Lake Cenaiko Thread

[Zenit]

 Originally Posted By: randyfaas

I caught 3 'bows on Saturday in 13' of water. I probably saw over 15 on the camera, though. I tried everything in the tackle box, but it seemed like the fish were mostly "just looking".

I'm gonna hit it again this Saturday.

Update.

Well, you and everyone else certainly didn't miss much over the weekend. Kao (FM user: turn_in_poachers) and I went out Saturday morning for 4 hours, basically stayed in 1 spot all morning, 9 feet of water on the north end, and we both ended up with zip. I saw one fish on the Vexilar take a run at my white Genz Worm/minnow head, Kao had a light bite on his green Genz bug/waxie, and that was it, folks. I think the barometer had something to do with our lack of success. There weren't many folks out on the lake either Saturday or Sunday; understandable, with the NW wind on Saturday AM it was butt cold out there.

Gonna be out there tomorrow & Saturday. There are plenty of fish in that lake, I'm amazed every year that people write off the lake after opener, both hard and open water, the enduring myth that 50% of the fish are taken out of the lake on Opening Day. Simply not true. Get out, get a line wet, take a few home for the smoker! Hope to see a few folks out there this weekend.

[Zenit]

 Originally Posted By: michaelpettersen82

f sean fishes with it til he catches a fish, he'll be using til' next year on trout opener....

Mikey, are you still P.O.'ed because of opener?

Hope to see you out this weekend...if your wife allows you out of the house for a few hours

[turn_in_poachers]

 Originally Posted By: Zenit

 Originally Posted By: michaelpettersen82

f sean fishes with it til he catches a fish, he'll be using til' next year on trout opener....

Mikey, are you still P.O.'ed because of opener?

Hope to see you out this weekend...if your wife allows you out of the house for a few hours

As I remember it, both of you were P.O.'ed on opener.

Oh snap!!!!!

[michaelpettersen82]

Mikey, are you still P.O.'ed because of opener?

Hope to see you out this weekend...if your wife allows you out of the house for a few hours

[wishiniwasfishin]

I was out last Friday for a few hours and caught two and missed at least two more. I started in about 10 FOW but moved a little more shallow to catch the fish. The fish weren't in the mood for alot of action that day.

[Zenit]

here's a couple taken during the course of a very pleasant afternoon today...couldn't beat the weather, and the fish cooperated somewhat. Pretty much doing nothing but sight-fishing now.

[Zenit]

Couple items:

1. There are three pictures of really nice (16-18 inch) brookies posted on the Bragging Board at the CR Dam Park Visitor's Center, taken within the last week. (Mike P., I know you are not gonna want to hear this, but one of the pictures is the long-lost Teddy N., who has finally made his way back to the lake ) I saw one taken by another party on Sunday that was even bigger, and yesterday saw a few huge brookies swim by the hole.

2. I got out there yesterday about noon, figuring the lake was going to be crowded because of the extremely nice weather - when I arrived, the lake was deserted, not one person on the ice. I got set up, had buttoned up the Fish Trap and just started peering down the hole when I get a rap on the shelter - DNR CO stopped by to check the one guy on the lake. The CO was Vang Lee, he's a nice guy who probably stops out to Cenaiko more than any other CO on a semi-regular basis. I had a nice chat with him - asked him about what is going on with Courthouse, he confirmed that the lake has a serious oxygenation problem right now, and the DNR is a bit puzzled as to why. He also had some pretty interesting stories about some of the shenanigans the COs observed on Opening Day at Cenaiko.

[wishiniwasfishin]

I am planning on heading out with the kids on Friday morning with a couple of heaters (they are forcasting a high of +4).

Has anything been happening out here lately? There are only a few weekends left right?

[Zenit]

Season end is on the 16th of March.

The bite has been slower, but I haven't been skunked in the last couple of weeks, and I go out there 2-3 times a week. Stay shallow & sight fish in the NW corner of the lake, 4-5 feet of water max. You will see plenty of fish cruise by, some really big brookies & rainbows. They are all hanging in and around the weeds. The brookie I got on Tuesday was taken on a waxie and the smallest white Genz bug I had in the box; but a couple others have had very good luck just using corn.

[warsh]

do u know if u can fish foe lakers after dark???

[Zenit]

 Originally Posted By: warsh

do u know if u can fish foe lakers after dark???

The park supposedly closes 30 minutes after sunset. They usually stick to this during the open water season, but during the winter months, sometimes the park is not locked up at night. I'd never take that chance & end up having the Coon Rapids police have to come out & let you out, with the accompanying ticket.

As far as lakers & Cenaiko, that topic has been bandied about in a different thread; if you are after lakers, Cenaiko probably isn't the place to go. I personally believe there haven't been lakers in Cenaiko for a long, long time, but there are varying opinions about that subject, so who really knows for sure?

wishiniwasfishing, I'll be out there tomorrow morning for a few hours, 6:30 to 10:30 or so...stop by & say Hi if you get a chance, I'll be in the Fish Trap Yukon on the north end of the lake.

