ddhlakebound

Nice to meet both you fellas, couple nice stringers of whites......we ended up with a few, but not close to a limit. See you soon on the river most likely.

I've been a couple times w.e.b.......no luck so far other than a drum, and one keeper crappie in the two trips (and my wife caught those....). The "road" in is 4wd only if its wet, and won't take too much more tearing up before it's 4wd all the time. Won't be long and they'll be there. Did see a few cats being caught, decent pan size channels....

I'd guess they went back downriver......the scouts start testing the rivers a couple weeks before it's really on.....this year is matching up with the last few from my observations.....usually sometime in the 1st to 3rd week of March (depending on weather) you start hearing reports of people catching a few, or a limit, but not many others can duplicate it........a couple weeks after these reports start.......it's on for real.

Common carp are not native, are prolific breeders, are predators of the spawning beds of other tasty gamefish, wipe out tons of aquatic vegetation (could be good or bad, depending...), and compete for the same food with many of the gamefish most people would rather be catching. Now I'm not saying it's ok to throw them on the bank to rot, (at least take them to your garden or compost pile so their decomposition provides a value), but shoot all you want, and come back soon. Carp don't need anyone's protection, they're here to stay, and they grow quickly. Thinning them out only leaves more food in the food chain for the fish that I (and most others) want to eat and catch.

Wow.....lots of views and a few posts, considering that this page of the forum hasn't seen any action since last May.......You guys must be chompin at the bit just like I am for the river action to kick in. March 11 last year was the first good stringer of whites I caught......but then they shut down for a couple weeks after that......but last winter was COLD compared to this one so far.

Nice job catchin' 'em....Making me think I ought to give it one more try on the whites....

I caught my first good sized stringer on Mar 11, then nothing for a few weeks, but pretty much all of Apr. I caught a limit whenever I chased them. Apr 12, 26, 28, all nice limits w/ several 16" sows. I have not tried them again since the 28th of Apr. This year was pretty tough with the lack of rain, but those three trips I made were all soon after rain. The rivers only came up a few inches, but it seemed to make a difference. I've been hearing of decent catches of whites trolling in the lake for the last week, so I'm guessing that many of them have left the rivers.

Cedar ridge has two ramps...The campground ramp, open to campers only during the listed time, and the open to everyone all the time ramp, to the east a half mile before you enter the campground. Cedar Ridge is pretty full summertime weekends, but it does seem totally unreasonable to close that ramp to the public for all summer.

The south ramp (marina ramp) is private. The north ramp is a corp ramp, and open to the public.

Went Friday eve and caught a half dozen females, and lots of short fish. Bite was light and slow. Keeper sized came mostly from 8-15 feet. Shorties came from 2-15 feet. Keeper sized males where nowhere to be found where we were. We were on a shelf rock staging bank, and I felt like the males had already moved onto the spawning grounds to start their beds. The females were getting pretty swelled up, eggs still fairly tight, but getting ripe. Won't be long at all til they're actively spawning. My next trip I'll be targeting sloping gravel banks, depth dependent on clarity.

https://www.google.com/search?q=spider+rig+fishing&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=KTFhU8-UM4jw2gWBm4D4Dw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1920&bih=912 how've you been w.e.b424?

Nice job catchin 'em. How far up the river were you fishing? I was on turnback this afternoon til dark, and had the worst day I've had there this year. Saw and talked to lots of others who were having luck similar to mine this afternoon. You must have been doing something very right.

It's been pretty rough so far. Sunday evening in a couple hours I caught 5 whites, 2 crappie, and 4 barely big enough to filet bluegills, plus 15-20 short whites and more small gills. Yesterday from bout 3:30 til dark, I caught 8 keeper whites, 2 gills, and gobs of small whites. Had a couple good sows Sunday, and 4 yesterday. They're starting to get ripe, won't be long at all till they're actively spawning. Everybody I've been seeing is throwing something white, and I know that works well when they're turned on, but I haven't seen 'em turned on yet this year. I've been throwing 1/16 tube jigs, red/chart. That was my best color last year too, in similar water colors. Work 'em slow as you can bouncing off the bottom. Seems like the majority of the bites were when I was trying not to let the jig move. Hop, hop, freeze, or hop hop slow fall. This was in the big sac, haven't been to the little sac.

Last year I caught limits or near limits of whites in the rivers from 3-31 thru 4-21. Starting a bit later this year, but the white bite could run right up to may this year, imo.

The back of Turkey Creek is a big, wide, long mud flat, without much of a channel. Far less flow than big sac or little sac. I'm not saying there won't be white bass there, but it wouldn't be in the list of the first 5 places I'd check. Still might be worth an hour....if you find them there you'll probably have them to yourself.