Cedar Creek Drawdown

[bassmaster]

Oops!! Sorry about the number screw up....Let's all make it tough for these poachers.
Good fishing,
Tim
bassmaster

[mhall]

I agree. There may be short fish taken out of there, but these people saying there are hundreds being taken home to eat are either just guessing or they are doing everyone a disservice by not reporting it.

What bothers me is that by doing a drawdown so soon, they are basically admitting that they screwed up to begin with.

Also, I don't think the issue is as much the bass but the fact that the bluegill are much smaller than they were 3 years ago and the crappie have never gotten above 7 inches.

Didn't mean to start something here. I've only fished the lake one time ever with a nice guy from this site. I am only going by what I have heard from alot of fish talk. You know baitshop talk, but after you hear it from enough diffrent people you kinda start believing it. Personally I just think the lake went through it's honeymoon period and now that's over. You know when a lake is first impounded how you can have that first couple to few years where it's just on fire. Well at some point that stops and things hit normal for most places. I also think pressure is playing a role, that lake is fairly small and it gets fished by a ton of people and that one ain't up for debate. I don't like the over 21 inch rule unless you strickly enforce it and then it has holes. Slot limits are better because you give the meathogs something to take home. Sorry for getting something going, I have a knack for that it seems. lol.

[MsgMills]

You ain't starting anything Mhall, heck Patoka was the same way when it was first impounded and you could go over there and catch 100 or more fish in an 8 hour tournament or more. Then they put in the slot limit and every meat hunter there was went fishing there. Now the size limit is 15" and over and it's really hard as heck to catch fish on a regular basis. But if you know the lake and where to go, it's not a problem, just like CC is for most of the regulars. They know where to go and how to catch those lunkers they so often talk about. I have never fished the lake, but if and when I ever do, the first couple of times I go I might not do to well, until I go quite a few times and learn the layout of the lake and where to fish for the bass.

[know1]

Jim D said on the Strader show last night that another reason for the drawdown was to reduce the shoreline vegetation so people can fish from shore easier. I don't recall that being in the article, but it's interesting. There are not even that many places that you can access to fish from shore, and most of them are very shallow.

[DJD]

Jim D said on the Strader show last night that another reason for the drawdown was to reduce the shoreline vegetation so people can fish from shore easier. I don't recall that being in the article, but it's interesting. There are not even that many places that you can access to fish from shore, and most of them are very shallow.

With that thought in mind is it fair to say that we can walk the entire edge of the lake? Some of that property looks private to me but i understand there is a buffer around the lake.

[know1]

With that thought in mind is it fair to say that we can walk the entire edge of the lake? Some of that property looks private to me but i understand there is a buffer around the lake.

There is a buffer zone, so technically you can walk the edge of the lake. The problem is there are so many trees/timber that there just aren't a lot of good places to bank fish from that aren't choked with weeds or extremely shallow so that you have to cast a mile.

On a related note, I finally had a few spare minutes of free time over the weekend and I took the kayak down to Cedar Creek and fished for about an hour yesterday (Sunday). Was just fishing for catfish and I caught 3 small ones. Not too bad for an hours time.

[CTFSHWHISKER]

as i read it yesterday in the cj the drawdown is so it will bring all the juvenile baitfish out to the main lake so they are easier to get by the bass.It will also kill the weed growth so that when it rises back the shore will be clean so the bass can get the shallow bait,appearantly it is too thick and the bass can't get the minnows therefore the blugill are not being eat.i don't think it meant anything about walking the shore,it's from the bass' prospective.it will be an average lake at best after time there is just too much pressure on the small bodies in ky.I always thought if you wanted big bass you had to limit their population so it looks like a dale hollow style slot limit would be better than an straight 21,unless that is allowing for the small bass being eat,they think it will even out maybe?

[DJD]

There is a buffer zone, so technically you can walk the edge of the lake. The problem is there are so many trees/timber that there just aren't a lot of good places to bank fish from that aren't choked with weeds or extremely shallow so that you have to cast a mile.

On a related note, I finally had a few spare minutes of free time over the weekend and I took the kayak down to Cedar Creek and fished for about an hour yesterday (Sunday). Was just fishing for catfish and I caught 3 small ones. Not too bad for an hours time.

I am thinking along the lines with mhall....this lake had it's glory days and now it's time for the hard work in finding the fish or good fish. I'm ok with the way the lake is now because i never had any illusions that this would be a "trophy lake".
I still catch fish there as good or better than other lakes it's just not as easy as it once was. Drawing it down will help with the future spawns because thats what Florida does and it works wonders. JMO

[WacoWildcat]

I've fished Cedar creek about a dozen times. There are good bass in there, and I've caught a few, but there seems to be a ton of short fish. I agree with you guys that maybe a slot limit would be best.

[Moose1am]

It only takes two years for the gizzard shad population to explode.

Gizzard shad can make up 50% of the entire biomass of some lakes. These gizzard shad will eat the same thing that the bluegills need to grow and thus the stunting of the sunfish population.

If you look at the History of Patoka Lake in Southern IN you will see that this lake didn't have any measurable gizzard shad populations until around 1996. That year they found a few gizzard shad in the fish sampling nets. But the next year they found that the number of gizzard shad captured had expanded by leaps and bounds.

West Boggs Lake in Southern IN is another lake that had gizzard shad introduced into it by something or someone. Now they draw this lake down in hopes that a long cold winter will help kill of the vast majority of the gizzard shad population. But the shad can reproduce so fast that it's nearly impossible to keep them out of the lake. Especially if someone thinks they know better than the fishery biologist and keeps restocking the gizzard shad back into the lakes in hope that it will improve the bass fishing.

Now if they would only put in Threadfin shad that could survive the winter cold that would be nice. The threadfin shad don't grow that big and even the crappie can eat adult threadfins.

Looks like the KDFWR is going to draw down Cedar Creek to improve bass fishing and reduce the stunted bluegill population. How did it come to this so quickly? That lake is only about 5 years old or maybe less.

http://www.amnews.com/public_html/?module=displaystory&story_id=34971&format=html