[Zenit]

OK, has been a while since this thread has been updated. Seeing as we are going into the stretch run, thought I would update a bit.

I've kind of abandoned the sight fishing in the 4-5 foot shallows on the north end after not seeing the fish like I did a couple of weeks ago. The weeds in the shallows are all dying off, so the lake appears to be getting a little low on oxygen. The last few times, I was always able to catch a rainbow or two prior to sunrise, but one it became light enough to sight fish, I was seeing very few fish, even the ubiquitous 5 inch bluegills & bass that are all over the lake.

8-10 feet of water on both the east bank of the lake (the two spots where water is coming into the lake by the old smashed culverts) seem to be where they are at. Caught a few rainbows there yesterday after moving from a 12 foot spot that produced a nice brook trout on Saturday. Speaking of Saturday - the other spot that people might want to check is over on the west bank, 75 yards north of the fishing pier, by the beaver dam. On Saturday, had a nice chat with FM user wishiniwasfishin, and he had a pal out there who had his limit of rainbows by noon from that spot, using a Genz Bug and waxies.

I'm kind of going back & forth between the usual setup of the Genz Bugs/Worms & waxies and a silver shiner #3 Salmo Chubby Darter. Caught both rainbows & the nice brookie on Saturday on this; the brookie just hammered that thing and took off running, before I got him up through the hole I thought I might have hooked one of the few remaining browns in the lake, the way he took off. Those #3s are tough to find, Salmo's HSOforum has almost all of them sold out, but I do know that Thorne Brothers in Fridley still has the #3s in stock in both the silver shiner & golden sucker pattern; might be worth a trip. Those things have been murder on the perch & crappies on Lake Linwood, the few times I've been over there.

Unless things change in the last couple of weeks, this will be the first ice season on Cenaiko that I have done much better with the brookies than the rainbows. Thanks Fisheries East Metro for not just stocking the rainbows this past year. Those brook trout are FUN to catch & IMHO are the best for either the smoker or the pan. I'm impressed by the size of the brookies in the lake...I've caught 3 or 4 brookies in Cenaiko that in a MN stream would be a once in a lifetime fish. And yes, I understand the difference between a put and take lake and a stream...in a stream, I'd take a pic, savor the moment for the next month or so & then go get a reproduction made for the wall.

I've seen very few of those 400 or so adult rainbows caught that the DNR put in the lake, during the last stocking. When I was sight fishing, I would see a few cruise by, but I have yet to hook one of the big boys. Some of the rainbows I saw were in the 18-20 inch range, and I saw one 2 weeks ago that looked like a Los Angeles class submarine, that bugger had to be 22-24 easy. So there are still some big fish in the lake.

One other thing that is kind of interesting, that I've never seen before. At least two of the fish I've cleaned in the past week had bellies full of 1/4-1/2 inch cut up, cooked spaghetti noodles. Innovative, if not exactly legal (chumming.) Guess it makes sense, one of those on a Genz Bug/Worm, if one wants to really fish on the cheap.

Well, that's it for now. As the weather gets warmer, should be a nice last couple of weeks on Cenaiko. Very few people are fishing the lake right now; Saturday there were no more than 3-4 parties at any given time, and yesterday, I had the lake all to myself between noon & 4 PM. Hope to meet a few more FMers out there the last few weeks of the season.

[Moses2531]

Thanks for the great report! Starting to get convinced that there is fishing opportunities after the opener!!

[BRULEWADER]

i have cleaned aolt of fish out of this lake and over this past summer i was cleaning a 16" rainbow when i noticed its stomach was full of some kind of parasite worms. i was wondering if anyone else has ran into this?

[Zenit]

 Originally Posted By: BRULEWADER

i have cleaned aolt of fish out of this lake and over this past summer i was cleaning a 16" rainbow when i noticed its stomach was full of some kind of parasite worms. i was wondering if anyone else has ran into this?

Really? Never ran into that last open water season. Interesting.

[Zenit]

Thus begins the last two weekends of the season. Haven't been there since last Saturday, was over on the west bank by the beaver dam moving between holes between 6.5 & 10 feet of water, and the water was really cloudy, milk-like, couldn't see my jig or Chubby Darter until halfway up through the hole. Not sure what was up with that. Tomorrow, I and a few other regulars will try the SE corner, haven't been down to that corner of the lake since opener.

