For Us KC Area Guys - Fishing Reports

[senile1]

Congratulations on your win, BassPro.! Thanks for the info.  I'm going to try to get out there this weekend.

[basspro05]

Thank you Senile, it was a blast, we have been so close so many times this year, then finally everything came together, if you go get up early, the topwater bite was just awesome, we just couldnt hook up with them, but we had probably 4 big explosions on spooks in about 15 minutes, id give that a try too

[huskertko]

6/10/06- Kill Creek

It was a fairly short trip today, I started have stomach issues that made me get off the water. However, it was a pretty decent trip none the less. I was only on the water about an hour and a half, water temp was between 80-81 and fairly clear. Skies were mostly cloudy with a 5-10 mph breeze from the south.

I started off with a Ribbit Frog on topwater fishing it over a grass bed just out in front of the marina, I had a couple of blowups but not catches. Then i switched to an Ika and was pitching it under the fishing dock and had several bites but still no hook ups. So I decided to move off shore and moved out so the submerged standing timber, and caught a small one in about 13' of water. Then I started pitching it to isolated standing timber and that is when the fun began. Caught several on the Ika near the isolated standing timber with the two largest as 2 lb and 3lbs. The 3 lber is saddly my PB bass, since I have only been fishing again for a little over a year. Then the stomach cramps kicked in and forced me off the water.

Here are a couple of pics of the largest one, sorry for the quality, they are taken with a camera phone.

[KU_Bassmaster.]

Ahhhhhh husker ........ a location would be nice. ;D ;D  I assume Kill Creek.  That 3 lber is a GODD quality fish out there.  I've only seen maybe one bigger and that one being the unofficial lake record and the very first fish I ever caught out there .... just shy of 6 lbs.  I noticed when I was out there earlier this week that the average size fish seemed to be getting closer to 2 lbs.  I mean we only caught a couple of those fish where you wonder how the heck that tiny bass even got that lure in it's mouth.  Unlike the past years when it seemed like every other fish was that way.  Give that lake another 2 or 3 years and she should be putting out some nice quality bass.  I just hope not too many people find out about it.

[huskertko]

Sorry Yeah, Kill Creek.  I had a date and location in the post, but had to do some cutting and pasting to get the pictures so I guess I cut that part, but forgot to paste it back. :-[

I agree, the fish do seem to be getting bigger, my last couple of times there the average was closer to 2 lbs.  I remember even last year, throwing a hard jerkbait and the bait almost being bigger than the fish that I caught.  

I hope so too that it stays somewhat of a secret, but the last few times out there, it seemed the boat "traffic" was getting heavier.  Two weeks ago there were 5 or six boats on the water when I left, and for that size of lake, that is a lot.

[KansasBassin]

6/11/06 Gardner Lake

Started early this morning at about 6am, about an hour after the thunderstorms stopped.  We didn't have any rain the rest of the morning.  

water temps about 77-78, stiff breeze for about the first two hours.  

First cast I threw a modified storm jerkbait.  I heated up the bill and bent it straight down, it stays right on top of the water, but has the darting action like a jerkbait.  I have had a lot of luck with this bait already this year.  The water was real choppy but I had to try topwater for a few casts.

Lost one on my first cast, wasn't really ready for it.  Threw it all the way down the d**n with no other luck.  Switched to a weightless yum, green pumpkin with a chartruse tail.  I like to throw this bait with a swivel about 18" above the bait.  Caught about 3 small fish on the north side of the lake heading towards the swimming beach.  All the fish were in at least 10 feet of water, couldn't get anything shallow.  

Made the decision to switch to the c-rig.  Threw for about 30 minutes with no luck.  Switched to a Manns Hard Nose craw, brown.  

Found one spot in between two docks where the water dropped off to around 16 feet.  Good action in this hole, we hooked up with about 5 fish the biggest being about 2.5, add in a couple walleye also.  We caught all these fish right where the water went to about 10 feet.  

Struggled the rest of the morning, and was off the water around 11am.

Strange day after the big thunderstorms last night.  I read an another BR post how bad the fish have been pounded at Gardner, so catching the fish in a little deeper water wasn't a suprise.  Not the greatest day on the water, but like every outing I hope to learn a little something and I think I did.

[senile1]

Smithville Lake (06/09/06)

I work in Gardner so I didn't get home until 6:00 pm.  I made it to the lake by 7:00.  I drove straight to the Trimble area, fishing the coves behind the trimble dam.  There were alot of pleasure boaters out until I reached the trees.  I caught three fish 15 - 18 inches long using a c-rig in 8 - 12 feet of water.  I also caught a couple of 15s in the shallows just before sundown on a floating rapala, but was unable to get any bites on a spook.  Lost a couple that looked decent in the shallows.  They were swiping at the topwater baits but not hitting them full on.  I fished a farm pond on Sunday but the owner only allows a few people so I guess a report on this is no good.  Knocked 'em dead though.  

