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Cedar Lake (New Prague)


walleyeslayer18

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I was wondering if anyone knew what the ice conditions are like on Cedar in New Prague? I was lookin to put my house out, but i haven't got out to check the ice yet.

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Drove past yesterday. The public access on the east end is not plowed for service, I am guessing because of ice conditions. There are a few snomobile tracks on the ice and I did not see anyone fishing at all. The areator hole is about 40 yards wide yet.

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That sucks because i was lookin forward to gettin the house out with the four wheeler. Any other lakes around the new prague area that have good ice conditions and have a good chance of catchin some eyes or some northerns?

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I would check it our yourself. It appears alot of the cities have not plowed the public access's. Here in Minneapolis we have 8 inches of ice on lakes that get 70+ feet deep. Go look for evidence of others who might have been there before you.

-rc

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I drive by Cedar everyday and usually there are quite a few people out in the evening. I've seen a couple 4 wheelers, but no big houses yet. I haven't personally checked the ice.

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im gunna head out there today and probably drill some holes and check the ice! Looking to put my house out soon! Supposedly there is a deep hole out there (only like 15') but i haven't been able to find it. as far as im concerned the lake doesn't really get any deeper then like 11-12 ft.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Anyone been fishing Cedar lately? Prior and Spring are the same as last year just wondering if Cedar still has those nice 6 inch crappies?

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This year you can call them 6.5" crappies, but they cook up well when you scale them. The sunfish are bigger out there, but they are hard to catch because a small crappie will grab your bait first.

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My god. No wonder there isn't a panfish worth fishing for around the metro. If you're that hungry stay home, save the gas money and buy steaks with it. I can't imagine there being enough meat on a 6.5 inch crappie. I sure hope you're eating them bones, guts, and all. If so, good for you.

This year you can call them 6.5" crappies, but they cook up well when you scale them. The sunfish are bigger out there, but they are hard to catch because a small crappie will grab your bait first.
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I caught probly fifty 6" crappies in an hour and two about 8". Thing is there are so many of the small ones they just grab the bait first. My buddies dad caught his limit about ten yards away from us but he was using a bigger jig/minnow. All of his were nice and the little ones didn't bother his bait. No walleyes though.

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Cedar is extremely overpopulated by these small crappies. Their growth has been stunted because of the large amounts of them in the lake. The sooner you get them out the sooner the lake can get back to normal.

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To the fish biologist with the doctorate in crappie lake management: people have been doing this for years on cedar- how's it going down there? LOL

ake. The sooner you get them out the sooner the lake can get back to normal.
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Hate to break it to you Alagnak, but he is right. Harvesting small fish isn't a bad thing, in fact it is much better for the size structure than harvesting the 12 inch plus fish. If he wants to eat 6.5 inch fish I say more power to him.

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"I can't imagine there being enough meat on a 6.5 inch crappie. I sure hope you're eating them bones, guts, and all. If so, good for you."

Totally agree. It's working great, keep up the good work. The problem is there are a ton of people who do this around here with all lakes and therefor, they mostly suck for panfish size.

Why isn't it legal to keep 12-13 inch bass in hundreds of lakes there are too many small ones? At least there's a tasty little fillet on that worth cleaning- you know, when you have a fish basket full of them. It's apparently good for the fishery.

I'm not going to debate fish management, and yes I'm well aware of the abundance of small craps in Cedar. My points is- you can see through a 6.5 inch crappie when you hold it up to the light. [PoorWordUsage] is the point? So you can tell your buddies you got a limit?

Hate to break it to you Alagnak, but he is right. Harvesting small fish isn't a bad thing, in fact it is much better for the size structure than harvesting the 12 inch plus fish. If he wants to eat 6.5 inch fish I say more power to him.
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Several lakes in the area have stunted panfish. I am no managemnet expert but I do believe if you know what the bigger ones want you can find them and catch them. You could take 1000's of them out and I dont think i could tell the difference.

I was fishing on Oachard this summer in the boat with my wife, she tossed bread out for the ducks and all you could see around were tons of 4" sunnies. We still got close to our limit of nice ones.

It might be slower fishing, and more work but it can be done.

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Cedar is a stunted Crappie machine. Its gotten fish kill year after year with the small Crappies and they are still small...??? In the last 5yrs or so I say I seen a 1 or 2 inch increase. Like from 4" to 6". LOL... crazy

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Ya its crazy I remember catching some really nice crappies out there probably about 10 years ago, and even some nice eyes. I'm sure the muskies must really like those small crappies tho!

