Anyone live in the Cedar Falls/Waterloo area?

Just wondering if anyone on this site lives in the Cedar Falls or Waterloo area? I normally fish the Northwest part of the state in the Okoboji area but now since I go to college at UNI I wanted to do some fishing down here. I looked on the DNR’s website for the best lakes in this region and went to most of them and was really dissapointed. In the past 4 days I’ve gone to North and South Prairie, Meyers Lake, George Wyth, Plainfield, Nashua Damn, and some others. The best bet for large fish seemed to be at the Damn in Nashua but all the other places didn’t even have the potential for big fish as some of them like Meyers Lake and Plainfield were just stocked and the fish aren’t very big yet. Plus I’ve realized all the lakes around here recieve TONS of fishing pressure so that doesn’t make things easier. Anyway I was just wondering what some of your guys favorite lakes are in the area? Thanks for any help.

Kent

Pleasant Creek at Palo has been a pretty good lake for me. Don’t know if that’s close enough or not, but seems like you could be there in about 1/2 hour or so?

Hey Kent,

Welcome to the area. There is some good fishing in the area. Most of it is in the Cedar river. The local walleye club had a tournament Saturday with disappointing results. I had one 14.5 incher. My partner had one smaller one. A week before I caught a 25 incher, too bad I couldn’t catch him on Saturday. Guys in the club regularly haul in 5 pounders so they’re out there.

We don’t have anything like what you’re used to in the NW part of the state. I can’t say that any local lake is worth a darn. George Wyth is the dead sea, the prairie lakes are ok for numbers, but the size is so small and the structure is so sparse, you’re never going to really get into them. Everything lake-wise around here is a borrow pit which means it’s really deep, structure free and pretty sterile. There are a few lakes that are better than others. Send me a PM and I’ll try to turn you on to what little I know. There’s so much pressure, secrets can’t be too widely disseminated.

Thanks for the info guys. I figured the best fishing would be in the river but I like fishing lakes so much better I was hoping to find a decent one. Basically they are all terrible though. I have a friend up here who knows someone with some private ponds which would be awesome if I could get a chance to fish some of those but I dont know if its going to happen. If I can figure it out I’ll send ya a PM bigesox and if it doesn’t work I’ll drop ya an e-mail or somethin. Anyway, thanks again for the info guys. Take it easy.

Kent

Kent,to send a private message just click on the user’s name and scroll down just a little past his bio info and then click on the private message section-very easy.
Nice to see you in the Iowa forums,you ready to get that 20″ smallie this summer?
Ryan Hale

I got the PM sent with no problems so thats good. Your completely right about that smallie too Ryan. There will definately be a lot of smallie fishing going on this summer. I would like to get out more this spring as I think the fishing would be better for a larger fish. I’m still looking to top 20″ since last year the best I did was 18″ but it felt like a monster on ultra light so thats always fun. I might try Spirit Lake more this year too even though I love all of West Okoboji’s structure and clear water. Maybe if you have some free time this spring we could go chase some smallies again Ryan. Anyway I better get going. Take it easy guys.

Kent

Kent,Great to have you on board!!

The crappies are going pretty well this week at Union Grove lake near Gladrook. Not huge crappies,8.5 to 10″. Bank fisherman have been using minnows or plastics from the jettys and the dam area. should be about 45 min drive from CF.