For Us KC Area Guys - Fishing Reports

[Doc-Drew]

I haven't posted on this thread this year because, frankly my fishing year hasn't been much to brag about. Excuse my ignorance, but I've got to know, what's a "Ned rig"?

it is a Zman ZinkerZ cut in half and put on a small hook (typically 1/16th oz or 3/32nd oz. The cut end of the zinkerz is superglued to the jighead to prevent it from falling down.

[kanasbassfisher08]

Hey guys Elizabeth and I are planning to camp at Milford this weekend. I have never fished there and don't know where to start. Since smallmouth will be the primary target, I plan to fish it similarly to Melvern unless someone knows otherwise. I have never fished for wiper but would LOVE to catch some of those. If you guys have any suggestions on where to fish please let me know. It is too big of a lake to just guess where to fish.

well man wipers love swimbaits spoons and most bass bait i generaly catch them at pleasanton east on a rattle trap but blue basser would be the best to talk to about both wipers and milford but they like jigs texas craw and black and blue or green pumpkin sure they will be eating a crankbait and a spinner bait. i hope the wind treats u alright and let us know how it goes but yeah hit up blue he can give u spots and all sorts of info about that lake and others might be able to help to

[Doc-Drew]

Thanks kansasbassfisher. I talked to blue throughout the day today about Milford. Looking at the forecast right now the winds are supposed to be single digits. That would be fine with me but I also know how quickly things can change around here. I will definitely let you guys know how we make out.

[Mr_Scrogg]

Milfird, Ive been once. Didnt do good. Wilson Ive done a cabin trip. Faired decently well. Good luck and WEAR HER OUT this time.

[sizzlefry40]

Olathe lake today will let you know how it went later

[Mr_Scrogg]

How would ya'll think a Sickle Hook would do on a Ned? Do you think the slight downward point would have a hard time hooking up?

[Bluebasser86]

How would ya'll think a Sickle Hook would do on a Ned? Do you think the slight downward point would have a hard time hooking up?

From what I've found as long as the hook shank isn't too long it should be alright. You can always use pliers to open up the hook gap slightly if you do have a hard time hooking fish.

[Bluebasser86]

Went to Melvern with Hi Salenity Tuesday for a few hours Tuesday then most of the day Wednesday with Basshunter0731. I think the lake is possibly in turnover or maybe at the tail end of it. Water temps were in the mid to high 50's (56-58) and the water seemed to be a lot cloudier, not dirty, just looked like there was lots of stuff suspendeed in the water. A Ned rig ruled both days but fish were also caught on cranks, shakyheads, tubes, jigs, and spinnerbaits. Tuesday the fish were more active despite the colder temps, probably because of the clouds and wind. Curt had 2 really nice fish, one 17 3/4 and one 18 inch smallmouth, both on a ned rig. The 17 3/4" fish was back in the water without a picture but we got a picture of the big fish of the day.

Temps were better Wednesday but it was flat calm. We also were having a difficult time hooking up and keeping fish hooked, not exactly sure why. No big fish but the fish are so fat right now it seems. Jon's biggest of the day.

My biggest of the day was 16" and fought like it was 5 pounds, on a deadsticked Ned rig.

We both had fish in the 3 pound range hooked and lost, mine on a ned and Jon's on a KVD 1.0, along with several whites, a few drum and crappie, and a sunfish.

[sizzlefry40]

olathe was no luck hurra

y! y

[pbrussell]

Got some friends that want to catch some smallies. So guess where I'm heading again tomorrow.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record.

I'll have to make sure and mix it up somehow next week if the weather is permitting. Maybe I'll brave La cygne and get my butt kicked.

[Bluebasser86]

Got some friends that want to catch some smallies. So guess where I'm heading again tomorrow.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record.

I'll have to make sure and mix it up somehow next week if the weather is permitting. Maybe I'll brave La cygne and get my butt kicked.

I don't blame you, I'll hopefully be back next Wednesday myself with the wife. She's been bugging me to go fishing as soon as she gets days off and this week she's off her probation period at work so she gets days off. Thinking I may buy a bunch of minnows or crawlers and just anchor up at the dam and relax and see how many smallies she can catch in a day

I'll bet La Cygne is probably rocking for wipers right now around the outlet if nothing else. You could always go to wolf creek too if the wind isn't going to be bad, just make sure you have a comfortable life jacket since you have to wear it the whole time.

[Hi Salenity]

One of the guys that works for me wanted to go to Melvern Friday morning. So I made a trip up to BPS and got a new reel for him to use and rigged him up to fish the "rig". He ended up oversleeping so I went by myself.

It was like Blue said, a bit off. I got 17 fish in 3-4 hours but the water was on the green side and visibility was only 2-3' tops. I don't think I caught anything over 15''.

This morning before daylight me and Peter went to the state lake. Once the sun came out enough I could see I realized the lake was in turnover. visibility was only 6' and super brown'. In 3.5 hours we got 4 fish! I tucked my tail between my legs and went back to the house.

After a day like today I may not fish again until spring!

[pbrussell]

Fishing was pretty tough today.

But, at least I caught this.

[Hi Salenity]

How was the water clarity? 2-3' still?

