Cedar Lake Fishing Reports - Scott County - New Prague

[mwal]

Since the 80's the lake has been infested with curly leaf pond weed that makes it virtually an impenetrable Forrest for predators and prey. Late 80's you could still troll raps etc and catch waldos into June July there were weed lines. Now that has changed. The forest has created huge populations of food for the Walleye how hard is it for a walleye to find a 3inch crappie. It also creates other problems as curly leaf is boom and bust plant creating creating oxygen depletion issues when it dies off. The lake has also suffered winter kills hence the need for aeration how many large fish survive those. And how many survive the intense fishing pressure? Walleyes are not a native specie to Cedar it has 0 spawning habitat for walleye it relies on stocking. IF they are stocking fry how many make it past the hoards of crappie?

I just enjoy whatever is biting and am happy with that.

Mwal

[BronzeBrother]

A buddy and I made it out last night and had a blast, this lake rarely disappoints you for action. Most of the fish hugged the bottom and didn't really start biting til that magic evening time, then it was game on til about 6 pm. Got one bonus gill after dark too... The ice was at 14 inches where we set up.

Got to meet a couple nice fellows out there, who had auger problems. Happy to help them out so they could get fishing.

[mwal]

Good Karma to those who help fellow fisherman out.

Mwal

[Mike Dumas]

Good Karma to those who help fellow fisherman out.

Mwal

+10,000

[AndRo]

Over 15" of ice on Sunday. Ranged from 14"-17"... drilled about 35 holes. We were out from 8:15-10:45. Tons of typical Cedar Lake Craps... one small eye too.

[MNice]

FYI, aeration system is on, watch for the signs.

[gdahl2]

General question for the biology inclined folks on this forum.

When you look at how much pressure Cedar has received and per previous posts, know that a dump load of crappies have been taken out of that lake in the recent past.....why aren't the remaining crappies growing larger given less competition for the remaining forage base?

[concretekid]

There's something in the make up of lake that makes it a ideal hatchery for pan fish especially crappies. I've fished this lake for 30 years and rarely caught big crappies. Surprised that the introduction of tigers basically had no effect on the crappies. If you go to the dnr site look at the net results and its amazing how many crappies they found in the lake. We did manage 75 walleyes one night only 2 comeback and find 75 houses surrounding ours the next night. I no longer fish here there are better lakes in scott co and the surrounding areas. Drive carefully the lake eats a vehicle or 2 each winter.

[ThunderLund78]

I don't know if you'd call me biologically inclined. But I would put forth the following amature theories:

1. While many are caught, fewer are kept than we really think. I know I've kept a few out of there in recent years but they don't yield much meat. I'm not sure the number of people keeping limits can keep up with the wild reproduction rate.

2. Not a lot of predator fish. There are Bass, Walleye and a few tigers in there, but I think the stagering number of Crappies both feed on the newly-hatched bass and otherwise compete for forage with the stocked walleye fingerlings and smaller bass. The Bass and Walleye that do survive to adulthood can chow down, but there just aren't enough to make a serious dent.

3. The Pondweed in the summer just creates too much of an advantage for hatchlings to survive.

4. I would actually say the average size HAS increased about an inch over the last few years--this is just anecdotal--but slower than normal growth rates, possibly due to numbers #1, #2 and #3 above???

5. This is more of a question, but I have heard from folks that have lived and fished Cedar their whole lives that Pike used to thrive there. Did the Tiger introduction outcompete them for habitat/forage or prey on them? Did the shorline development take away their spawning habitat? Did the roughfish and pondweed destroy native weeds that were benficial for pike? It's cool to have the Tigers stocked, but I would think a self-sustaining Pike population would keep the crappies in-check. Every mud-puddle in SO. MN. sustains pike, hard to understand why they're not in Cedar??

[DTro]

I agree with everything except the number of fish that are kept. I can only assume that based on the the small number of people that I have talked to and using statistics to extrapolate it.

Just walk around and talk to some people, the bucket brigade is in full force out there, and I'm guilty myself of keeping a couple limits each year.

Having said that, who knows, maybe a lake like that can sustain a high harvest.

[Zelmsdawg]

5. This is more of a question, but I have heard from folks that have lived and fished Cedar their whole lives that Pike used to thrive there. Did the Tiger introduction outcompete them for habitat/forage or prey on them? Did the shorline development take away their spawning habitat? Did the roughfish and pondweed destroy native weeds that were benficial for pike? It's cool to have the Tigers stocked, but I would think a self-sustaining Pike population would keep the crappies in-check. Every mud-puddle in SO. MN. sustains pike, hard to understand why they're not in Cedar??

This is purely a guess, but I'd think with such incredibly high numbers of panfish over the years, that the survival rate of baby pike and/or other species is considerably lower than usual. So as the adults slowly get removed, there aren't any classes up and coming to replace them.

I can also remember catching large crappies maybe 12-15yrs ago, so the lake will produce them. I believe that now its just in the middle of an epic class of crappies. Give it some years for those fish to be caught/die of old age-whatever else and another class/species will emerge. At least I hope so

[Luke_M]

One thing I found interesting tonight was when I was cleaning the crappies my wife and I caught was that not only are the crappies thin but there was nothing in their stomachs. We were out on another local lake and while there were much fewer fish they were thicker and had stomachs full of bugs.

[Sifty]

I'm on the lake now and my sunfish bite has gone away.

