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After seeing Fishin Original Cedar River post and Video I put down the fly rod and gave spinners a shot. The Cedar River is close to me so it makes some sense to learn more about it. Having mainly fished it with dry flies the past few years with some results I decided to give spinners a shot. I hear so much about Roostertail’s but in all my lake fish the past 2.5 years spinners just never made their way into my arsenal as I do very well with plugs, spoons and TM’s for trout,

I’ve attended a few of the Orvis seminars on the Cedar so I have a bit of a clue where to start my go at spin fishing. Found a nice run where I could park my car in the open and walk up river and finish near my car. That’s a win, win to start.

I spent a little more than a week searching locals and trying different colors. I really did not think color matters that much based on my results. My first go Was near the golf course since I am more familiar with that area and it produced. Nothing to big, maybe up to 10”. I worked my way east to Hy 18 and actually caught a fish from the shore under it before I even put my waders on. From there I drove back west stopping a varies locations.

One thingI I am not is a River Rat, so crossing a river is nerve racking for me, but for the month of June the level is low and I have found a few areas to cross to I felt good about.

Today, I had 10 fish to the net with the majority coming off right in front of me. I also lost 5 straight to on and off after a jump. These fish are really hard to land on UL equipment and barbless hooks and loosing fish is the norm.

What I have learned is that they will take spoons too. Daredevil’s and Kastmasters in 1/8th Oz. The main issue is I have not caught one fish casting up river with there were with a spinner it happens ever so often. The other positive from spinners is you can get it right next to structure and it will drop as quickly as the spoons do and you with find fish next to structure.

It also seems that for the larger fish are RBT over the Cutt’s which tend to be about 8-10” for the most part. The fish have varied from up to 13” down to small salmon smolt. Most fish are 6-8” it seems.

Fishing lakes I hardly loose gear, but rivers are a whole different story. Be prepared and have plenty of gear with you. My set up s simple. 2 or 4lb test main, swivel, 3’ of 6 lb Flourocarbon leader to a crank snap to a 1/8oz RT. Today’s hot color was Brown Trout Glitter. White has done well, as Grasshopper, Frog and Yellow Clown. I use a size 8 Gama Siwash even though Yakima Baits uses a size 6 for their single hook set ups.

Here are a few pics from past outs....I rarely take pics as my phone is buried in my sling and I like to get the fish back into the river ASAP. Phone was handy for these. Both were about 13”

Lastly, I finished at Ron Regas Park and getting out of my waders, I noticed the DWFW truck driving by and of course they stopped by and chatted with me. Funny thing is, a young man was asking for fishing info moments before and if I don’t see a fly rod I like to make sure that they know the rules of the river so we went over those. Who knows if he had bait in his back pack? I then tel, him that I saw the fish police last week, even though I did not just to keep him on his toes. Not even 5 minutes later they drove up. Never seen them before till they day and it was great to see them doing their jobs even though they did not check any of my lures out for single barbless hooks which is all that I had on me.

dogfish7

6/29/2019 4:37:26 PM

I'm wondering why you prefer to use lighter main line and heavier leader? I fish rivers mainly and use heavier main line and lighter fluorocarbon leader. Example 14# main and 8# fluorocarbon leader for steelhead or 30# braid and 14# fluorocarbon leader for Chinook.
For trout I'd go 10# mono or fluorocarbon and 6# fluorocarbon leader.

TMBob

6/29/2019 7:21:48 PM

I find my casting abilities (of these very light weight lures with tons of drag) increase with smaller lb test. Also, I use a tiny reel (Pflueger size 20) Last, I ran out of 4 lb test flouro. I had the same set up (2lbs main/ 6lbs leader) when I was catching those 2lbs+ SMB last month at Coulon. I just don’t fish a heavier main than 4lbs in Mono. I used my reel with 10lbs braid a few outing also. Love the feedback of the blade turning over Mono.

dogfish7

6/29/2019 4:37:28 PM

amandapanda

6/30/2019 8:03:35 PM

Beautiful fish!

TMBob

7/1/2019 7:05:14 PM

Yea AMANDAPANDA, I could not agree more. Being somewhat new to lake fishing, I’m starting to get a bit bored with stockers on small lakes looks wise. I’m addicted to catching Brown’s because of their beauty in my eye’s over the std looking stocker. The river fish are what the internet pictures of the fish really looks like! RBT’s and Cutt’s look natural, as do the Lk. Sammamish Cutt’s. Defiantly a plus to the river guys!

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