Northwest Fishing Reports

I'm interested in fly fishing the Cedar River this week and was wondering if it's possible to float down the river. Has anyone done this or know if it's possible? I was thinking of floating a 21 mile stretch from near the Landsburg Dam to the mouth of the Cedar in my 11 foot zodiac. Any help or knowledge here would be much appreciated as I’m not familiar with this river.

There is a section down stream from where the Aqua Barn used to be that had some dangerous log jams.

Is it just there, by Regis Park or are their multiple log jams all along that 21 mile stretch. Otherwise I could put in at Landsburg and get out before the Aqua Barn. I've seen the jams with Microsoft Virtual Earth, and they look impressive. I'm just wondering if anyone has floated that stretch of river and if it would be doable. Water flows look good right now, and it seems fishy.

As Far as I know those are the only log jams, they are the result of a land slide that happened a few year back. My worry would be having to drag that 11 zodiac because of low water. I might opt for a smaller craft like a canoe, Pontoon boat or Kyak. But as long as you have a good flow rate I think you should be fine. Are there any particular sections of river you are worried about?

The last 1/2 mile or so through Renton gets very shallow. It's only a few inches deep by the airport. Once you hit the lake there's a bunch of big hunks of cement and twisted steel just under the surface. I won't go near the mouth and my jetboat runs in about 4" of water.

Thanks all. I actually went ahead and floated from Landsburg, past the log jams (they weren't bad) and then got out down at Riverside Park in Renton before I got to the mouth. The river was very low in places and we floated about 19 miles of river. It was freakin intense. I snapped one rod to an over hanged tree, lost my sunglasses, only to have my brother retrieve them...it was abosultely crazy. We had people warning us of log jams and bad stretches of water, but in all honesty it was great. It was fun to fish the deep pools on the upper part of the river where the land is cutting back. We ate lunch there and my brother got an 9" trout. Total was my brother = 3, me = 2. My brother was using a bloody mary...nymphing it and I was on the copper john (red). He got a fish to around 18" and that was the highlight of the day! I got all small fish 8-10." He got one other fish that came in around 7." All in all it was a fun, freakin crazy day of fishin and floatin. I will never again float the Cedar River, I'll reside to the wading and leave that floating stuff to the drunkards of the summer who love to float this thing. Thanks for all the advice, I just had to go out and do it myself. Stimulators size 8 also got strikes, but no hook-ups. Bring your royal wulffs too. The fish were deep when we went so nymphing seemed like the obvious choice.

Rutt wrote:Thanks all. I actually went ahead and floated from Landsburg, past the log jams (they weren't bad) and then got out down at Riverside Park in Renton before I got to the mouth. The river was very low in places and we floated about 19 miles of river. It was freakin intense. I snapped one rod to an over hanged tree, lost my sunglasses, only to have my brother retrieve them...it was abosultely crazy. We had people warning us of log jams and bad stretches of water, but in all honesty it was great. It was fun to fish the deep pools on the upper part of the river where the land is cutting back. We ate lunch there and my brother got an 9" trout. Total was my brother = 3, me = 2. My brother was using a bloody mary...nymphing it and I was on the copper john (red). He got a fish to around 18" and that was the highlight of the day! I got all small fish 8-10." He got one other fish that came in around 7." All in all it was a fun, freakin crazy day of fishin and floatin. I will never again float the Cedar River, I'll reside to the wading and leave that floating stuff to the drunkards of the summer who love to float this thing. Thanks for all the advice, I just had to go out and do it myself. Stimulators size 8 also got strikes, but no hook-ups. Bring your royal wulffs too. The fish were deep when we went so nymphing seemed like the obvious choice.

Sounds like an adventure. Glad you had a good time. That's some great info you should post a report, help build the database.