Jim Fish the Zarks

I've been hitting the local ponds by shore the last few days. Mainly using a Ned Rig on spinning gear. Kill Creek - caught a bass about every 5 minutes in 5 feet or less water. 8 fish caught, all dinks, 1 keeper. Kingston Park in Overland Park - sight fished bass, caught a fish nearly every cast...all dinks. This would be a great place to take kiddo....give them a Ned and let them cast and reel VERY slow. I know my 8 year old doesn't really care about the size as long as its a bass. I'll get him out there this weekend. Heritage Park - I hit the smaller pond that is partially on the golf course, south of the main lake. I couldn't get them to bite on Ned so I used a top water and was getting takers. Most were just under keeper size, but still fun to see the blow ups. Heritage Park Main Lake - I caught 1 keeper on a baffle bug slow dragging the bottom. The Ned seems to catch fish every where I go, but 90 percent are dinks...maybe it is just the water I fish...or Maybe its Ned. I'll be fishing Lake of the Ozarks in the near future and I'll throw a Ned to test the big girls. Have a great weekend all!

My wife and I took our dog rollerblading this morning and we past regency lake park and she told me she wanted to go fishing there in the afternoon. We came back and just started catching largemouth left and right on the Ned rig. Ended with 27 fish. Turned out to be a pretty fun afternoon Sounds fun, thanks for the report - I tried Regency Lake a few weeks ago, but gave up quickly because of the algae growth. What part of the lake did you have success on? Thanks for any info.

I had 20 minutes over lunch today and happen to be near Heritage Park with my rod reel and a new baffle bug. I got a biffle bug on a biffle head wet and managed to catch 1 keeper. Great little 20 minute break.

A buddy of mine and I fished Cedar Lake today for 30 minutes. His first cast he landed a 2 lb on a chatterbait...3rd cast another slightly larger fish on a chatterbait. He then switched to a Ned rig just for kicks and he gave me the chatter bait....1st cast and it snags...forever gone. His next cast he snagged and lost his Ned. I tied a football jig on and then lost it! Oh well I know have a good reason to go back to Bass Pro for more gear. It seems like that lake has some serious snags in the two "coves" close to the boat ramp by the dam.

I was at the Overland Park Arboretum today with my sons class for a field trip. They have a bridge that crosses over Wolf Creek...to my surprise I saw 2 large male bass sitting on beds just off of a pool in about 2 feet of water. I also saw a dark shadow in another pool about 30 yards from the males holding onto some cover...probably a good sized female. Has anyone floated or fished Wolf Creek? I'm guessing these bass are naïve with very little pressure. It would be fun to float a worm or creature down this creek in a 'yak.

Our place is at the 13 mile maker...so a bit crazy, but still fun. My brother has a place at the 52 mile marker, and I try to fish it a few times a summer. His house is next to a channel bend and a mud flat that is 3 miles long which is a great place to drift for blue cats.

I went down for the Big Bass Bash...but I didn't do well at all. I was down for 1 day 2 weeks ago and did really well on a blue jig on longer stretches of rip rap halfway in the back of coves. I agree the water gets a little crazy, but it can still be fun. We usually have a house full of kids so I typically take them trolling with an 8' shad crank...the wave action creates some erratic baits making catching fish easy for the kidlets.

Hi all! It's been a long time since I've stalked the forum or posted anything, but I've recently caught a serious fishing bug. I'll just reintroduce myself. I'm live in the South OP area, and I typically fish the Lake of the Ozarks. The kidlets activities have kept me from going to the lake, however summer is almost here so I'll be going down weekly starting on Memorial Day weekend. The last few weeks I've just been hitting local ponds bank fishing...some private and some public. Its been a fun learning experience fishing some of these smaller waters from shore! I'm on a roll...I've caught at least 1 bass everyday for the last 8 days! After reading some of posts on here I'm going to try to hit Cedar Lake and see what I can come up with. I look forward to sharing some info!

I was able to fish for a few hours today. I caught two really nice 3 pound bass on jerk baits near gravel banks with an incredibly slow retrieve. I also caught a 6 oz bass...almost the same size as the bait...that lil one was on over achiever! The wind picked up and I got tired of fighting the boat so I threw the cast net and caught some shad...tied up to a dock and threw out some shad chunks looking for blues...I ended up with another 3 pound bass on a cut chunk of shad. The wind died so I threw the jerk bait around...and actually snagged a 5" shad. First time for that. A major storm started rolling..so I headed to the dock...I got the lift up just in time for some crazy wind! Hopefully the weather will participate in tomorrow's adventures.

