For Us KC Area Guys - Fishing Reports

[Fir3hawk]

Got my new boat out on the water this weekend. No luck on a quick visit to Olathe Saturday. Spent 3 hours out at Gardner on Sunday morning and we were able to get 3 fish on the boat in about 3 hours. A largemouth, and tiny channel cat for me and a largemouth for my buddy.

 

 

[KCFinesse]

13 hours ago, Weedwhacker said:

Fished Smithville today.

caught three. one was 3lbs and two were 2lbs.

all were in less than 5 feet of water, around timber on main lake points.

all were caught on a Havoc pit boss.

the bass seem to stay relatively shallow on this lake throughout the summer.

I have caught a few fish in the 5 lb range, but have never caught numbers at Smithville.

Does anybody catch numbers at this Lake?

 

 

 

I have never hit numbers of fish there, but I also only fish that lake once or twice a year.

 

-Jared

[KCFinesse]

Fished LaCygne Sunday-

I started up lake and noticed quite a few boats in the river section. I pitched flooded brush and water willows for a while ending up with one fish about 2lbs.

 

Came back down lake and picked up a shakeyhead. I found a couple nice fish over 20". All in all, spent about 7 hours on the lake for five bites one of which was a drum, one of which was a dink. A few good ones make everything better.

 

-Jared

[SuperVehicle001]

23 hours ago, Weedwhacker said:

Fished Smithville today.

caught three. one was 3lbs and two were 2lbs.

all were in less than 5 feet of water, around timber on main lake points.

all were caught on a Havoc pit boss.

the bass seem to stay relatively shallow on this lake throughout the summer.

I have caught a few fish in the 5 lb range, but have never caught numbers at Smithville.

Does anybody catch numbers at this Lake?

 

 

I'm bank bound but I plan to fish every dock, marina, and boat launch I can find. 

[Russ E]

26 minutes ago, SuperVehicle001 said:

I'm bank bound but I plan to fish every dock, marina, and boat launch I can find. 

I usually fish the main lake points that have trees and brush piles this time of year, but the rock and rip rap banks around the boat ramp areas always seem to hold a few fish.

[awohlwend]

20 hours ago, KCFinesse said:

Fished LaCygne Sunday-

I started up lake and noticed quite a few boats in the river section. I pitched flooded brush and water willows for a while ending up with one fish about 2lbs.

 

Came back down lake and picked up a shakeyhead. I found a couple nice fish over 20". All in all, spent about 7 hours on the lake for five bites one of which was a drum, one of which was a dink. A few good ones make everything better.

 

-Jared

Sounds like a typical day at La Cygne. I've fished up the river multiple times and never really done any good. It all looks so good up there it's hard to not want to fish it.

[kylek]

On 7/31/2017 at 8:24 PM, Weedwhacker said:

Fished Smithville today.

caught three. one was 3lbs and two were 2lbs.

all were in less than 5 feet of water, around timber on main lake points.

all were caught on a Havoc pit boss.

the bass seem to stay relatively shallow on this lake throughout the summer.

I have caught a few fish in the 5 lb range, but have never caught numbers at Smithville.

Does anybody catch numbers at this Lake?

 

 

 

I hate this lake!! I never seem to do good out there.  Last time I went we fished some brush piles off one of the bridges and caught a few bass, but nothing worth taking pictures!

[Russ E]

3 hours ago, kylek said:

 

I hate this lake!! I never seem to do good out there.  Last time I went we fished some brush piles off one of the bridges and caught a few bass, but nothing worth taking pictures!

i only fish it once a month. I have caught quality fish there, just not very many,

[Bluebasser86]

I've fished Smithville twice and never had anything I'm 100% sure was a bite. 

[SuperVehicle001]

8 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I've fished Smithville twice and never had anything I'm 100% sure was a bite. 

Well, now I'm not so confident in my weekend choice lol. I will still do some fishing there because I'm tired of getting skunked at Reed but all these comments bashing Smithville Lake and the current MDC fishing report are putting a wet blanket on my enthusiasm.

[Bluebasser86]

10 minutes ago, SuperVehicle001 said:

Well, now I'm not so confident in my weekend choice lol. I will still do some fishing there because I'm tired of getting skunked at Reed but all these comments bashing Smithville Lake and the current MDC fishing report are putting a wet blanket on my enthusiasm.

I like Jacomo best of the KC area lakes on the MO side. Caught lots of nice fish out there.

[SuperVehicle001]

Just now, Bluebasser86 said:

I like Jacomo best of the KC area lakes on the MO side. Caught lots of nice fish out there.

I'll hit Jacomo first then. It is actually a bit closer to me anyway. I live downtown so I'm not super close to any lakes but also not super far away. Plenty are within 45min to an hour which is not bad.

