Ceder River

Well I got walleye fever,the darn cold locked the river up and the hard water just don’t scratch my itch.Looking forward to ice out,but getting things ready in the mean time.
How many fish the ceder?Where on the ceder?What are some of your favorite tatics?Plan on expermenting or exploring any?
I fish in and around Waterloo,my fav. is 1/16 jig and 21/2in. spakle chat or motoroil twister in eddys.I picked up 3 eyes just before it went soild(really cold wading,makes things shrink ) 2 pushing 4lbs on my new 6’ml fenwickreally sweet rod.Plan to use ringies and k-grubs some more this year.Anyone try spider grubs?
Well I’ll stop babbling now,Good Fishing to all.Now wheres my hook sharpener.

I talked to a guy that i know that was fishing the roller dam here in town about a month ago. He said the bite was slow and wasen’t getting hits. The week befor he got several up to 6 pounds that hit hard. If a guy could get to some holes or shallower water just about the holes, say 3 to 7 ft , slow jigging might do the trick, It does for me but i haven’t been out much. Im a fan of a slow dropping jig with a big minnow with this cold water, this produces for me.

I use to fish the cedar river a lot when I lived in IA. The dam in Nashua is was always a good bet to get some quality eyes. The dam in Waverly and places a few miles down stream produced for me as well in the spring time right after ice out. I have heard Nashua dam has gotton better over the years but I have not fished down that way for about 7 years.

Those Ringies and k-grubs will show you some good results down that way. Sounds like you are already getting some fish on plastic, maybe bulking up a bit with the k-grubs and ringies will get you more big fish.

Keep the info coming from down that way! It nice to read about the fishing in an area I grew up in

This board has seen much debate on the quality of the Cedar as a fishery. I think the reason opinions on the subject are so diverse is that the river itself goes from fantastic to ‘total dud’ and back to fantastic, completing that cycle from Austin to Palisades (the farthest South I’ve ever fished it).

For the most part, it’s been really good to me in the northern stretches for smallies and a handful of dink walleyes. I’ve never caught an eye over 8 inches in the Cedar, but until this year I’d never caught a single eye in Coralville either.

The one thing that really makes it tough is the inability to explore in the boat. Draft on mine is deep enough that I can only cover about five miles tops above the dam here in CR. By the time I get around Seminole Valley park, the river is just not deep enough to float it.

I’ve heard it helps to have a companion to get out and push, but then they demand you share your beer.

Thanks guys for the response.I’m certainly going to explore some new places this year,been looking at ariel photos of the river for spots to try.Never fished Nasuha,but a friend and I were discussing going around Charles City we’ll stop by there.Mainly only fished in or around Waterloo.
Ginni the DNR started stocking walleye fry from Waverly down a few years back and it has been a big success up here from what I’ve seen.Sometimes all I get re dinks too but looks like size is getting bigger.
Dustin thanks diffently going to try beefing up.Almost feels like I’ll be fishing celeb water .
I’ll try keeping everyone posted.Come spring we should start a post for Ceder cond. and results.

Well, I spent part of the weekend varifying that the “Cedar River Curse” with which only I seem to be afflicted indeed does follow me through the winter months.

It started on Saturday AM with a quick trip to Ellis Harbor there in the second (empty) marina. I was surprised to find that there’s about 10′ of water in there, and figured that if there were any fish in that river, this was the spot. I didn’t take a snow shovel, so moving was difficult. I still swept aside snow with my boot and drilled about 10 holes. None of them showed any sort of cover or, more importantly, fish. We stuck it out for about an hour, then decided to head for MacBride. That marina is just too darned big for one guy to explore by himself in winter; probably about 1/8 mile long and 100yds or so wide. I told my daughter we’d have to run the boat up in there this summer and try to locate and mark whatever cover is available.

Fished Mowhawk for about an hour yesterday afternoon. Bright sunlight, but I’m not sure that’s what my problem was. I fished in around the tree that’s sticking up through the ice (not the trees sitting ON the ice in the SE corner). Small fish were showing up on the flasher pretty much constantly, with a bigger one every now and again. Not sure what they were, though, since I didn’t score so much as a nibble in the hour and a half I fished. Tried minnows, spikes, and waxies on many colors with no takers on anything.

One thing to note: Mowhawk only had about 4-5 inches of ice, whereas Ellis had a solid 18-20. There was a lot of slush from the snow on top of the ice as well (at Mowhawk). I’ve noticed this before, while driving past on the road. I suppose there’s springs in there that keep it thin, or maybe just snowmelt coming down the hill/bluff. Be safe if you try it.

Hey Gianni, heres another one i forgot to tell you about. Do you know where the old martin marietta sand plant was on the road that goes to rompot. Park at the gate and walk into the sandplant and on the right theres a huge chunk of concrete that lays on the bank and drops off into deep water. I fish there in early spring and get a few nice crappies. They pull the bobber slow sideways when they take the minnow, not a real big producer but a few. Also where the bay connects to the river on the up river side of the bay, , where they use to dredge right by the rivers mouth theres an under water hump that sticks off them bottom about 4 to 6 ft maybe 10 ft in diameter. i can’t remember exactly but its in about 16 ft of water and have graphed alot of fish around this underwater hump in the spring with my finder. Maybe it would be good there now on the ice. my finder showed some real nice fish.

Hay mossydan does somebody dredge the ceder down there?

Nobody dredges it that I’m aware of. Every spring the Ikes do a river cleanup day where everyone with a boat goes out and pulls tires and trash out of the river South of town. You wouldn’t believe the stuff they bring out of there.