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Home › Waters › Iowa › Beaver Creek
Creek · Northeast Iowa, Butler and Black Hawk counties, the Cedar River drainage above Waterloo · Iowa

Beaver Creek Fishing Guides

A three hundred and forty seven square mile Butler County creek feeding the Cedar at New Hartford, with limestone outcrop, rock riffles and some of the better small-stream smallmouth water in northeast Iowa.

A dark forest stream running fast over stone
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Beaver Creek

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About the Beaver Creek

Beaver Creek drains about three hundred and fifty square miles of Butler and Black Hawk counties and joins the Cedar River near New Hartford, where the gauge sits. Northeast Iowa is not the flat corn-and-bean landscape that most people picture when they think of the state. The Cedar valley and its tributaries cut into limestone bedrock, and where the creek meets that rock it produces genuine riffle-and-pool structure with rock ledges, gravel bars and deep outside bends.

The watershed is heavily farmed, and that shapes the water. The creek carries a load of sediment and runs turbid through the spring and after any substantial rain, clearing to a green tint during settled summer weather. Riparian buffer is intermittent. Where the corridor is wooded and the bank is stable, the creek looks and fishes like a proper Midwestern smallmouth stream, and those stretches are worth finding.

Smallmouth bass are the headline fish and northeast Iowa quietly holds some of the better small-stream smallmouth water in the Midwest. They sit behind rock, on the current seams, and at the heads of the deeper bends. Northern pike use the slower water and the backwaters and reach good size. Walleye run up out of the Cedar, particularly in spring. Channel and flathead catfish occupy the deep holes, and rock bass, bluegill, white sucker, freshwater drum and common carp fill out a diverse list.

The creek is wadeable at summer flows and floatable by canoe or kayak when spring water is up. It rises hard after storms because the tiled agricultural ground sheds water fast. It also drops back quickly once the runoff has passed, and a creek that was unfishable on Saturday is often in reasonable shape again by Tuesday.

New Hartford, Cedar Falls and Waterloo are all close and provide everything needed.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Beaver Creek.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Beaver Creek cfs

Now: 906 cfs, read 5:00 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 05463000, Beaver Creek at New Hartford, IA).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

New Hartford - the gauge location and the community at the creek mouth.
Cedar River - the receiving river, with public access and ramps.
Cedar Falls - the nearest city, with lodging, fuel, tackle and river access.
Waterloo - the larger city downstream on the Cedar, with full services.
Parkersburg - an upstream Butler County town on the drainage.
Butler County road crossings - bridge access at many points along the creek.
George Wyth State Park - public river access downstream on the Cedar.

Seasons

Spring: high, turbid water with walleye and pike running up out of the Cedar.
Summer: lower and greener, with smallmouth fishing at its best and wading practical.
Fall: stable flows, cooling water and the most consistent smallmouth of the year.
Winter: cold and low, with fish concentrated in the deepest holes and little access.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Beaver Creek?

As of Oct 18, 5:00 pm, the USGS gauge Beaver Creek at New Hartford, IA reads 906 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Beaver Creek?

Anglers target Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, Flathead Catfish, Freshwater Drum, Largemouth Bass, Northern Pike, Rock Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Walleye, White Sucker on the Beaver Creek in Iowa.

Where can you access the Beaver Creek?

New Hartford - the gauge location and the community at the creek mouth. Cedar River - the receiving river, with public access and ramps. Cedar Falls - the nearest city, with lodging, fuel, tackle and river access. Waterloo - the larger city downstream on the Cedar, with full services. Parkersburg - an upstream Butler County town on the drainage. Butler County road crossings - bridge access at many points along the creek. George Wyth State Park - public river access downstream on the Cedar.

When is the best time to fish the Beaver Creek?

Spring: high, turbid water with walleye and pike running up out of the Cedar. Summer: lower and greener, with smallmouth fishing at its best and wading practical. Fall: stable flows, cooling water and the most consistent smallmouth of the year. Winter: cold and low, with fish concentrated in the deepest holes and little access.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Beaver Creek?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Iowa agency site: https://www.iowadnr.gov/things-do/fishing/regulations-laws