Headed to Cedar Creek Lake

[TFo]

My son and I are headed down to Cedar Creek lake next week. It's supposed to be an up and coming trophy Largemouth lake. Anyone have any experience on Cedar Creek?

[Soupy_1us]

I know I don't get out much and then agin this kinda shows it but, I have no ideer where this CedarCreek Lake is....Where-a-bouts would I find this lake/creek?
Ain't up around Louisville is it?

[Illinoisgiller]

TFo, If you are refering to Cedar Lake in south IL., be sure to stop by the little bait shop along the road in. I and the wife briefly stopped by Cedar once back when we could afford to get there.:confused0024:. We just piddled around the dock and shore a bit. The lake is deep and clear.
If I recall correctly I Googled up a fishing report for there once and there is a bait shop with an ongoing report for it and the other lakes in the area. ????? Mike

[TFo]

Here you go. It's about an hours drive SE of Louisville.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_Creek_Lake_(Kentucky)

I've got a buddy who retired down there last fall and lives about a 1/4 mile from one of the boat ramps.

He tells me he's been able to find 3-4 lb. Largemouth pretty easily just about everytime he's been out. The Redear and Crappie are supposed to be getting good sized too.

Here's a link to a fishing report.
http://www.fishin.com/reports/ky/ky-1/cedarcreek.htm

[Soupy_1us]

See ! I told you guys I don't get out much....... I 'm from Louisville,KY and I didn't even know about that "BIG" lake up there......... Boy, I really do need to get out more.

[TFo]

Well, we're home from our visit to Cedar Creek Lake. It's a beautiful lake with clear water and structure along almost every bit of the shore. There's even structure away from shore.

We fished most of Thursday and Friday with tube worms hunting the big bass on the bottom. The state of Kentucky is trying to build a trophy Largemouth lake, so the minimum size is 20" and only one can be kept.

It'll probably be another year or so before the 20" Largemouth are really ready. They're there now, but they're few and far between. Our largest bass was 17" or 18". We ran into a couple of guys in another boat who had caught several "close" bass, but only one 20+. My largest was 17".

We had trouble finding the larger bass Saturday morning, so we mostly used earthworms about 3ft. deep just off a sharp vertical drop. We caught a lot of gills, small bass and channel cat. I even caught a small albino channel cat, pink eyes and all.

My 9 year old son, Connor, caught dinner for us on Saturday, his first channel cat and first bullhead. The 17" channel cat was quite a struggle for him and his little kid pole. You know the one. It even comes with a plastic fish to practice casting.

The only downside was seeing how the shore fishermen are turning the lake into a garbage pit. There was garbage anywhere the shore was accessible. I just don't get how so many citizens of Kentucky can treat such a special place like it's a dump. The kicker was heading home Sunday morning behind a family on their way to church, presumably, and seeing a banana peel fly out the window onto the road.

In short, I don't understand the thinking of the locals, but they do have one heck of a lake. I just hope that Kentucky's fish and widlife people can do something about the garbage.

[DaveIN]

Congrats Connor! Very nice Catfish!

Great report and a shame about the garbage.........

[Timotha7]

Sounds like a great family outing

But sure sorry to hear bout the garbage
Like you have never understood why people can't carry out what they take in
or how anyone can enjoy a spot like that if they are trashing it out