I grew up by the cedar river in southern mn. and northern ia. That river was about the only body of water close to home, wondering if anybody on ido has had much luck there. I have heard it has improved over the years.
A buddy of mine caught a 28″ Walleye last fall near Cedar Falls. 
I’ve fished the Cedar below the Nashua dam and I gotta admit I’ve always done well. Great smallie fishing! There were also quite a few of northern and walleyes to be had. It’s a 2 hour drive from my front door and I’ve never been disappointed! My biggest walleye was probably only 21 inches, but the amount of nice smallmouth we caught was a blast! I would suggest giving it a try! 
I grew up in Osage, IA. Fished the Cedar from MN border to Charles City, IA. It used to be if you caught 3 walleyes a summer you did pretty good. Now the IA DNR is stocking fingerlings and the walleye fishing has taken off pretty good. Love that river.
I used to fish it in the summer sometimes in the early ’90s. My grandparents had a tree farm south of Austin a few miles. The only fish were tiny smallmouth and big chubs.
A friend of mine has caught many nice smallies south of the dam in otranto, ia. Also nice crappies and pike north of the dam a bit. I have heard the dnr is stocking some walleyes south of st.ansgar, but have not heard how that is going . I have also explored the water just north of the border quite a bit but pretty shallow
The mitchell county conservation board has a rearing pond where they raise walleyes and pike in alternating years. They stock the fish from st. ansgar to about orchard in several different areas. It is really working nicely, the walleye fishing is getting better every year.
That is good to hear. I still have family in the st.ansgar and lyle area that I hope to fish the cedar with.
The walleye and northerns numbers are pretty good around these parts and I’ve visually seen one walleye over 12 pounds and caught many northerns around the 8 too 12 pound range. I know theres northerns that go 20 to 25 pounds in a section of the river south of town. The crappie fishing in the backwaters can produce 3 lber’s and good numbers of 10″ too 12″ers with an occasional 14″er. The bluegills never seem too make it that far, probably because of the fish that feed on them. Smallies is ok at times but again I think the catfish and northerns take quite a few of those, its hard to get one over 17″ but thier there, theres better numbers of big smallies in the creeks. Catfish is a story all by itself, we hammer the channels on trotlines and ditty poles from May until the spawns over sometime in June. Even after spawn you can set dittypoles and catch channels all summer. Lots of big flatheads can be caught if you know where to go and we’ve caught many below the 5 in 1 dam here in town the month befor spawn. They come from way down river out of the holes and are stopped by the dam. Whitebass used to be really good 15 years ago, since then I don’t know whats happened, we used to get them up to 18″. The Cedars good fishing here and theres a couple creeks that are top of the shelf for catfish and smallies when the waters right. On a couple creeks if you set ditty poles with live bluegills and on a calm night, you’ll get a catfish on every pole, reset and do it again until dawn. The fishings so good for channels for about 3 weeks that it becomes work getting the amount of bluegills we need for for each nights fishing. We spend alot of hours getting bait and fishing all night but its alot of fun and every year we get alot of channels. Last spring we cleaned fish when we got our possesion limit for three of us. We cleaned all the smaller ones that were under 10 pounds for an hour and a half. Then the three of us cleaned the remaining fish that were over that for another hour and a half. We have a live cage that we put them in as we come off the river, then clean them all at once. Last spring we used a quad runner to drag the cage out of the river and it took 4 of us to drag it on the Tommylift on my truck to take them to the cleaning table. One thing I have to say is the channel cat fishing around here in the back waters of the Cedar is really good in the spring and good all summer.
Posts like this will cause B K to move to Iowa. 
I have taken my canoe down almost ALL of the Cedar over many years. I believe the fishing has increased with the water quality. I live in No Central IA now and fish the upper areas when I can. Many fish to be had in the area. I fish mostly North of St Ansgar. Just find some deeper holes and you never know what you will catch. This area is also a C&R only area for SM Bass I believe?
Yes i think you are right on the catch and release in that area for small mouth.
Brians welcome here anytime if he wants to go and I don’t mind taking people who want to fish new water. Its no secret around here that the catfishings really good around the spawn, lots of pictures can be taken.
I grew up 7 miles from the dam in Nashua. Used to ride my bike in to town to fish before i was old enough to drive. Lots of fond memories of that section of the Cedar River. Never caught a walleye on this river growing up but many smallmouth and slimers.
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