On the Cedar W/hundreds of my closest friends

Fished up above Maple Valley this morning and had alot of company. I couldn't believe how many guys were out this morning. On the way home, every turn out on the Maple Valley highway had a least 2-3 rigs parked.
I managed to hook 3 fish in the 14" range on an all silver Blue Fox #4. They kept throwing the hook. I switch over to a bobber and jig and nailed a fat 22"er. I lost another good fish that I never saw.
About the time I was going to pack it in, down the river comes 2 guys in inflatable kyaks.
It was officers friendly. They checked me and told me to warn anyone fishing that they were going to watch the Cedar very close.
So be warned, if you fish the Cedar, be legal!
I talked to 2 other guys in pontoon boats that had done very well and also released 2 spawner steelies. They also said that they had to help pull one of the fish cops out of the river after he flipped his kyak. Ye Haw!

I had a feeling that there would be a lot of people on the river today. WDFW made a mistake of saying there were 6-8 pounders in there, you know the river has been heavily poached with bait before the opener.

Yea, I was expecting better fishing than what I had. One of the fly guys I spoke with was involved with a test fishery last week and he claims they caught the crap out of em.
He claims that there are some monster trout in the river. I'll try it again in a few days.

Talk about a zoo! I was going to start out at Landsberg bridge but when I got there I counted at least 70 vehicles.

Needless to say I was bummed. The news had it on Monday night and Mrs. Badbobber says don't worry it's a work day! Ya right . So I started working my way down river until I found a nice spot just south of Maple valley but it didn't last long, too many fisherman and then there was the guys in the orange raft, drinking and having a good old time and no PFD's on

Saw a guy hook about a 3 pounder but didn't have his drag set right and was just holding it in the fast current until it got off Ok I'm calm now. Maybe I will try again when things cool down a little. I just couldn't seem to get my act together

Think I'll have another and think about my trip to Ilwaco this weekend with my brother.

Like a sturgeon, caught for the very first time (Madonna)

Seems like a lot of people grew up on that river!

:p

My son floated part of the river several times on a tube before the opening. He said that he had seen a few people fishing each time and he made it quite clear to them that they were fishing illegally. They knew since they took off when they saw him. Many of the deeper holes already had lawn chairs on the bank. He saw a few good sized fish, including one which came up and inhaled a crawfish that he threw into the head of a pool. I think that many of the larger trout have already been harvested ( poached ) !!

Deepwater

With all the negativity about this opener, maybe it wasnt such a good idea in the first place?

Everything I have heard or read so far indicated that people are not respecting the resource, that the fishery is overcrowded, etc. We all know what that leads to.

IMO it's all about the opportunity. Hopefully the crowds will eventually die down and the fish will get smart. Plus, I think all the legal anglers present on the river will discourage a lot of the poachers from continuing what they've been doing all these years the Cedar has been closed.

For example, a few years back I was doing some work onriver at the spawning channel just past the golf course. While, I didn't actually see anyone fishing. I found two styro worm containers and a brand new Aglia spinner hanging from a branch.

Of course this leads to the hooking mortality debate in C&R fisheries. I'll take the opportunity for everyone to fish w/ the added mortality using barbless lures and flies versus the few guys harvesting fish in their own little private fishery.

I suspect that the increased pressure will reduce the poaching, and that the population will stabilize just fine. Nothing like having a bunch of self righteous fly guys around with cell phones to take care of the poaching problem.

BTW, I'm one of them...

I think that this river will get better for fishing the the comming months and years. With only being open for two months out of the year, the fish get a long time to rest, grow, and reproduce without presure. There will be alot of people on the river in the next couple weeks because it just opened. This river is probably the best for large trout, due to the sockeye population, and there should be quite a few large ones for years to come, as long as the river is managed as CnR.

I thought it was open three months?

I'm just a couple of blocks from the river and I've made more calls to the State Patrol in the last two months than the last five years. The frickin poachers are out in force believe me. Last night a Asian guy below the golf course was fishing power bait right in front of me. He didn't seem to understand me when I told him that it was against thr law, but he did understand me when I told him I was calling the cops. I sure hope that the state doesn't change their minds and say it's not a good idea to open the Ceder anymore.

As for the fishing, it's not what I thought it would be, but not too bad for being walking distance from home. If I were a fish I'd be hiding and not feeding if all of a sudded there were 1000 instead of 50 people after me.

They should have never opened it up.I think this is a joke.I wonder how many smolt's are gonna be effected by this????.I heard they only found 8 spawning pairs of steelhead this year.What little Chinook / Coho / Sockeye / Steelhead smolts are there, will be fewer when this fishery is finally closed.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

P.S. I grew up fishing this river but have no desire to fish it for trout,Maybe some day the steelhead will come back!!!!!.

The sad fact is that, because of how few steelhead there are, there aren't many smolts to affect. This steelhead run is dead. I'm not happy about it, just calling it like I see it.