[pbrussell]

Around there. Water definitely had more of a dingy tint to it. Sitting around 55 degrees, and the wind didn't help the water clarity either. I think I caught around 10 smallies, and 10 whites. The fellas I had with me didn't do any better. There was a lot of junk fishing too. Handful on the "rig". One a jerkbait. One a jig. Missed one on a shakyhead. Handful on a rapala crank. Handful on a kvd 1.0.

Weird day out there for sure.

[retro basser]

Fishing was pretty tough today.

But, at least I caught this.

Dang.. Nice one!

At least the work paid off for ya... think i'm gonna go for one more spin this week to burn up the last of my gas and call it a year.

[Bluebasser86]

Well I went to Gardner this morning after work to see if the fish had moved back into the south end with the shad until the cold water moves in. I figured I'd make a few casts and maybe catch a couple fish and go home. 2 hours and 43 fish later I finally packed it in. Nothing big but lots of 12-15 inchers on long casts just slamming an Xcalibur one knocker makes for a good time!

[pbrussell]

Hey clayton, mind telling us what kind of retrieve you usually use with lipless baits? I know the standard answer is burning it, but sometimes that just doesn't produce.

[Bluebasser86]

Hey clayton, mind telling us what kind of retrieve you usually use with lipless baits? I know the standard answer is burning it, but sometimes that just doesn't produce.

It certainly was not the answer today. My first dozen casts that's what I did and didn't get a hit. Then I hit a clump of weeds and ripped it out and got slammed. 8 of the next 9 casts had the same results. I'd rip it up off the bottom and when I was reeling back down to rip it again I'd feel a tick almost like fishing a jerkbait. A couple of them stopped it on the rip and just stopped my rod completely. My wrist and elbow was literally getting sore from ripping the bait out of the weeds and the fish hitting the bait so hard. I started just crawling it as slow as I could and keep it ticking the weeds and picked up several more doing that. There was a older guy that came down to his dock and was yelling across the lake asking what I was catching them. He said he'd lived there since 1964 and had never seen anyone catch fish out there like that. He was keeping track of how many fish I'd caught for me until it started to slow down and he got cold. I was hoping to get 50 before I left but 43 from the bank from the same area isn't bad

[Doc-Drew]

So here are the results from this weekend's trip to Milford. The whites/wipers were really active and made it hard to catch a decent amount of smallies. The second fish Saturday morning turned out to be a 5.48lb wiper caught on the ned rig at the dam. At first I thought it was a nice smallie, that is, until he peeled off drag and headed deep.

Pretty fun to fight that thing on a light action rod. Like Melvern, the dam proved to be the best spot and the ned rig the best bait. Sunday we had a problem with our fuel hose so we couldn't use our outboard. The wind kept us from moving too far so we just stayed in the cove where we launched. Again, the whites and wipers were very active. We caught over 50 fish in that cove including a cliche largemouth. The one laydown there, I pitched a jig and he grabbed it.

[joefish]

Went to LaCygne this morning. North wind early made it a little rough to fish but eventually wind changed to west and died down. Caught several LMB, no big ones but had a good day on the water.

[Bluebasser86]

Nicole and I went to Melvern today to see if we could still catch some smallies. We got there around 9 and it was a lot windier than they said it would be (shocker) and pretty chilly. I tried to find some shad to throw net but couldn't find any except a few monster shad flipping on top. We got a couple white bass out of the very north end of the boatramp cove before we went to the dam, Nicole had one really nice one.

We doubled up pretty quickly on nice smallies, I let Nicole hold both of them, I'll let you guess which one she caught and which one I caught.

They were eating a Ned rig really well and in shallower water than I would have guessed. Nicole got a good one pretty fast. We caught lots of them like this one.

The average size was great today, lots of them over 15" including this 17 incher.

And this nicely tattoed 16.5 incher.

And this 17 1/4 incher.

Last cast and last fish of the day also my heaviest of the day at 3.10.

We just fished really slowly along the dam almost all day, which was my plan to give Nicole the best chance to catch plenty today and she did pretty well considering how slow we had to fish. We called it a day around 4 when I put bass number 50 of the day in the boat. We had mostly smallmouth but I also had 4 spots, a crappie, and a sunfish and we both had a pair of white bass. They would follow a jerkbait but I only had 2 hit it and it was relaxing fishing super slow with the Ned Rig and catching lots of nice smallies.

[Hi Salenity]

What was the water visibility like? It still looks Green. I got a new Jerk bait rod/reel and I keep thinking any day now I'm going to need it...

[Bluebasser86]

What was the water visibility like? It still looks Green. I got a new Jerk bait rod/reel and I keep thinking any day now I'm going to need it...

It wasn't green at all. I could see the bottom in 5' of water. It was pretty cool to watch those smallmouth while we were fighting them in. I don't think we had a single fish follow another in while we were fighting it which really surprised me with the water being so clear.

[nokturnal_one]

Where were you fishing at Gardner I believe you said from the shore? Was it at the turn out on the south east side facing the mossy hydrilla covered section? I'm new to this forum and have been living in Kansas for just over a year now and would appreciate any advice on spots and gear to use, I'm from Utah and just started bass fishing and baitcasting last year so i'm quite new.