Red Cedar River-Menomonie: Part 2

Said I would report back once I made it back down to the river to further scope out down from the bridge. After getting a new battery, which upped the reliability of getting back up river(think Lund85 can relate to that after hearing his tale of the “runaway boat”-glad it turned out ok!), Dwight and I headed down to the park where Gilbert Creek dumps in. Note to anyone going down there-stay on the WEST shoreline as a nasty rock shelf is on the east side once around the bend-had approx. 3FOW(Pete, you were right on!)at the shallowest and then dumped into 20 plus feet in the Gilbert hole. At the current time(yesterday late afternoon), fish were being caught upstream with Lund85 putting on a clinic, so I was really interested to see what would be below. After spending 45 minutes looking over the hole with the camera, only one lonely pike was spotted. The hole consisted of mainly rock with sand at the mouth of Gilbert creek. I was surprised to see one fish, as this is the deepest water in the ajoining area. Apon migrating back upstream, numerous suckers were seen in the shallows(about 5-6 feet of clarity right now), and at the discharge of the wastewater plant, a huge school of carp, quillback carpsuckers, buffalo, suckers and 3 HUGE sturgeon were present. Upstream around the bridge, crappies, northerns and smallmouth were present-but not in huge numbers. Like before, the fish that were there were hungry, with us easily putting a dozen pike in the boat, along with buffalo, carp, one smallmouth and 3 walleyes. All our fish came on plastics and blades. If lund85 chimes in, he can give his two cents on the day as well. All in all, I am sure more fish could have come to the net but we were more concerned with scoping out the area to make future trips far more productive, esp. once the water dirties up a little and pulls fish in from down below. Nice to have such a sweet little spot so close to home—-now, if someone would improve the ramp-little on the steep side and could use a light!
Good luck!

Jeremy

Thanks for the report! And for sharing the camera information…way cool.

I’ve never put the boat in down there, and have thought I should each of the past few springs…just never quite made it out. I’m hoping to get out on the ice a couple times yet this week, then I’m gone for a couple weeks. Hopefully we’re not flooded out the first week of April.

Used to spinner fish up Gilberts… I caught as many ‘eyes as trout in there… Ahhh the days!!!

Mark

Quote:

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(Pete, you were right on!)

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Did ya think I lied to ya??

I cannot really take credit for anything tho, Don Hanson pretty much taught me what I know down there

Thanks for the Update!

I hear you Pete, we owe a TON to Don.

Was able to make it out yesterday with lund85—gotta love the “tower of power”!! Fishing was little on the slow side, with 4 walleyes overall coming to the net-a few boats were picking up some stragglers soaking minnows-which seemed to coincide with the drop in water temps to 31.5 due to some influx of meltwater. Overall, the flow is essentially the same with 5 feet of water clarity. Couple fellas were postulating the fish were not biting due to the pike chasing off the walleyes; at this same time I had pike, walleyes, smallmouths and suckers all pretty much in the same frame of my camera! I know fish displacement can occur, but think not today! Once again the camera showed FEW fish and overall the region was fishless. With the current flow, being next to none, these small pods can go where ever they choose….if they are by you, they bite, if 50 yards away, no bites! Think Lund85 was most impressed by the HUGE school of carp and carpsuckers and couple MONSTER sturgeon. Once again, plastics ruled the day with all our fish just slamming the bait when they did commit. With little more flow, and little better water temps, things will only get better.

It was a fun time regardless of how many fish were caught. Time on the water will eventually yield a sunburn and/or a big girl

Me and a buddy were down on the red ceder for most of the afternoon….we had to pull some guy and his old lady out of the water.. they almost lost there boat…but anyways..we did alright…we got way more pike than walleyes.. my buddy lost about a 35in pike…and i got a 22 in eye and a bunch of suckers and some smaller eyes….it was a good day to get out on the water …hope to get down below the dam tomorrow after noon try for some big pike …..will keep you guys posted

What happened with the4 guys boat?

we had to tow it back to the shore and empty his boat and tow him back to the boatlanding

EEEK! Glad you were there to help! The pike should be spawning right now, they are in there like crazy!

Had to give a buddy in Cedar Falls a ride into town over lunch today. Both dams are open and boy is the river screamin. The water level down by swiss miss is at the high line on the bridge pillar. Looks like it gonna be high water everywhere you go this weekend.