There sure are a lot if houses out here

[DTro]

What a complete and utter zoo out there this afternoon. I couldn't take the party atmosphere and just packed up an left. I'd rather catch nothing in solitary than pound them in a crowd like that.

[Luke_M]

Definitely a zoo but it was nice to drill holes in a t shirt and not have to fire up the heater.

[Sifty]

Talked to the FIL he was out last night in his house. Said it was still a zoo.

He said he had a group of guys set up about 15 feet away from the front of his house, I know the law is ten feet but some people....

He said if he was going to take the house home it would have been impossible with the way this people set up.

I guess that's what you get when you go to the zoo, clowns.

[Portlis]

People do realize that the little crappies on Cedar bite everywhere, right? I've had the same action on the north end, the south end, and near the towns.

Other than simply wanting to travel the shortest distance possible on the ice road out of the main access, I don't really understand why everyone clusters up so much...

[tj417]

People do realize that the little crappies on Cedar bite everywhere, right? I've had the same action on the north end, the south end, and near the towns.

Other than simply wanting to travel the shortest distance possible on the ice road out of the main access, I don't really understand why everyone clusters up so much...

I'd say its about time to stop using the old "little crappies" routine when referring to Cedar Lake. Either say nothing about the size or tell the truth, but I don't think it's within the spirit of what this site is supposed to represent if you deceive people and say that they are "little" when the average size you bring home this year is probably around 9". That's not little for metro crappie lakes.

With that said, I agree 100% with your take that you can catch fish out on your own away from everybody if you drill a few holes and move around a little.

[Portlis]

I'd say its about time to stop using the old "little crappies" routine when referring to Cedar Lake. Either say nothing about the size or tell the truth, but I don't think it's within the spirit of what this site is supposed to represent if you deceive people and say that they are "little" when the average size you bring home this year is probably around 9". That's not little for metro crappie lakes.

With that said, I agree 100% with your take that you can catch fish out on your own away from everybody if you drill a few holes and move around a little.

They are all 9-9.5", and yeah, that's a little crappie. I'm not bashing them, and I have absolutely nothing against taking home a meal of 9" crappies, but a 9" crappie is not big.

Regardless, that wasn't really the point of my post...

[DrJuice1980]

You'll get your occasional 13"er..

Oops, there went another 100 houses going up.

[Sifty]

You'll get your occasional 13"er..

Oops, there went another 100 houses going up.

[DTro]

They are all 9-9.5", and yeah, that's a little crappie. I'm not bashing them, and I have absolutely nothing against taking home a meal of 9" crappies, but a 9" crappie is not big.

Regardless, that wasn't really the point of my post...

+1

[tj417]

I didn't say those crappies are big, but if you told the average fisherman that you caught a bunch of "little" crappies someplace they are not going to think they are 9 to 9 1/2 inches.

[DrJuice1980]

I would think that.

[Portlis]

I didn't say those crappies are big, but if you told the average fisherman that you caught a bunch of "little" crappies someplace they are not going to think they are 9 to 9 1/2 inches.

Shrug, me personally, if someone says they caught "little" crappies, I assume they mean keeper sized but small crappies. Anything in the 8-10" range is what I'd assume. If they were talking smaller than that, I'd expect them to be described as potato chips or tiny. Semantics really, but I'd never expect a 9 inch crappie to be described as anything but small. Then again, I grew up catching nothing but 11-14 inchers (with random big ones) on northern Minnesota lakes, so it's possibly my viewpoint is skewed on crappie size.

Anyhow, again, that wasn't really the point of my post and I didn't intend to deceive. The type of fish being caught on Cedar isn't exactly a secret ever anyway.

[Fred3]

Where did you fish? Detroit Lakes area? Park Rapids? Bemidji/Cass Lake area or Leech? 11-14" Crappies are pretty good size and if that was your average that's pretty impressive. Can't say I quite see that high quality in my area of Northern Minnesota but I suppose 10-12" in some of the lakes I fish but all depends on fishing pressure and the lake.

[Portlis]

Where did you fish? Detroit Lakes area? Park Rapids? Bemidji/Cass Lake area or Leech? 11-14" Crappies are pretty good size and if that was your average that's pretty impressive. Can't say I quite see that high quality in my area of Northern Minnesota but I suppose 10-12" in some of the lakes I fish but all depends on fishing pressure and the lake.

It was essentially the Whitefish chain of lakes and the surrounding areas. The "small" ones were around 10" that we'd catch, with the average in the 3/4 to 1 lb range (we weighed them at the time instead of measuring) which is in the 11-12" range. Many were in the 13-14" range as well, with the biggest ones topping out at around 15 (2 lbs), but those were of course rare. Granted, this was going on 15 years ago now too... I haven't fished crappies in northern waters for quite some time and haven't caught any in those areas except for the rare occasional slab while walleye fishing.

[fisherman-andy]

I didn't say those crappies are big, but if you told the average fisherman that you caught a bunch of "little" crappies someplace they are not going to think they are 9 to 9 1/2 inches.

[Fred3]

I have heard good things about the whitefish chain. I caught some dandy crappies when URL was having its run early Last decade. Otherwise I haven't caught anything over 13" in a long Time. Regardless whether it is a 8" or 12" crappie they are still fun to catch.

[DTro]

Yes 14-16" walleyes are small, but if there was a lake giving them up like cedar crappies you would have a riot on your hands....