[KU_Bassmaster.]

Lone Star - 6-24-06

Man .... I was getting the shakes. It had been a whole two weeks almost since the last time I had been out in the boat.

Great day out at Lone Star. This was my first trip up there since school has been out. I put in around 5:00 am and the water temp was 79. It quickly rose above 80 and was around 82 when I left around noon.

I started off the morning throwing a Sammy and man were they wanting that thing. I had the most sucess with that throwing it over main lake points. Soon as the sun came up I picked up a senko and started pitching around grass around boat docks. They didn't seem to interested in that. By 8:00 there was quite a few boats on the water all hammering the bank so I decided to go find some deeper water. Good Move. I picked up a Zoom Trick Worm on a Spot Remover jig head and was casting into 10-15 ft of water on the outside of the grass line and around main lake points. I got hung up on a brush pile I "found" in about 18 ft of water and broke off. When I was directly over the brush pile I noticed that my depth finder showed fish on the outside edges of the pile. I decided to tie on a drop shot rig and started catching them real good off 3 brush piles I know about. I also caught the BIGGEST three pound bass I have ever caught. Sounds wierd .... ... the whole story is in the Outings Section under the Members Challenge Results with a pic, ;D

[senile1]

I wanted to go out fishing on Saturday before the rain came through but I had too many honey-dos.  It rained two inches up at Smithville Lake, Saturday evening.  The only time I had available Sunday to fish, was from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm.  The water was quite murky after the rain and the wind was gusting up to 35 mph on the lake.  There were whitecaps everywhere.  The Carolina rig has been good on points and channel ledges in 10 - 15 feet of water here, so I started with a Zellmander on a c-rig.  I also thought that some noisy, flashy lures might be useful in the wind and the mud.  Before I left, I tried a slow-rolled spinnerbait, a rat-l-trap, a weightless watermelon strike-king zero, a wacky-rigged senko, and a t-rigged black culprit.  I caught only two dinks, one on the c-rig, and one on the rat-l-trap.  I couldn't believe how windy it was.  I had a heck of a time getting back to the boat launch from the cove I was fishing.  The weather report had stated the wind would be 10 -20 mph, but I knew by the whitecaps that it was higher.  When I reached home I checked the Smithville Lake conditions online and the report stated wind gusts were up to 35 mph.  

[codogs]

Cool vid KU.

Osage State Fishing Lake - Sunday 6/18/06 (10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.)

Went straight over to the dam after putting the boat in.  Threw a Bandit 200 (Spring Crawfish Yellow) down the dam and they were hitting it like crazy.  I caught 10 bass in the first 15 minutes, mostly dinks though but it was fun.  Around vegetation I was getting them on wacky and t-rigged tiki sticks (wacky produced better).  In all I wound up catching 20 over the course of the day.  Not bad.  I probably wasted too much time on it, but I tried like crazy to get the topwater going with sizmic and zoom frogs.  I got 3 real good hits but they were just popping it.  Letting it sit and sink didn't seem to entice them to come back.

Gardner - Saturday 6/25/06 (7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.)

Tried cranking the dam with Bandit 200's but no takers.  Went to a Norman DD22 and couldn't get anything with it either.  Finally got a decent one on a white spinnerbait w/ red trailer hook in about 8 feet of water toward the west end of the dam.  Fished the spinner for a bit longer with no takers.  Switched to a green pumpkin lizzard t-rigged with a 1/8 oz bullet weight.  Caught a few on it.  Switched up to a purple power worm t-rigged w/ 1/8 oz bullet weight and picked up a few more.  Mainly fished the lizzards and worms off the banks in about 12-15 feet of water.  In all I caught 5 bass (and 5 feisty bluegill).

Next weekend I'll be at Taneycomo doing a little trout fishing.

[cgs2004]

Fished Milford today and the lake turned over last night > so of course fishing was slow, 1 nice largemouth on a topwater.  The lake is just covered with alge stuff right now and the water visabilty is horrible, we need a nice breeze and a few days, then the fishing should pick up again.

[IneedAnewScreenName9886691]

cgs2004 - great info, that stuff is invaluable, especially before a big weekend!  Thanks bro!