[MacBassin]

I've caught 3 fish on Smithville this summer. General consensus seems to be decent sizes in small numbers and Burton's tourney results usually reflect similar (on Thursdays). I've been told that fishing for bass deeper than 6' at Smithville is a waste of time. I've found many spots at Smithville that seem on paper to be havens that have produced nada... can't figure 'er out.

 

Some of those thurs & sunday guys have it figured out, though, so there's a way to catch them. That's what keeps me going out there (...that, and, well I basically live on the dead sea itself)

[KCFinesse]

3 hours ago, SuperVehicle001 said:

I'll hit Jacomo first then. It is actually a bit closer to me anyway. I live downtown so I'm not super close to any lakes but also not super far away. Plenty are within 45min to an hour which is not bad.

 

The Kansas side gets a bit more discussion on here but when I was shore bound in Missouri I liked the Guy B Park lake up north. I lived in Blue Springs and fished quite a few lakes south and east of town.

 

Lake Rememberance off of 70 in Blue Springs was OK, but access was somewhat limited. I spent a bunch of time at Lone Jack lake mostly from a float tube and generally found a few fish there. The small 'butterfly trail' ponds between Blue Springs and Grain Valley actually had decent sized fish and was great for walking the shore slinging a senko. Further east, Maple Leaf is a fun lake with good fish potential. I fished the small Odessa lake a few times out of a tube and liked it, but shore access was tough.

 

After I got a boat, I fished Blue Springs, Prarie Lee, and Maple Leaf quite a bit. I'd say Blue Springs was the toughest of those lakes for bass, but the lake has both potential and some pretty fun wiper to keep you occupied. The dam can be productive for a variety of fish. Maple Leaf has reasonably good shore access as well as a few adjacent ponds that I've always wanted to explore. Prarie Lee is pretty limited as far as shore access.

 

I never really fished Jacomo all that much (I was never a fan of their boat rules) but I've heard of folks having more consistent success out there.

 

Good luck!

-Jared

[SuperVehicle001]

2 hours ago, KCFinesse said:

I liked the Guy B Park

 

 

I was getting skunked there too before trying James A Reed lol. I was house sitting my parent's place and I was getting up at 5 am every day to hit that small lake before the sun came up. I'd fish until sun-up then I would go back at 8pm. I got a whole lot of nothing. How did you access decent parts of the bank? Not a whole lot of that lake is accessible from shore.

[KCFinesse]

51 minutes ago, SuperVehicle001 said:

 

I was getting skunked there too before trying James A Reed lol. I was house sitting my parent's place and I was getting up at 5 am every day to hit that small lake before the sun came up. I'd fish until sun-up then I would go back at 8pm. I got a whole lot of nothing. How did you access decent parts of the bank? Not a whole lot of that lake is accessible from shore.

 

Aside from the manicured section by the dock, I'd walk to the dam from the south access off of Bee Creek Blvd. I'm not sure how tall the grass is by this route right now; I haven't been out there in 5 years or so. I did do a bit better off the dam.

-Jared

[tyson2925]

On ‎8‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 0:37 PM, KCFinesse said:

Fished LaCygne Sunday-

I started up lake and noticed quite a few boats in the river section. I pitched flooded brush and water willows for a while ending up with one fish about 2lbs.

 

Came back down lake and picked up a shakeyhead. I found a couple nice fish over 20". All in all, spent about 7 hours on the lake for five bites one of which was a drum, one of which was a dink. A few good ones make everything better.

 

-Jared

Nice fish!  Seems like you always get a nice fish when you go down there from the posts I have seen.

 

I am going out to Lacygne on Saturday to try to find a top water bite with this cool overcast weather.  Sounds like I need to stay south, and if I cant get bit on top switch to a shakey head right!  Are you finding fish shallow or deeper stuff, any tips you don't mind sharing I appreciate.  Thanks! 

[KCFinesse]

46 minutes ago, tyson2925 said:

Nice fish!  Seems like you always get a nice fish when you go down there from the posts I have seen.

 

I am going out to Lacygne on Saturday to try to find a top water bite with this cool overcast weather.  Sounds like I need to stay south, and if I cant get bit on top switch to a shakey head right!  Are you finding fish shallow or deeper stuff, any tips you don't mind sharing I appreciate.  Thanks! 

 

I think the lake has fished a little better to how I like to fish this year with one of the two units being off essentially all summer.

 

The fish I've found have been relating to transition areas around loose groups of larger baitfish. The bite has been super slow and catching them has taken concentrating on small areas found with electronics and fishing them meticulously. I'm sure someone has figured them out a bit better, but if I'm headed to LaCygne I'm resigned to the fact that I am not targeting numbers as much as one or two bigger fish. I might get bites, I might not.

 

I'm not fishing for active fish chasing shad so much as the bottom oriented negative fish around the right stuff. I have confidence in knocking something on the head with a shakeyhead eventually, but I'm not convinced that it's a matter of the right bait so much as a slow, natural, presentation right in their face.

