For Us KC Area Guys - Fishing Reports

[Lincoln]

3 hours ago, Russ E said:

Does anyone know if Shawnee lake is open. I heard it temporarily closed to let the trout Acclimate

It opened up yesterday. I let a friend of mine from work talk me into going out there yesterday and it was tough to find water that didn’t have people on it. We wound up catching a few smaller largemouths and nice white bass. In addition to losing a nice smallie at the boat. Most of the trout seemed to be way in the back of the coves still and we limited out on those in no time

[Russ E]

3 hours ago, Lincoln said:

It opened up yesterday. I let a friend of mine from work talk me into going out there yesterday and it was tough to find water that didn’t have people on it. We wound up catching a few smaller largemouths and nice white bass. In addition to losing a nice smallie at the boat. Most of the trout seemed to be way in the back of the coves still and we limited out on those in no time

thanks. 

I don't care for trout.

I am hoping to hook into a big smallmouth.

[Lincoln]

The one I lost was the only one I saw and it came from the main lake point of the south boat ramp cove on a small jerkbait

[Russ E]

31 minutes ago, Lincoln said:

The one I lost was the only one I saw and it came from the main lake point of the south boat ramp cove on a small jerkbait

got a couple new Duo Realis rozante 77sp jerkbaits, they did well on largemouth last week at Wyandotte.

 they have an awesome action for a small jerkbait. hoping to entice a couple smallies at Shawnee this week with them.

[Lincoln]

I’ll have to check those out 

[Russ E]

7 minutes ago, Lincoln said:

I’ll have to check those out 

@Bluebasser86 mentioned here he was using them. I found some on e-bay, they are not cheap but pretty nice baits.

I have always used smaller husky jerks, but they are hard to cast far, with a baitcaster.

the rozantes are heavier and cast a lot easier.

[Lincoln]

I’ve mostly used shadow raps and I have a few lucky crafts that I really like, but I’m always willing to look into another new bait lol 

[Bluebasser86]

The Rozante has a tungsten weight transfer ball that makes them cast like a bullet for a little bait, makes a very distinct "click" noise every cast you make. I actually fish them on a spinning rod with 8lb test but they'll fish on casting gear just fine too. Very similar size to the LC Pointer 78, but they cast way better, similar in price too, big difference is they come with super sticky hooks while the LC comes with mediocre hooks imo. 

[Russ E]

Just a heads up for anyone planning to fish Wyandotte this weekend.

I was out there today for about 4 hours. All I caught was 5 small bass and a crappie on a ned rig. They were all in less than 2 foot of water.

water is very dirty with floating debris everywhere. Looks like turnover just happened. 

surface temp was 54 degrees at 11:00 am.

 

Ned Kahde indicated the same thing yesterday on the finesse news network. From his description of the lake, I assume this is where he was fishing.

[doughboy1979]

Going to La Cygne this Sunday.  Are they discharging the water from the plant?? I thought I heard somewhere not long ago that the plant was shutdown for repairs/maintenance and therefore no water was being discharged from the plant.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!! 

[Bluebasser86]

1 hour ago, doughboy1979 said:

Going to La Cygne this Sunday.  Are they discharging the water from the plant?? I thought I heard somewhere not long ago that the plant was shutdown for repairs/maintenance and therefore no water was being discharged from the plant.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!! 

Yes they are.  Anytime you are wondering, I can see the stack from my house to tell if they're generating or not. I went there today, lots of whites and wipers, and a few bass including a 5 pounder. 

[doughboy1979]

3 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Yes they are.  Anytime you are wondering, I can see the stack from my house to tell if they're generating or not. I went there today, lots of whites and wipers, and a few bass including a 5 pounder. 

Awesome, thank you Bluebasser86!!! Nice to hear you catching the whites/wipes.  We are going Sunday to just try and catch anything we can, lol....

[Bluebasser86]

Fished La Cygne both my days off this week. A guy could catch more white bass and (small) wipers than really necessary at the outlet right now. I quit after conservatively catching 40 Thursday to go in search of bass. Not many to be found, but the first bite was pretty much the bite I hope to get each time I go out there, 5.07 on a shakyhead, first big one on my Speed Demon shakyhead combo and it handled her like a champ. Got some great video of the fight, she was in a laydown when I set the hook and had to wrestle her out with 8lb test, then she went nuts when I got her out of the tree. Only about 5 bass total and only missed 1 other for sure bite.