[senile1]

Friday, July 7th:

I fished Smithville Lake from around 5:00 pm to sundown.  Water temperature was 81 degrees.  I started with a c-rig and caught three fish c-rigging points and secondary points in Rock Creek.  Only one of these exceeded 15 inches.  Depths varied from 12 to 18 feet.  Switched to a white jig with Zoom trailer punching the lilly pads but had no bites.  After 8:30 pm, I switched to an original Zara Spook, green back with chartreuse belly and fished it in the wood and lay-downs and lilly pads.  I caught four more bass, three of which were over 15 inches.  One of these was just shy of 20 inches.  

Sunday morning, July 9th at Smithville Lake:

I was completely and utterly skunked.  (Well, I caught one bluegill.)  I went back to Rock Creek again and the water temperature had dropped to 78 degrees.  It rained last night but I didn't think the front had passed yet.  It appears it rained enough to cool it off a little.  I threw everything I had, fishing from 6:30 until 11:15 am.  

[huskertko]

Sunday July 10th----Cedar Lake, Olathe

I don't know what the water temp was as I was fishing from the bank, but the water was stained and air tmep was in the upper 80's with 100% humidity, it was raining.  I was only there for about an hour, throwing a chart/white chatterbait along the shore and near laydowns.  

I caught one fish but she was a beauty.  The strike felt like I was caught in grass, so I ripped it way and it still stayed very mushy, then started to swim away.  It never really put up any fight or struggle so I figured it was a small dink, but when she surfaced near the shore, I learned that was not the case.  She went for at least 4lbs, my scale was acting funny, but i could fit my entire fist in her mouth.

[YFZKC]

Yeah I used to post on here, been forever since I've have a decent day of fishing. :'(

August 19th

Spring Hill Lake- 6:00 Pm or so.

Caught 6 fish, a dink, a 1lb'r, a 2, a 3.2, a 3.10, and a 4.2 according to my Dad's digital scale. I thought for sure they were alot bigger, but dont we all. : I have some pics to develop, then I'll post them up.

I caught the 3.2, and the 3.10 in the same exact spot under a fallen fence post in about 8ft. of water on back to back casts. Both got caught in the same fallen tree and I had to wade out in about 4ft of water to get them, that was kind of fun I caught the 4.2 about 15ft off the bank by a tree, in about 6ft of water, all on a 4 inch dark green tailess type worm, one that comes in the cheap $5 kits. ;D My Dad on the other hand didnt catch any.

Funny story:

Back around the 4th of July me and Whatnext hit Baldwin spring creek, the water was muddy and we werent catching nothin, Whatnext thru on a 3inch pink buble gum colored worm and I said you're not gonna catch crap with that, he pulled out this nice 3lb'r or so on his first cast, I think we caught 2 other little dinks the rest of thd day. good times.

[KansasBassin]

It is the right time of year so I thought I would bump this thread.  

I have been doing some construction around the house so I haven't been out this year.  Anybody know how the local waters are doing?  

I heard the fish have spawned and backed off at Bone Creek.  Anyone know about Gardner, Kill Creek, Lonestar?  

KU, how's the fishing been?

[ring fry]

You KC area guys, don't waste your time making that long drive down to Bone Creek.  There are no fish in that lake, besides the four miles of gravel road you have to drive to get to the ramp will ding up your trailers and your Hummers.

[huskertko]

I just got back from Kill Creek and there are some males on the bed, but haven't seen any big females yet.    Water temp is in the upper 50's low 60s so it should be soon for the girls to move up.

[ring fry]

husker, I are stoopid.  Where is Kill Creek?

[huskertko]

it is south of K10 between Lenexa and Lawrence.  You take the Kill Creek Pkwy exit off of k10, go south until you can't go any farther.  Then take a right until you can't go any farther (without being in someones driveway), take a left and the park entrance is on the right.

[KansasBassin]

huskertko that is great news, I was hoping I didn't miss the good action.  Did you catch any today out there....thought it might be good before we got this rain.  

[huskertko]

I caught two decent ones, had a lot of bits but didn't get them hooked up.  The two that I caught were on a white/chart rattle trap.

[TopekaFishin]

My son fished in a Jr. bass tournament yesterday at Kill Creek and it was pretty slow - albeit this was all from the bank.

We had about 8 fish caught out of about 20 kids in five hours. My son was able to take a 13.5 and 15 incher( ad has to brag - that was enough to win the tourney) with plastic worms.  Talked to others at the Lake and everyone seemed to be having the same luck with bass and crappie.

[Hellbilly]

Howdy everyone new to the site. Has anyone had any luck at Smithville lately? Gonna go tomorrow. I went to the catch and release ponds up here in Lathrop (Hartell Conservation Area) last Saturday and didn't catch a thing. Must have been because of the storms coming in. Catch you all on the flip side.

[twors]

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/may/17/county_close_lake_weed_treatment/

:-/