For Gianni

Gianni my old friend,

Since the first nite I posted on this board I have put the cedar fiver out front as a great, albeit seasonal fishery for smallies and wallys as well as great catti’n. And from the the start you have complained about the poor manner in which the cedar treats you, both on the board and in PMs.You even had BFD and Little B feeling sorry for you at the get together!!!!! All this time I was thinking boy it sure must suck to be Gianni. Well, Friday nite I heard the cedar was up enough to get around pretty well with a small boat, so BFD pulled his 16′ Lund out of the grove and we went to knock em dead Sat AM. HOO BOY,Gianni I feel your pain, NO bass NO walleye NO pike and for me, NO cats. I was worsed than skunked, I was red horsed!!!!! The scoundrels BFD and Little B of course think this is jolly good fun, so I am now hiding in shame.
Your forever humbled friend………..B

B, I feel your pain. I was considering hitting it myself this weekend, but the crappies were going so well on MacBride that I just had to see if they were still on.

A lot of my complaining about the Cedar comes directly from info from the DNR. Every time I talk to Eric, he says the same thing: If you want fish, hit the Wapsi. You have strengthened my resolve, however, and I have vowed to hit it hard and find the fish. There should be no reason why I can’t find fish in a river that’s only 2 miles from my house! Now I just need to find the time.

One interesting note: Last weekend, I saw a flat-bottom right downtown between the Diagonal Drive and Lions’ bridges. I didn’t even know that was possible; I though the river was only about a foot deep through most of that section.

What type of fish do you want to catch the most on the cedar,and what streach have you tried?

When I was in middle and high school, I fished it a lot – at least once a week. We’d ride out bikes down the river road and fish from shore all the way from Seminole Valley to the railroad bridge above the 5-in-one.

Back then, it was pretty good for bluegills, and it wouldn’t be unusual to catch fifty in an afternoon. We never kept any, because the size was pretty poor, and after all, we were on bicycles

We would also bowfish below the foot-bridge at Chain Lakes. You wouldn’t believe the number of carp stacked up in the log jams along the East shore – truly amazing, but harder than heck to nail with a bow.

Fast forward four years, and after I got home from school I started trying to find crappies and bass, then later on walleyes. I eventually blanked enough to call it quits. Even for catfish, I can usually do better at Coralville (boat) or on the Wapsi (shore).

I’ve had pretty good luck catfishing at Hoeffle Dulin at night while camping, and had a blast last year at Otranto catching smallmouths, but around CR it’s a very different river. If someone wants to share a boat sometime down here and show me how it’s done, I’d be more than happy to oblige.

Gianni places I done real well at starting at the chain-lake bridge is the west side of the bridge for cats.The bank above the bridge on the west side to under the bridge was allways good for some smallmouth.Seminole-valleys is still a good place for crappies and bass,across the river along ellis rd. are some holes with nice walleyes and cats.Down river at the harber crappies and gills alot of gills.Across the river from there at mohawk boat ramp the old peir is a good spot for cats at night,in the mornning theres good largemouths fishing around the ramp and peir.At the mouth of mohawk and in mohawk I’ve got alot of gills,crappies,bass,big cats,and some toothyfish.Down river from there you have the back waters on the east side,they sillted in alot but the pike still hang around there.Below the 5in1 it’s great,east side big smallmouth fishing from dam to first ave. bridge.Flatheads and chanels at the dam.Where they built the hydro was my best crappie spot,they can srew up a wet dream.(lol)There are alot of great smallmouth and cats all along the west side from the third ave. bridge to the old willson train bridge.Great cat fishing from the three sand bars on that streach along Otis rd.There’s a boat ramp there’s,thats where the johnboat you seen put in.The water from below cargill to the roller dam runs around 6-10 with alot of deep holes.At the roller dam I’ve got crappie,few gills,cats,some bullheads,stergon,spoonbill (while walleye fishing),strippers,Big smallmouth 3#+ and alot of toothyfish.Indian creeck great smallmouth all year long.I hate to be so long winded but I know all these places are great fishing. I fish the Cedar 2 days sometimes more a week.I hunt crappies mostly now,and do very well on the river.They run in the range of 10-13-1/2″ with a few hitting 15 or better, and you do get some little ones your minnow can kick the #$%* out of the crappie.(LOL)I catch and release mostly.If you gave me the choice between are rivers in are area,I’ll take the cedar every time.The Res. is 2nd.3rd is the Iowa in Amana or Iowa city,alot of walleye and crappies there to.I use minnows and bobbers and jigs.I know if you can find fish on the wapsi,you can find them on the cedar,the holes. Johnny Z. at Five Season Bait&Tackle and the baitshop bums are full of info too. Good Luck Gianni on the cedar.

Well, B. I took a couple days off to fish, so I hit it hard today. All the hype really had my motor running, and I was downright giddy at the prospect of a top-notch fishery right here in the backyard.

Unfortuantely, it didn’t take long for reality to set in. I hit all the places listed, plus a few more. After about 5 hours on the water with just me, a box of crawlers, and fifteen million of my closest friends on jet-skis, I’d had about enough. I drifted, trolled, anchored, pitched, flipped, and cast. I cranked, threw spinnerbaits, inline spinners, jigs-n-minnows, jigs-n-crawlers, jigs-n-leeches, three-ways, bottom bouncers, slip-bobbers, fixed bobbers and even considered jumping in after them. One fiddler catfish the size of a ballpoint pen was all that came aboard, although I could see carp wallowing along the East shoreline the entire length.

Maybe we should plan a group event on the Cedar, then you two could witness first-hand my clever ability to not catch fish.

Gianni, Labruce’s post was awesome! Made me want to pull my boat down from the great stetches of the Cedar River up here in Waterloo down to Cedar Rapids.

Obviously, you need help catching fish down there!

I agree, his post even got me to give it a shot, and trust me – I need help catching fish everywhere I go.

It was pretty slow thursday also on pool 11, I think the high water had more to do with it than anything. The Cedar is running muddy as can be, and I’m not sure what that would do to the fish. On the other hand, the new ramps at Mohawk are really nice; once they do something with the parking lot, that will be a really decent ‘home base.’ It’s amazing what an entire neighborhood of million-dollar homes will do to a place.

I was surprised at how much rock/sand bottom there was. Pretty much the entire stretch along the river road is gravel and rocks. I can’t help but think that there would be some pretty good fishing in through there for smallies and eyes, especially with the high water. I drifted about a half-mile stretch casting jigs to shore and bumping the rocks, but came out of it with only a dinged up trolling motor prop. The storms this morning probably won’t help the high water any.

If anyone wants to share an adventure on the Cedar, it’s close enough that my wife would probably accomodate my sneaking out for a couple hours with the boat. I’m sure that in the long run, she will come to appreciate my quest to find a fishing hole within 1/2 hour’s drive. Shoot me a PM.

Tried the Cedar again this afternoon. This time we went up to Nashua to meet with the wife’s parents and pick up our daughter from a week’s vacation.

Spent an hour or so throwing spinnerbaits from shore along the rip-rap North of the dam and picked up a couple of LMB’s. Not very big, but chunky and healthy looking. Proof enough for me that the equipment is functioning – now why won’t those darned CR fish bite!