Washington Fly Fishing Forum banner

Cedar, almost over for 2013... what's your biggest?

4K views 53 replies 31 participants last post by  Skyler Evans 
#1 ·
This is from 2006 at about dark on a nymph in the Cedar. 23" solid, given the 15" net opening and 8" net handle.



What's been your biggest fish from the seedy, and whatcha get it on?
 
See less See more
1
#7 ·
I got this a long time ago between the golf course and the trailer park. Haven't seen many big ones since then with all the people I see throwing bait on the Cedar now though. I caught it on a size 18 red copper john - thought it was a sockeye initially. I taped it out at 23.75", but it wasn't a great measurement (the fish wouldn't stay still) so it could be off by an inch either way. View attachment 32024
 
#8 ·
I got this a long time ago between the golf course and the trailer park. Haven't seen many big ones since then with all the people I see throwing bait on the Cedar now though. I caught it on a size 18 red copper john - thought it was a sockeye initially. I taped it out at 23.75", but it wasn't a great measurement (the fish wouldn't stay still) so it could be off by an inch either way. View attachment 32024
PIG!!! Have to wonder if these gigantic guys are summer runs, dontcha? I got mine end of August... when did you get yours?
 
#14 ·
I didn't fish it at all this year, been having a good time with smaller fish in the sky basin on my little toy of a 2-weight... :) just thought it would be fun to see pics, hear the stories, and get a sense of whether the big fish are still in there. :)
 
#16 ·
I think all those car prowl warnings posted here throughout the season are just a ruse to keep people (like me) from fishing it. :rolleyes:
 
#17 ·
My buddy and I put a decent amount of time in on the cedar this year and couldn't break it's code....but neither of us are really nymphers, so I'm sure we were doing everything wrong. We picked up a couple 8" fish, but nothing bigger than that. Pretty frustrating. As I say every year, we'll figure it out next year.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
 
#20 ·
My biggest was a little over 21" a couple years ago, and I got him on a golden stone. Biggest this year was a hog I lost that was definitely over the 21". Biggest to hand this year was this guy right at 18" on a pink beaded SJW.
Salmon-like fish Fish Marine biology Water Oncorhynchus

Alas...I still chase the elusive 22"....but they are still around, and I think more of them than people realize. This time of year, the bigger fellas really hunker down in those fast deep pools and you just have to drop in on them really fast with really heavy nymphs. You can't neglect little "fishy" pocket water and overhangs though....that is where the Cedar will surprise and reward you, and they get skipped a lot I think.

I think the coolest one though has been one 15" bow that I have caught three different times on three different days, in the exact same little hole......with the exact same fly! The first time I put on a yellow stimey to fish to some risers in a little cut bank with a stump for cover and he opened up a hole in the water when he took the fly. About a week later I was in the same spot and pulled my nymphs off because I saw a little guy jumping at the head of the little pocket. I put on a the same stimey and a para-adams dropper and got the little guy on the para dropper. The next cast in the exact spot of the pocket, a hole opened up again and I got the same fish. He had a messed up fin, so I was positive it was him.....totally amazed me. I walked through there about 8 days later with a guy I had just met on the river and was telling him about that fish, and then two minutes later I had the same fish in hand and we were both laughing. I have never seen anything like that.
That's encouraging to me to see with all the pressure and poachers on the Cedar, that he was staying healthy and alive......surprising that he didn't move over about a 4 week period though.

I think it is as good as it has been in the past 5-6 years. It will never be quite like the first couple years after it opened, but I consider the stretches I fish to be consistently outstanding.
 
#22 ·
Here's the first fish I caught this year on the see-dur, had to find my camera. I stopped taking pics of them cause they rarely hold still for a water shot and I usually fish alone so no third person shots, I landed quite a few that were just as fat. I think the waters too slow to effectively strip streamers by now, I took a break from salmon to try a few days ago with no success, but I did have a lot of fish on crawdad patterns earlier in the summer
Plant Wood Arthropod Insect Natural material
Water Salmon-like fish Fisherman Outdoor recreation Bait
.
 
#29 ·
The question of whether some of the larger fish in that system are ocean or lake run is interesting. My guess is that many of them do move around a bit in search of more food. Jim's and Seattletee's fish pictured look a bit like steelhead simply because the heads are smallish relative to the bodies when compared to most rainbows that spend their whole lives in moving water.
 
#30 ·
The Cedar River residents share genetics with the summer run steelhead, WDFW has confirmed this. Most agree that residents have a small percentage that go anadromous, and anadromous have a small percentage that stay resident. It all makes sense from a proliferation and survival standpoint. No way of really knowing if these big guys are anadromous or resident, could be either one.

WDFW opened the Cedar because the speculation was the resident rainbow population had caused the steelhead returns to curve back down - a curve that went up when it was closed for over a decade. During this time studies showed the resident rainbow population had rebounded. So, via poaching and fish handling they hoped the C&R fishery would "trim down". That's my understanding, anyway... it seems to have worked with re to the resident population. I have not seen recent numbers on returns and how this fishery affected the curve for steelhead.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top