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Cedar Lake, Rice County

leghorn1953
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leghorn1953 Newbie

leghorn1953

Posted
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Does anyone have any insight about cedar, specifically weed control and its effect on fishing and the lake in general? It's been very slow fall fishing this year. Any ideas?

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brian6715 Proficient

brian6715

Posted
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I think there are numerous things that have hurt this lake in the past few years, here are some in no particular order...

1. Eurasion milfoil, any time you have that much of a change in a lakes weeds you can't tell me it won't effect the fishing.

2. Carp/Buffalo... this lake has exploded with these the last 3-4 years. I have been shooting carp for years in Rice county and Cedar has went from an average carp lake to the best one in the Faribo area in my opinion. 50 carp a day in May is not out of the question at all. If you want to see something impressive check out the outlet on the West side of the lake around the end of April to the beginning of June.

3. Cormorants. I think these birds are killing Rice County lakes more then anyone realizes. At some point the DNR needs to stop wasting money stocking fish that get eaten immediately by cormorants and start spending some of that money on Cormorant control. I have seen a Cormorant with an 11" crappie in it's stomach.

4. Fishing pressure/boating pressure. This lake gets a ton of pressure from the cities, it is a totally different lake if you fish it on weekdays rather then weekends.

5. Winterkill, I don't remember what year exactly but I think it was 02 or 03 when this lake got hit hard.

This is just my 2 pennies,

Brian-

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katoguy Experienced

katoguy

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I don't believe milfoil is detrimental to fishing. I believe it is good for fish - from just hatched minnows all the way up.

We as fisherman will need to learn to adjust our tactics. The fish are still there. Milfoil is better than curly leaf pondweed which dies off mid-summer and leaves a rotting, stinking mess.

Boaters/skiers definitely don't like milfoil (or curly leaf pondweed when it is up).

Some of the other factors listed may be valid.

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gspman Veteran

gspman

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One of the problems is aquatic diversity. Currently there are only 3 major types of aquatic vegetation in the lake. Milfoil, curlyleaf pondweed and coontail. When the pondweed dies at the end of June it's down to milfoil and coontail. I know the DNR is studying why the panfish are so small in the lake. In four years of owning a house and fishing on Cedar I have seen only a handful of what I consider to be keeper panfish. There is definitely a cormorant roost on West Cedar so that could be an issue too. I just think the lake is out of balance. There should be decent sunnies, crappies and bass in that lake as that is what it is managed for. Only bass are decent in the lake and the small crappies and sunnies are way over abundant. It's not a walleye or pike lake so I view those fish as bonus fish. I don't think the chemical treatment is hurting or helping the fish. Even after treatments there is still a ton of vegetation for fish to take cover in.

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brian6715 Proficient

brian6715

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katoguy,

If you read my post you will see that never once did I say the milfoil was bad for fishing, I just said it had an effect on the fishing. People need to adjust and use new tactics, and the ones that have done this have had success on this lake, and that is more what I was hinting at...

On another note, this lake does have a decent supply of 4# plus northerns, once again finding them is the challenge.

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katoguy Experienced

katoguy

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Whoa, don't be defensive. I wasn't questioning your reply. Everyone has an opinion on this site. I guess I should have replied directly to leghorn.

The crappies in the late 90's used to be really nice. I haven't set my sights on them in the last several years, but I understand they run small.

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Muddog Mentor

Muddog

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You would think that if the sunnies and crappies were stunted by over population, the cormorant would be a good thing.

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brian6715 Proficient

brian6715

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Sorry I wasn't trying to sound defensive, I just don't want people taking my post the wrong way and giving up on the lake just because of the milfoil.

I cannot wait until the day until we can hunt cormorants... the island on Cedar and Wells are just plain infested with the stupid things. Drive by the big island on Wells lake, and check out how white the trees are. Don't get to close the smell is horrid. IMO this is why Cannon Lake is not what it used to be.

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gspman Veteran

gspman

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Posted

Katoguy,

According to the company the lake assn has studying the lake there is pretty much only coontail, curlyleaf pondweed, and milfoil in the lake. I myself haven't seen cabbage in there since I've had the place on Cedar. I know you fish some tourneys on Cedar, have you seen anything other than coontail, curlyleaf pondweed, and milfoil (aside from pads and that gross stringy algae)?

gspman

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  • 4 weeks later...
walleyejim Enthusiast

walleyejim

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Two winters ago we were ice fishing out there and we caught more little pan fish then we could count. Then a guy i was with pulled out a crappie that weighed 1 lb. 14 oz. - That was a suprise, I didn't think there was anything that big in there.

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Willy Mentor

Willy

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We used to catch a few big crappies out there about 5-6 years ago. Some spots were better than others, but you might get 10 nice ones and have to pick threw a bunch of little sunfish.

The last few winters I have also heard of a good bite on big walleyes. All those small panfish are good for something. Big bass, big walleyes.

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LaZyDayZ Community Regular

LaZyDayZ

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I went out a few times last year with my youngest kids just because I knew it would be non stop action on little crappies.

Spent the night in the sleeper and twice in the night rattle reels went off with 14" slabs. They are there but man o man do you have to weed em out.

I'll probably go back this year a time or two to keeps the kids excited.

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flagsup Enthusiast

flagsup

Posted
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so is it true?i heard coms taste like chicken,just kidding,yea these thing need to be dealt with.think i heard somewhere that they can swim 40 mph,not sure but they are a fish eating machine.dont know that they're fast enough to out fly a #2 though wink.gif

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