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Normally get those guys on Bucktails. Funny, Ive never used or heard of anyone catching one on a crappie type lure there. Might go out saturday night, at least I know Ill catch something. Great fun for kids.

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Cedar is a good lake to bring the kids out to make sure they catch some fish and have fun. It would take a solid 40 fish to get a good fish fry out of the crappies out there, unless you eat them whole.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • SkunkedAgain
      Hogs! Hogs!!!
    • MarkB
      My 2 cousins and myself just finished up a windy 4 day trip to our favorite lake. It was the last of the year and was eventful to say the least. When we arrived, water temperatures were 61 degrees and when we left yesterday morning the water temps had dropped to 54 degrees. The fishing was fantastic, once again, and we caught walleyes, bass, and northerns on minnows and crawlers(northerns only on minnows). We found the fish adjacent to shallow rock piles(14') in 20'-28' of water. Our best fishing hours of the day were ~5:30 -twilight in the evenings and until ~ 10:30 in the mornings. Although those two time periods were prime time, fish bit all day. For us, the bite was very light and we probably missed or lost as many fish as we caught. Some people think I'm nuts when I say bead color can make a difference and it certainly did this trip. My cousin's "go to" green/white bead combo did zilch on this trip. It was one translucent red bead and a plain size #2 gamakatsu hook with a 3' leader that produced the fish. We ended up with 137 walleyes and 19 bass for the 4 day outing. We caught far more 17"-19.999" walleyes on this trip than on our previous trips and our numerous slot fish measured from 21"-25". My younger cousin caught 4 slot fish in ~20 minutes one evening. We fish exclusively for walleyes and additional species are incidental. With that said, we caught some beautiful smallmouth bass on this trip and they were right down there with the walleyes, usually in the rocks. As usual, everything is catch and release except for the fish we eat while there and the 12 walleyes(3 individual limits) we take home to the wives. While cleaning some eaters we kept for supper, we always check the stomach contents. One of the walleyes had the jig that is pictured below loose in its stomach!  No attached line, no embedded hook, just the jig! It baffled us as to how in the world it could have gotten there . As you can see, the jig is in good shape so the fish must have swallowed it recently .   The boat traffic was minimal this trip and we had a couple days where it looked as if we had the lake to ourselves. Sunday was a brutal day with wind gusts to 50MPH!. We stayed in and ventured out finally at ~5:00. It turned out to be the best 2 hours of the entire trip. This time, the baby loons were around, the eagles were abundant, the changing leaves made the entire lake area look like a painting. If I could make only one short trip a year to the lake, now would be the time. What capped off the trip was the magnificent display of the Northern Lights. We can't wait for next spring to return, God willing, and, in the meantime, good fishing.  MarkB🙂 The jig found in the stomach of a walleye we ate.   My young cousin with his best of the trip.   a chunky 17" smallmouth   19.5" smallmouth
    • leech~~
      Well, since they both say Propane on them.  Not propane QT++ their probably both the same gender!  🤭
    • Wanderer
    • Brianf.
      What an amazing extended weekend. The fish were happy and cooperated nicely.   We also had the unique experience of fishing under Northern Lights each of the last three nights in pristine weather conditions.  I wish everyone could have that experience, even if just once.  The pics below don't do it justice, though you get the idea.  The walleyes are putting on the feedbag and some are getting rather plump.  We caught mostly slot fish with several 'overs' in our bag.  Our two biggest weighed 8lbs 5oz and 8lb 3oz.     The crappies were active at dusk and beyond.  Almost all of the ones we caught were 14" or bigger.  The biggest we caught was a bit over 15".  We lost two muskies at the boat and caught a 38" pike after dark - quite surprising.   Every fish we caught was immediately released btw.  Water temp 54/55 when we left.  All-in-all, another great fishing experience on Lake Vermilion - for which I'm so incredibly appreciative.        
    • JerkinLips
    • leech~~
      The price and the label.  It's that same exact gas.  
    • Finns
      I don't use gas anymore, what's the difference between them?
    • Fish Head
      Great to hear from you again Mark! I've always liked your posts over the years. 
    • leech~~
      Yep, it's just you know and I know every dad who takes his kids or family camping for the first time.  Is buying the camping gas no matter the cost, cuz it says "Camping" on it! 🤭🤭
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