 

Good luck, let us know how you do.

-Jared

[SuperVehicle001]

Conditions: Lots of rain the day before. Rained almost all day.
Water: Stained, High

Temp: 75-78F (I got it from my new Deeper sonar unit!)

 

Well I know it's not just me having a terrible time at James A. Reed. A friend who fishes tournaments met me out at Bluestem lake. We worked the whole dam. I went with a Texas rigged Christie Creature until I lost it in a brush pile. Then I switched to a swimming Senko on a shank weighted hook. He worked a weightless t-rigged Senko then switched to a chatterbaitt stopping to swap out from black and blue to white and chartreuse. We got a whole lot of nothing and moved onto Lake Nell.

Once again we worked the dam. He gave in and used his hated spinning rod to work a ned rig along the dam as I fished some pockets near some trees. We switched banks several times and caught absolutely nothing. I switched to a Carolina rigged Christie Craw and he went with a Texas Rigged Culprit Tomato color worm. He even gave up on bass and tied on a Road Runner inline spinner to catch anything. We both got skunked and he hadn't been skunked in years.
 

For now, Reed is off my list of places to fish. There is no point fishing all those walkable banks if there are no fish that want to bite. Not sure where the MDC gets their info but bass are not "fair" on plastics. Maybe in the fall when the temp cools more and a lot of the other fisherman have switched to hunting there will be less pressure. I might come back to fish lake Plover when they stock Trout in November. I've had my eye on an ultralight rig for trout, crappie and other pan fish.

On a side note, I really like the Deeper Pro Plus. I didn't use it much because the spinning combo I bought really isn't heavy enough to cast a 3oz chunk of metal and plastic. What data I did get was really neat. Confirmed what I already knew about those dams. There are deeper channels running close to the spillway and the bank gives way from riprap to silt around 6 feet down. If anything it helps me know what each bottom type feels like through my c-rig. I bought about 100 feet of thin paracord and I just plan on chucking the thing into the water instead of buying a dedicated rod.

[KCFinesse]

Fished Douglas on Friday-

Fish were pretty predictable, right off the weed edges in about 10 feet of water. The brush piles weren't as productive as the areas next to good weed growth. I didn't find any size; the fish were pretty cookie cutter between 12 and 15 inches...

 

Fished LaCygne tonight and got my butt kicked. With how slow it was, I spent a bunch of time scouting new water.

Water temps were right about 80.

 

-Jared

[Russ E]

Here is a report on my home lake.

 I  live 10 minutes from Wyandotte county lake and fish there at least once a week.

this lake gets heavy fishing pressure and if you are there on the weekend you will have to contend with an armada of pontoon boats. I only fish it on week days.

this lake requires a boating and fishing permit. if you do not live in Wyandotte county I believe it costs around $75.00 for a year.

if you get caught there without a permit, it is a 50 dollar fine. the county deputies patrol it constantly.

as my screen name implies I love fishing weeds. this lake has several good weed beds.

it seems to have a decent population of fish over 3 lbs, but they can be tough to catch and seem to stay deeper than in most area lakes.

if you want to beat the banks, there are a ton of 10-14 inch fish in this lake.

talked to a few seasoned Midwest Finesse guys that fish it quite a bit.

they catch a ton of smaller fish, with a couple decent ones nearly every trip.

the lake has Largemouth and Smallmouth bass. 70% of the fish I catch here are Largemouth.

my biggest Largemouth there this year is 5 lbs.

my biggest Smallmouth there this year was 3 lbs.

[Russ E]

On 8/3/2017 at 9:11 AM, SuperVehicle001 said:

Well, now I'm not so confident in my weekend choice lol. I will still do some fishing there because I'm tired of getting skunked at Reed but all these comments bashing Smithville Lake and the current MDC fishing report are putting a wet blanket on my enthusiasm.

i watched MDC shocking fish around the paradise point boat ramp this spring. they brought up an impressive amount of large bass. 

There are Bass in Smithville, but there are also a lot of tournaments there.

I think the Bass get moved around a lot and are hard to find and pattern.

[Bluebasser86]

36 minutes ago, Weedwhacker said:

Here is a report on my home lake.

 I  live 10 minutes from Wyandotte county lake and fish there at least once a week.

this lake gets heavy fishing pressure and if you are there on the weekend you will have to contend with an armada of pontoon boats. I only fish it on week days.

this lake requires a boating and fishing permit. if you do not live in Wyandotte county I believe it costs around $75.00 for a year.

if you get caught there without a permit, it is a 50 dollar fine. the county deputies patrol it constantly.

as my screen name implies I love fishing weeds. this lake has several good weed beds.

it seems to have a decent population of fish over 3 lbs, but they can be tough to catch and seem to stay deeper than in most area lakes.

if you want to beat the banks, there are a ton of 10-14 inch fish in this lake.

talked to a few seasoned Midwest Finesse guys that fish it quite a bit.

they catch a ton of smaller fish, with a couple decent ones nearly every trip.

the lake has Largemouth and Smallmouth bass. 70% of the fish I catch here are Largemouth.

my biggest Largemouth there this year is 5 lbs.

my biggest Smallmouth there this year was 3 lbs.

