Red Cedar Lake

[picksbigwagon]

Ten days until our first trip to red cedar lake. My brother, father and I are going fishing there that weekend and staying at the county campground. My brother lives in EC and has a buddy at work who has fished it quite a bit and has some coordinates from his gps.

Can anyone give me some hints as to what will work the weekend of the 9th? by hints I mean: does one color seem to work better than others, is it a night bite only lake, does the local strip club open for breakfast, a good mom and pop bait shop in the area, and of course a great greasy spoon for breakfast.....if you are going to be fishing Red Cedar that weekend, keep your eyes open for 3 guys in a grey crestliner with a 40 evinrude and a 9.9 kicker on the back. Hopefully we catch something to eat for saturday night or it is bait stew for dinner.

My brother's buddy said he nailed them on opener on red ringworms (plastic baits).

Cooter, I have the map from last year and I am looking forward to comparing the two maps together....

Thanks in advance.......

[Cooter]

Gills should be on beds, can't beat the old black foam spider with white legs with the fly rod - some dandies in there. For the eyes, a slip bobber, leech, and orange gamakatsu hook. Bass in the pads will take moss boss, frogs, and power worms. Smallmouth probably will be active near rocky shores and rock bars - again go with the slip bobber/leech rig. If you do run into a mayfly hatch and the smallies are hitting them on top, go to a topwater such as a zara spook type lure. We hit this once just on the main lake out from the channel that runs to the dam - it was a blast. Good luck.

[picksbigwagon]

Orange huh? interesting, I figured it was a clearer lake than that....funny thing is Mille Lacs is a pink jig lake, you can use other colors, but pink works best.

Better stock up tomorrow at Cabelas on orange jigs.....

[walleye74]

It is not a real clear lake like the pond, I guess you would call it stained. This lake does have a very good night bite, but I have always done very good on the walleyes in the early morning. I love to use the ringworms for the shallow morning bite. I will give your brother some more of these details as well. You should hit the panfish very well.

[picksbigwagon]

Chad I assume??? after comparing my non color H20 to your color unit, I should have spent the extra 100 bucks.....

Todd said you were on a HSOforum, I figured it was here....Tell my older, but uglier brother to get to work...and ask him if he has put if for that day off yet!!!

Using ringworms on a jig or on a lindy rig?

[walleye74]

1/8 oz. pink jig head is my favorite. The ringworm I like the best is called tequilla sunrise. It is a 2 tone dark purple.

[picksbigwagon]

Thanks Chad, Todd and I will take you to our secret spot later this fall. 1.5 miles on the path and 1.5 miles back to the car walking upstream, in the stream.......

[Cooter]

Cedar is fairly clear(usually can see bottom in say 5-6') but they do like the orange. I'm talking hooks though - haven't tried jigs under the bobber, but let me know it works if you try. Don't be afraid to use pink - I've never tried it there but it may be killer.

[picksbigwagon]

Update:

starting to get things in order for the trip, still looking for orange hooks to snell up, but I have yet to head to FLeet Farm.

got a hard copy map from cabelas and I noticed a pretty good bottleneck southeast of the island east of Stout. 30 feet up to 10....lots of sunken islands it looks like too.

Now can anyone recommend a mom and pop bait shop and a greasy spoon for breakfast on friday?

For anyone fishing red cedar this weekend, there will be three of us in a older grey crestliner with a 40 evin. and a 9.9 hanging off the back. I am sure we will be riding low and slow..........

Chad, todd said you were going to send me the gps stuff? just give it to him, I'll enter it thursday at his kitchen table

[walleye74]

Leave the park and take a left on HWY 48 Go about 4-5 miles to a little town called Mikana. They have a good little bait shop there. There is also a resterant across the street, but do not know if the have breakfast. I am sure if you went right and went toward Birchwood (about 6-8 miles) they would have something open for breakfast as well as several other bait shops. I am going to mark up a map for Todd. Most of the walleye spots that I fish you can see from the park. Don't let Todd forget the Tequila sunrise ring worms and the pink jig heads!!

[picksbigwagon]

are there gps numbers to go with that Map?

thanks Chad, I will make sure he brings the ring worms and pink jig heads. would a purpley colored crank bait work on this lake if purpley colored ring worms do? Smithwick has a couple purple rouges

[walleye74]

If you are going to try some trolling try the good old blue and silver rapalas. I like the standard jointed rapala. I have heard of a lot of guys having good luck trolling, but I have never done it.

[picksbigwagon]

I am still oh-fer this season in my boat, so I am going to try and catch something come hook or 12 gauge, my AR-15 is accurate, but I cover more area with the 870....Thanks again Chad...walk in to Todd's office, okay cubical, on Thursday at 5:05 and tell him there is an emergency in Yankton S.D. and the boss said he has to go on friday......

[Cooter]

Hey Pickett, you finally got some orange hooks and ready to hit the Cedar? The walleyes should be hitting well, I would guess. Please prove me right! Good luck.