Old Plug have you tried throwing around jerk baits? When I was out 2 weeks ago I had pretty good luck with jerk baits.

Thanks for the info Old Plug. I noticed some of the algae bloom a few weeks ago, and I'm guessing it only got worse. Definately hard to fish through this stuff. I have a house around the 13 Mile Marker of the main chanel so I'll be fishing in this area. I'll definately be watching the weather. If the bass are that tough I might just get out the blue cat gear and give that a try.

Hi all! I'm heading to the Ozarks tomorrow and will get to fish Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday around the 13MM. Does anyone know what the current water temp is? Are the fish on their beds yet? Or are they still staging? Any suggestions are appreciated. I will return the favor with a full report. Please and THANKS!

I would be interested in an outing. Do any of these lakes have boat/motor size limitations? Do they have any type of blue cat population? If there is a blue cat population a fish fry might be fun after a good day on the water.

In the past I have concentrated on fishing for blue catfish, so I'm a bit lost on where bass will go this fall. I was out looking for bait for catfishing and I found some shad on points, and other schools moving back into coves. I am assuming the bass will just following the shad. So the question is where should I be looking this fall? And what is the trigger for the movement? Water Temp? Sunlight?

I read over the manual for the Merc 150 4 stroke, and it indicated that for the first 2 hours of use to vary the throttle, and every 10 minutes to push it to full throttle for 1 minute, then another 10 minutes of variable RPMs.... The next 8 hours it says not be at full throttle for more than 5 minutes.

I ended up taking the boat to Longview, and the people at the marina went ahead and sold me a pass even without complete registration. They just asked me to come back in and give them all of the info once the boat is registered. They did look at all of the titles and my license to insure I was who I said I was. It was VERY nice of them to let me go ahead and get on the lake. Everything went great.... I was able to get the boat down the ramp in my first shot, despite my very limited trailer experience! I was also able to get the boat retrailored without any issues. The boat ran perfectly. It has the new Merc 150 4 stroke and it is extremely smooth and quiet. I was very impressed. Everything worked as intended. My buddy and I didn't have our fishing gear with us, however we marked HUGE schools of baitfish with what looked like a complete feeding frenzy. There were smaller pods of bait fish surrounding the main school with what looked like bass nailing them from the top and blue cats picking up the injured from the bottom. This was all in front of the dam, at the sides of the main channel with fish from 15-28 feet in 50-60 feet of water. MAN I wish I had my cast net and some gear! Does anyone have experience fishing Longview?

I'm pretty excited about today.... I'm picking up my new toy and am going to give it a sea trial for a few hours. Tracker Targa V18 WT. It's not a Triton, but its a fishing boat! The only issue is I have 1 small tackle box and 1 rod and reel with me....the rest are at the Ozarks. This should be a comedy watching me at the boat ramp...since I have no experience with a trailor.

I'm in Southern Overland Park off of 159th street....some of my friends say I'm actually in Northern Oklahoma!

I'm typically free in the mornings....and would really like to learn from a few locals, next time you go out and are looking for a fishing buddy please let me know.

This might be more appropriate for a private message, but I figured I'd post it here and if I'm off base, just whip me with a wet noodle, and then I'll start to figure out the community etiquiet (sp?) Allday - is that a channel cat in your picture? That looks like a catch of a lifetime channel! Congrats!

Hi all, I just read some of the posts on this string and find it refreshing to finally find a forum that is active with people that are willing to share information. I'm new to the board, and have just gotten back into fishing after a nearly 25 year hiatus. I'm 39 and started to miss the days I had on the lake with my dad. I typically fish the Lake of the Ozarks, but this fall and winter I'll likely fish lakes more local to the Overland Park area. I just bought a boat (Tracker Targa) and I'm looking forward to making some new fishing buddies and learning some new tricks. Thanks,

Hi all, I'm a new member to the board. I'm looking forward to being an active memeber of the board. I have been fishing nearly all of my 39 years, mostly at Truman Lake, and other small lakes around Kansas City. I've just recently gotten interested in bass fishing and blue cats. I just bought a fishing boat (Tracker Targa WT) which will spend time between the Lake of the Ozarks around the 13 mile marker and the Kansas City area. Thanks ALL!