There used to be a running report on Wyco but once I moved out of the county and stopped fishing it the thread died out. I like fishing the lake, but it's too expensive and an hour drive for me now. I fished it once last year and caught a bunch of fish with the largest being a 19.5" smallmouth. The weeds were just starting to grow when I stopped fishing it regularly. Used to fish the Wednesday night tournaments and did pretty well in those. There are big fish out there, but they're not dumb. My biggest largemouth was 6.5 and my biggest smallmouth was 4.25. 

 

1 hour ago, KCFinesse said:

Fished Douglas on Friday-

Fish were pretty predictable, right off the weed edges in about 10 feet of water. The brush piles weren't as productive as the areas next to good weed growth. I didn't find any size; the fish were pretty cookie cutter between 12 and 15 inches...

 

Fished LaCygne tonight and got my butt kicked. With how slow it was, I spent a bunch of time scouting new water.

Water temps were right about 80.

 

-Jared

Douglas was the Thursday night lake last week. I had a good one right before weigh in that gave us a little over 11 pounds. 

 

I fished Lexington from my yak for a few hours Monday and did fairly well flipping the pads. Fished Hillsdale for a couple hours from the boat and it was terrible. Tried Middle Creek for the first time in over a decade and did much better than the first time I fished it, but that's not saying much since last time I caught 2 all day. I had around 10 fish in 3 hours out there with maybe one over 2 pounds. Fish are healthy looking, just not very big. 

[SuperVehicle001]

9 hours ago, Weedwhacker said:

Here is a report on my home lake.

 I  live 10 minutes from Wyandotte county lake and fish there at least once a week.

this lake gets heavy fishing pressure and if you are there on the weekend you will have to contend with an armada of pontoon boats. I only fish it on week days.

this lake requires a boating and fishing permit. if you do not live in Wyandotte county I believe it costs around $75.00 for a year.

if you get caught there without a permit, it is a 50 dollar fine. the county deputies patrol it constantly.

as my screen name implies I love fishing weeds. this lake has several good weed beds.

it seems to have a decent population of fish over 3 lbs, but they can be tough to catch and seem to stay deeper than in most area lakes.

if you want to beat the banks, there are a ton of 10-14 inch fish in this lake.

talked to a few seasoned Midwest Finesse guys that fish it quite a bit.

they catch a ton of smaller fish, with a couple decent ones nearly every trip.

the lake has Largemouth and Smallmouth bass. 70% of the fish I catch here are Largemouth.

my biggest Largemouth there this year is 5 lbs.

my biggest Smallmouth there this year was 3 lbs.

I'm not far from that lake but I live on the MO side. Think its worth it for me to get a KS permit and a Wyandotte non-resident permit? I'd be bank fishing and possibly kayak fishing.

8 hours ago, Weedwhacker said:

i watched MDC shocking fish around the paradise point boat ramp this spring. they brought up an impressive amount of large bass. 

There are Bass in Smithville, but there are also a lot of tournaments there.

I think the Bass get moved around a lot and are hard to find and pattern.

Latest electrofishing survey says 42% of bass are over 15 inches. https://fishing.mdc.mo.gov/reports/smithville-lake

 

Yet some people say it's not great for bass. Based on what the MDC says about Reed I'd trust people on the forum lol.

[Russ E]

5 hours ago, SuperVehicle001 said:

I'm not far from that lake but I live on the MO side. Think its worth it for me to get a KS permit and a Wyandotte non-resident permit? I'd be bank fishing and possibly kayak fishing.

Latest electrofishing survey says 42% of bass are over 15 inches. https://fishing.mdc.mo.gov/reports/smithville-lake

 

Yet some people say it's not great for bass. Based on what the MDC says about Reed I'd trust people on the forum lol.

 

Wyandotte can be tough from bank. It is best from a boat.  The bigger fish are offshore on the weed edges. It is a pretty good Kayak lake, because it is sheltered and does not get very rough in the wind. I take a Kayak out there once in awhile. if you don"t mind fishing for 10-14 inch bass, it can usually keep you busy, by fishing shallow around the weedy points. It is also loaded with bluegills.

 

Smithville is a strange lake. My best fishing days were in places I would never fish on any other lake.

I don"t catch a huge number of fish there, but 90% of what I catch are over 15 inches long, with an occasional 5 pounder.

the main reason I keep going back is, the challenge of trying to figure out this crazy lake.