3 on a spinnerbait retrieved quickly across the surface. All fish were largemouth bass.

Overall we had fun even though the fish didn’t cooperate, and Sally enjoyed barking at everyone on the lake!

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!

Many novice fishermen and fisherwomen ask me how I always know how and where to catch fish. In this series of articles I will attempt to address the first question by giving you my top 5 lures that I always have in my tackle box and would never want to be on the water without.

Number 1: The Senko

This lure is an absolute must have. It has completely revolutionized the artificial bait industry, and has made the old fashioned rubber worm obsolete. The senko was originally created by the Yamamoto bait company, but has been cloned by almost all major lure manufacturing companies. Here are the names of some of the senko knock-offs: Stick-O by Bass Pro Shops, Kinami Flash, Wave Tiki Worms, Mann’s Hard Nose Freefall Worms, Berkley Gulp Sinking Minnow, Chompers Salty Sinker Worms, Netbait Salt Lick Worm, Strike King 3x Plastic Zero Worm, Yum Dinger Worms, and the list goes on and on!

The characteristics that set this bait apart from the rest are its fishability, durability, and multitude of rigging options.

• Fishability – This lure is extremely easy to fish, casts like a bullet, and is an appropriate bait choice for almost any weather condition, season, or body of water. Most of the time you will get a hit simply by throwing it around cover or structure and letting it sink. All you have to do is set the hook and bring in your catch. Sometimes it requires a twitch or two, but even that is a simple way to catch fish.
• Durability – Built to last, you can easily land 5-10 fish on a single bait depending on your rigging method and brand of choice. The Mann’s Hard Nose Free Fall Worms tend to hold up the best since the tip of the bait is made of a harder material. Even if the top of a senko type bait gets torn, you can snip it off and the bait functions as normal, and continues to catch fish. Try that with a normal rubber worm!
• Rigging Options – The senko is possibly the most versatile bait on the market today. It can be rigged texas style, wacky rigged, carolina rigged, or jigged. Whether it’s shallow shoreline, under docks (you can easily skip a texas rigged senko), deep structure, or around fallen trees, the number of rigging options with a senko allows you to fish any conditions you are faced with.

If you haven’t tried a senko yet, you don’t know what you are missing! Here’s a couple tips if you are going to try one of these baits for the first time:

Fish it slow and keep you line tight so you can feel when a fish picks up the bait. Set the hook if you are texas rigging, jigging, or carolina rigging. DO NOT set the hook if you are wacky rigging with a circle hook. If you don’t get a hit within the 10 feet of the structure you are fishing, reel it in and cast again (most fish are caught on the initial drop). Now get out there and catch some fish!

Up Next is the Spinnerbait… Click Here to Continue Reading!

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!

Two weeks ago we were in the midst of a heatwave and there was not a cloud in the sky, but today the fog was so thick we only had about 20 feet of visibility when we launched the boat (see photos below). The last time we fished together all of our fish were found on structure and in shaded areas, but today there was not much to be found on structure or under docks (we went 1 for 6 on the fish we had hooked up).  I decided to fish the same weed beds that we fished last night with my parents and Erik, and it turned out to be a very good choice.

We immediately started catching fish off the grass.  After catching 4 or 5 smaller fish in a couple minutes, Brian got a strong hit and a nice bass came flipping out of the water. I put my pole down to give him a hand landing the fish.  This bass was strong and Brian could barely budge it in the weeds, he jumped 3 more times over the next 2 minutes and I finally got a hand on him and brought it into the boat. It weighed roughly 5lbs and was about 22.5 inches. We snapped a pic with Brian’s cell and released her to fight another day.

Check out that hog in the fog… (Click To Enlarge)

The fun didn’t stop there though.  Right after Brian caught that fish, the area lit up with bass busting on schools of bait all around us.  Everytime we cast to a school of baitfish we caught a bass sitting under them.  This went on for about 30 minutes, and it didn’t matter what we were throwing.  We got them on senkos (texas and wacky rigged), yozuri banana boats, and spinnerbaits. We landed about 20 keepers, including one smallmouth, and then they turned off just as quick as they turned on.

We fished until about 1130a and then a rain storm came through so we went back to my house to play some mariokart wii. We went back out around 230p and fished for another 90 minutes before a nasty super cell went over the lake dropping the temp 15 degrees and bringing torrential downpours prompting us to call it a night. We did manage another 8-10 fish before the rains came, but nothing overly note worthy, but i did catch a huge red eyed rockbass.

MEATY LITTLE GUY (Click to enlarge)

Despite the weather we had a great time, and its always fun spending some time on the water with friends (it sure beats working)… Looking forward to doing it again soon…

Conditions:

Foggy, rainy, windy, water temp 74 degrees