[EsaysFISHON]

I took my 8 year old daughter out there before sunrise this morning; finally, finally, finally she had asked me to take her ice fishing. We set up on the NW side with my portable where we had found some other relatively fresh punches through the ice. I marked a couple fish so we set up in 9 ft of water, over some vegitation. Saw one and only one rainbow on the Aqua-Vu around 7:00, a nice looking crappie about a half hour later and had one dink sunny putzing around the area the whole time. Fish were in a negative mood imho, the trout did one circle around a Genz Worm and waxie and disappeared, couldnt even get the crappie or sunny to take more than a sniff on the bug and worm. Called it quits by about 8-ish and beat feet for the "home" lake where I knew I could get on some sunnies for some more action. Having the camera helped hold my daughters attention for the couple hours of trout fishing, it was good just to have a new companion! Had one other angler show up just after us, talked with him as we were packing up and he reported a nice brookie and a rainbow within the last week, but had no luck with anything Genz either. Between our two shelters we had the lake to ourselves at that time of day. It was only my second time ever fishing there, so it was reassuring to see that trout swim in even if it wasn't hungry--kinda thinkg it was more interested in the sunfish looking camera! -E-

[fishorgolf]

A buddy of mine lives just up the road from Cenaiko and he has told me to fish in the first week it opens or forget about it. 95% of what you are going to catch has been stocked the same year usually within a week or so of when the lake opens.

[Zenit]

 Originally Posted By: fishorgolf

A buddy of mine lives just up the road from Cenaiko and he has told me to fish in the first week it opens or forget about it.

I wouldn't listen to your buddy. Or listen to him, your choice - if you read the thread through, you will find that the nicer brookies and bigger rainbows were taken well into the season this year, after everyone else gives up on the lake, as per usual. But, I'm through trying to de-bunk that myth - I'm beginning to think that the people that continually perpetuate this fish tale either don't quite know what they are doing when it comes to trout through the ice, or they just don't want you on the lake. Are you sure he's really your buddy?

In any case, should be a nice weekend for the end of the season this weekend.

[Dragon Fish ll]

Zenit hows it going. hey in the past i know youve had the timeing to be at the lake when they are stocking. if you see them this year would you be kind enough to let me or us know. and any other first hand info on stocking for this spring opener. I have fished opener there for the last 5 or six years and last year was not any good for me or my girlfriend who i convinced would have a good fish day if she went along. the last three years have been sliding down hill with last year the worst. im starting not to believe the dnr when i call for stock reports. so if you hear about recent stocking for opener,spring please let us know. if there just left overs from winter opener I guess its time for me to start chasing eyes some where else on opener. THANKS FROM DRAGON FISH

[Zenit]

 Originally Posted By: Dragon Fish ll

Zenit hows it going. hey in the past i know youve had the timeing to be at the lake when they are stocking. if you see them this year would you be kind enough to let me or us know. and any other first hand info on stocking for this spring opener. I have fished opener there for the last 5 or six years and last year was not any good for me or my girlfriend who i convinced would have a good fish day if she went along. the last three years have been sliding down hill with last year the worst. im starting not to believe the dnr when i call for stock reports. so if you hear about recent stocking for opener,spring please let us know. if there just left overs from winter opener I guess its time for me to start chasing eyes some where else on opener. THANKS FROM DRAGON FISH

Hey dude,

Hope to see you down there this year. I did pretty well last opener, but I was on the south side of the lake due to the crowds, not where I want to be. I like tossing Kastmasters in the shallows on the N/NE for opener, will have to get there right at the crack of dawn this year instead of late last year.

Going by what they have done in the spring the last 3-4 years, next Tuesday or Wednesday (May 6th-7th)midday is a pretty good bet for when the DNR will stock the lake. I'm gonna start bugging Metro East Fisheries later on this week to see if I can get some numbers/species out of them. I really would like to see them reintroduce some browns back into the lake, the last stocking class for browns really ended up being some nice sized fish.

I like that the DNR doesn't stock the place too early, as (once again) there are knuckleheads fishing the lake out of season that apparently can't read any English. One good thing is that the DNR has been down at the dam a lot this year so far, lots of people taking too many crappies above the dam, the bite has been pretty hot - so at least there will be more of a CO presence in the vicinity this year.

Next calm morning before work, I'm going to shoot by there before work & see if any fish are schooling. Was down there last week in the afternoon to get my annual park permit, drove by the lakes & there were a couple hundred cormorants sitting in the northern end shallows

[Zenit]

I was down there this morning for 30 minutes, lake was calm as glass, didn't see one fish surface. Water level is high and water clarity is poor, as can be expected. The fihing pier broke loose a week or so ago and was floating towards the south end of the lake last time I was there, but that has now been repaired and the pier is back where it should be. North end shallows look great, can hardly wait until 10 May.

[Dragon Fish ll]

Zenit thanks for the reply. most likely Ill show up on Opener morning. I stoped by the lake that same morning and like you said lake looked good. I realy hope they get some fish in there before the 10th.

[Zenit]

 Originally Posted By: Dragon Fish ll

Zenit thanks for the reply. most likely Ill show up on Opener morning. I stoped by the lake that same morning and like you said lake looked good. I realy hope they get some fish in there before the 10th.

looks like East Metro Fisheries is now posting their intended stockings, by species:

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/areas/fisheries/eastmetro/stocking_trout.pdf

[turn_in_poachers]

C'mon Sean, you know there's nothing in that stupid lake.