Urban Walleye Fishing Cedar Rapids, IA | Cedar River Carp

I’ve lived in the Cedar Rapids, IA area for the majority of my life, and today was the first time I fished the Cedar River in the downtown area. I’ve yet to fish the stretch below the 5 in 1 dam, but today I gave it a shot by the 8th Street bridge and the new railroad bridge.

The weather was a gorgeous 52 degrees and bright sun. That might not sound all that great, but when we’ve had such cold temperatures this winter and now spring, it felt warm.

I was fishing from shore and looking for the slack water and current breaks behind the bridge pylons, rocks, and logs where the water was calmer and not moving as fast. I was throwing a 3″ Moxi minnow from B Fish N Tackle on a 1/16″ oz jig head to keep the bait from sinking too quickly hopefully trying to avoid snags, in hopes of hooking a pre-spawn walleye.

The Cedar River was up slightly today on March 29 with a decent pace to the current. After a number of casts with nothing to show for my efforts, I casted downstream just south of the railroad bridge on the east shore. I’d been keeping a steady retrieve, when something tripped my line. It felt different than a snag, and believe me, I know what those feel like.

Upon reeling my line in, I found a single large fish scale stuck on my hook. It appeared to be a carp scale, so I’m sure I must’ve nearly snag hooked it. I confirmed that three casts later when I did actually snag a carp, maybe even the same one.

I had set out at about 5pm to see if I could find a walleye as they should be getting ready to spawn in the next couple weeks. Well, I knew right away it wasn’t a walleye, but what it was was pretty big. My drag on my spinning reel started peeling off as I had it set fairly light with only 6 lb test line.

I fought this fish for the better part of 5 minutes before finally tiring it out and pulling it to shore. It turns out I had snagged it just under the anal fin and it had been swimming away from me with the current. I’m a little surprised I kept it on the line. While I didn’t measure it, I would say it was close to 30″ and nearly 10 lbs. That’s a big fish, and was my first fish of the 2014 open water season. It feels good to get the skunk off for the year.

This is not what I was fishing for, but it turns out that it was the only fish of the day, and I’m quite thankful for this carp impeding my retrieve because it was a fun fight that I didn’t expect.

Carp are considered junk fish, and I’m not a fan of them myself, but I know that they can be smoked in a smoker and be eaten that way.

So after a picture I removed the hook and I was on my way. I tried a couple other spots downstream from there near the Cargill plant on Otis Road and saw a beautiful sunset. No bites to speak of. I tried again for the second time this week where Indian Creek flows into the Cedar River by the Indian Creek Nature Center along the Sac and Fox Trail. Again, no luck here either. The water was down considerably from just a week prior.

I tried a few casts under the blue one lane bridge just off of Mt. Vernon Rd on Bertram Rd. This area looked promising with a couple of deeper holes near the faster moving rapids and current. It looked like there could be a walleye in one of the pools, or maybe a smallmouth bass even. Maybe there were, but nothing was interested in my moxi minnow retrieved slowly through the pools and current. My guess is that the walleyes are still out deeper in their staging pools, and in the next couple weeks will come up shallower to spawn on the gravel and rocky stretches of moving water.

Walleye spawn in areas of current and moving water because the water flow over their eggs help to oxygenate the eggs, and also keep silt from settling and covering their eggs. Walleyes will spawn in shallow water, in as little as a foot of water. During the pre-spawn, they’re staging in deeper water out in the river, but as soon as the water temperatures hit the lower 40s, they should start moving up into the shallow creeks  near rapids and sections of river below dams where the water is moving swiftly.

Indian Creek believe it or not, can be a great section of water for walleyes during the spawn in April

I found a small silver and blue crank bait that some poor angler had lost on a stick that was right on the bank. It was in pretty good condition so I chalked that up as a win for me, and added it to my tackle box. Rare is the day that I actually add more lures to my tackle collection while out fishing. Usually I end up losing a lure or two whenever I go out.

After going from spot to spot, the sun had set, and it was time to head home. I’m thankful for the great weather today, and the opportunity to get out and enjoy God’s wonderful creation. I’m thankful for the carp providing me with some excitement and good fight that I didn’t bargain for.  And I’m thankful for my wife allowing me the time to go and explore some new areas that are right out our backdoor here in Cedar Rapids.

Hopefully my next report will have a game fish or two to talk about. But until then, good fishing!