Any Smallmouth on Cedar lake?

I ask because it’s connected to the Mississippi via a navigable (for fish) channel, has anybody familiar with this lake ever caught or seen a smallmouth on Cedar lake?

What ceader lake?

located near Aitkin, MN (DNR Lake # 01020900)

We fish it every year and have never caught or seen one. According to the owner of the cabin we stay at, there are none in there. It sure would be nice if there were, that lake has good structure for them.

My daughter just caught this here. Twenty years and this is a first for me.

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I fished a bass lake this weekend that has “no” smallmouth in it. Was talking to a couple kids that said earlier in the day they had caught a smallmouth. I didnt believe them until they pulled out the phone and sure enough a little smallmouth bass on a lake with no connections to a river or known smallmouth bass lakes. They seem to be getting around.

People have been throwing them in lakes they were never in for eons. THat is how muskies got into Mille Lacs. A few rogue anglers starting putting them in there in the 70’s or so. Then the state started stocking them.

lol, 9 year old post….

it definitely has a catchable population of Smallmouth and it should only get better…catch & release everybody!

I’ve heard some lakes get stocked by wading birds that transport eggs on their legs from one lake to another.

CaptainMusky wrote:

People have been throwing them in lakes they were never in for eons. THat is how muskies got into Mille Lacs. A few rogue anglers starting putting them in there in the 70’s or so. Then the state started stocking them.

They’re called bucket biologists. This is why its illegal to transport fish from one body to another without a permit.

Muskies were originally stocked in Mille Lacs in the 1970’s. Prior to that there was not a population of them in there. They initially started with the Wisconsin strain, and then used the popular Leech Lake strain. Stocking in ML and the overall muskie stocking program in MN has dropped off a cliff in recent years. There is public survey I attached in another thread about the future of the muskie stocking program here and I hope it gets revived with more stocking in the future. Not necessarily in more lakes, just more stocking in existing lakes. Minnesota used to be the envy of muskie fishing, perhaps in the entire country. Not so much anymore.

wkw wrote:

I’ve heard some lakes get stocked by wading birds that transport eggs on their legs from one lake to another.

Ah yeas the old blame the birds. They also used to steal my homework, and they took a check to the IRS out of my mailbox and got me audited.

Keep stocking them. Nothing better pickled than a 50″ muskie. Close second a 22″ smallie.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

lol, 9 year old post….

it definitely has a catchable population of Smallmouth and it should only get better…catch & release everybody!

When did you start catching them here? We ended up with three yesterday.

about 3-4 years ago and I catch more and more of them every year now…biggest was about 16″ sofar…I catch them in all different sizes so they are reproducing in the lake…great bonus fish species for Cedar…

Now I’m trying to hunt down a Burbot in Cedar…one was caught a few years ago in a DNR survey…

Thanks Joe

FYI, we did catch and release after the pictures. We are mostly C&R fishers.

tpmorgz wrote:

FYI, we did catch and release after the pictures. We are mostly C&R fishers.

nice catch! Did you catch it on the main lake or Little Cedar?

Main lake, north end

Caught two smallies on opener. Have caught 3 eel pout over the years. All under 2 pounds, all at night fishing eyes in the winter.

Dan Kane wrote:

Caught two smallies on opener. Have caught 3 eel pout over the years. All under 2 pounds, all at night fishing eyes in the winter.

cool catching 3 Burbot!, proves the DNR survey fish wasn’t a fluke…

Surprised the DNR never tried putting Lakers in Cedar, definitely deep enough and more than enough cisco & shad baitfish to chase…

20 years ago we didn’t catch many Smallmouth while fishing the Mississippi near Aitkin. Now it’s the main fish we chase up there. Guess that could be said about Mille lacs to. Wonder how long it will be until the Channel cats find their way up the creek from the Mississippi into Cedar lake?

With the high water levels this spring anything is possible…

I remember an old timer telling me about lake trout in cedar a long time ago. Don’t remember the details. Maybe something about private stocking in the 40’s or something to that effect. Never heard it from any other long time residents so who knows.

Think those are old rumors. Same stories about long lake east of Aitkin as it’s over 100′ deep. The DNR did just recently stock Splake into long lake. I haven’t heard of anyone catching one yet.

Kinda wish the Smallmouth would make their way up the Rice river and into long and Dam lakes. Would be fun.