[picksbigwagon]

Scott, your darn tooting I got orange hooks. I learned how to snell them up as well....I am all set: weather is cooling down, full moon on saturday, I forsee rock piles at 7:30 pm with slip bobbers until midnight. early morning trolling the weed lines and rock piles. weather like this with a full moon, man, I better catch something, acutally I am more concerned with my Dad and my brother catching fish first. On trips like this, I feel like a guide, more than going fishing. I am used to it, and have a pretty good knack at putting other people on fish, everyone except me.

Anyone else fish RC this weekend, keep your eye out for us, 16 foot faded grey crestliner, my dad will be wearing a white or red bucket style hat. We'll be slogging around the lake, 3 guys and gear will really be pushing my 40 hp pretty good....

[picksbigwagon]

Regardless of how the weekend goes, you two guys were really helpful in the maps and tips. Chad, Todd owes you a beer or three, Scott, if we ever meet up somewhere, I owe you a beer as well. I will send you an email with my smallmouth hot spot in the fall, but you will be sworn to secrecy....

wife will be here in 30 minutes, and then I am driving to Eau Claire, hopefully be there by 7:30.

[walleye74]

Now we need a short report of how the weekend went!! How was the fishing, and what spots panned out.

[picksbigwagon]

I am still waiting for the pictures from my Dad, but that is an awesome lake. Weather could have been nicer, but we only caught one fish on something other than orange jigs or orange hooks. Friday was spent on one of the spots you gave us Chad, boat house to corner ( that you indicicated Scott) We drifted that spot for a couple hours catching 15+" smallies, a couple walleyes and one eye that broke off at the boat, My drag was wrong, but it was big.

After a 4 hour rain delay we got out on the humps that night and I caught a huge smallie. caught a couple other fish. Most spots we got from you two panned out except for the rock pile around the penninsula, nothing, two days of trying and we caught nothing, we never fished the southern half of the lake either.

On Friday, someone at the camp ground asked if we were there for the bass tournament on saturday. so we watched the weigh in, 4.40 pound smallie won the big fish. absolute pig.

You two guys really helped us with the maps and help. I might try and get back there this summer again since I am only 2 hours from it (140 miles) okay more like 2 hours and 20 minutes, not much different time wise than me driving to Mille lacs, besides, my brother could meet me there as well.

All in all, 2 or 3 norhterns, 3 keeper walleye, 4-5 smaller walleyes, numerous smallmouth, only one small one caught, by my brother, every other small mouth was over 14 inches. I was surprised at the landing when I saw a poster from the DNR that there was a 3 fish limit on walleyes. Nothing in the DNR booklet or HSOforum about that.

There was a group at the campground who were scuba diving in the lake. We came in late saturday night, 11 or so, and as I am driving up to the docks, I notice in the darkness a green chem. stick faintly lighting a scuba flag. After I pull into the dock I realize these yahoo's are scuba diving at night, in and around the docks , after we had the boat tied up, one of these fools surfaces about 30 yards behind the boat....

I will be back to that lake, the weather was awesome saturday, a little wet on friday, but since I am a teacher, I can schedule a mid week trip. What happens on this lake in the fall? I would love to fish this lake again when the feed bag is on, tons of structure on that lake too.

I will post pictures when I get them from my dad. One is of his huge smallie, and one of my brothers walleye....My wagon is to big to fit into the pictures, of course I only caught the biggest northern, 24", not huge but made a nice dinner....

You two were more than helpful... Thanks again

[Cooter]

Glad you had a good time, with more stable, warmer weather I'll guarantee you would have done better with the walleyes. You get a cold front through there and we don't even bother fishing it for the next 2-3 days. Now you know the lake and with all new spots the learning curve is now on your side - right teacher? Later.

[picksbigwagon]

I hope to be back at the end of july/begining of august.

here are a couple pictures:

my Dad's smallmouth, he didn't do the usually hold it close to the camera to make it look big, it's almost even with his face...

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my brothers walleye:

[image][/image]

all my dad was doing the whole weekend was jigging a 1/4 oz. orange jig. I drove the boat and my brother sat in the middle with the net and bait....

[Big Jeff]

Looking for any fall tips?? Never been there during this time of year. Staying at Stout's lodge and have very limited knowlegde of the lake. Bobber fishing is what someone told me but not sure what type of structure to look for???

[Big Jeff]

ANy pointers for a new guy this fall? Looking at end of Oct.

[picksbigwagon]

North of the lodge 1/2 mile past the last scrub pine island, between the county campground and the condos on the east shore, there are a number of reefs, find them in the day, and then head there in the evening. Line up the northside docks on stout island and point on the north end.

I was there in early June, and that worked for us. We anchored and slip bobbered, the boat that was trolling around us was smacking the heck out of them. Use orange hooks and orange jigs....

[Big Jeff]

Is there any area that is good for anchoring with a slip bobbers or is better to drift? Going to be fishing out of a pontoon probally with a couple people. Not looking for any thing in particular, but something better than the rock bass that are all over. Also will be working off DNR depth map with no fish finder. If I am using a slip, should I use a jig or plain hook? And if trolling might work with lindys with bottom bouncersor rapalas ? or do the eyes stick close to the 30-40 this time of year? Thanks a lot for any pionters, new to the area and time of year Thanks