This is about as big of wiper as I caught either day, most are in the 18" range. Fun for awhile, but I get board catching them that size pretty quickly. 

Friday the water temps dropped 3-4 degrees overnight from the snow. The striped fish didn't care, green fish were even tougher. Lost a 3 pounder at the boat, broke off what felt like a heavy fish a few cast later, missed the next bite, had a little one shake off, then finally landed one. 

 

Probably not relevant anymore but Olathe was good last Tuesday. Had 2 solid keepers (over 18"), and a bunch of other fat, healthy fish. I was after wipers and didn't bring much bass gear, but I found a DT6 in a tree and tied it on MH Lightning Rod Shock with 15lb Pline that I was using for a jigging spoon and caught a bunch of fish on it. Cut the swimbait off my swimbait rod and tied on the only spinnerbait I had in the boat and although it was a bit clunky, I only missed 1 bite on it and certainly wasn't worried about getting broke off or being underpowered. Water was too warm for wipers to be in their usual winter spots, plus it was pretty dirty still. 

[Bluebasser86]

Video from Thursday at La Cygne

 

[Russ E]

19 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Video from Thursday at La Cygne

 

Nice bass. Also some nice wipers.

I was going to fish it Friday, but did not feel like dragging the boat down there through the snow. Hopefully this friday.

I would imagine the water temp will be pretty cold by then.

[doughboy1979]

Dang, good job Bluebasser86!! We went to La Cygne on Sunday for LM bass and me and my buddy got skunked, not even 1 bite in 5 hours!!!! Tried just about every type of bait we had, nothing.  Should of tried the outlet, but didn't as there were about 5-6 boats hanging out by there.  I gotta try on more time before I call it quits for winter as I refuse to end the season getting skunked!!!

 

[Drew03cmc]

@JBurn244 hit me up about Reed. I live 20 minutes SW of there and, while it's not my favorite, it produces. 

 

 

[doughboy1979]

Anybody have advice on installing a new fishfinder?? I just bought the Garmin Echomap Plus 93sv along with the Garmin Ultra High Def sonar with transducer.  This will be my first fishfinder to install.  

 

Do most of you have your transducers installed on the transom or on the trolling motor??  I think since I fish shallow a lot I want the transducer on the transom in order to save the transducer from getting beat up.  

But 

 

FYI, my boat is a 98/99 Nitro Savage 884, 18ft with a Merc 150.  I have three batteries hooked up now on this. 

I have two OLD, VERY OLD Eagle finders on there now, but one doesn't work and the other one works "okay-ish".  

 

Anybody want to make a few bucks, or a case of beer/liquor, and come help??? Could make it a nice weekend day of hanging out and talking fish and everything else.  My buddy who lives right behind me would help out as well and can talk up a storm on anything, lol!! Had to ask, LOL....

 

[Bluebasser86]

4 hours ago, doughboy1979 said:

Anybody have advice on installing a new fishfinder?? I just bought the Garmin Echomap Plus 93sv along with the Garmin Ultra High Def sonar with transducer.  This will be my first fishfinder to install.  

 

Do most of you have your transducers installed on the transom or on the trolling motor??  I think since I fish shallow a lot I want the transducer on the transom in order to save the transducer from getting beat up.  

But 

 

FYI, my boat is a 98/99 Nitro Savage 884, 18ft with a Merc 150.  I have three batteries hooked up now on this. 

I have two OLD, VERY OLD Eagle finders on there now, but one doesn't work and the other one works "okay-ish".  

 

Anybody want to make a few bucks, or a case of beer/liquor, and come help??? Could make it a nice weekend day of hanging out and talking fish and everything else.  My buddy who lives right behind me would help out as well and can talk up a storm on anything, lol!! Had to ask, LOL....

 

Do you have a jack plate? I mounted mine right on my jackplate, that's what was recommended by Garmin when I bought it. 

[doughboy1979]

Just now, Bluebasser86 said:

Do you have a jack plate? I mounted mine right on my jackplate, that's what was recommended by Garmin when I bought it. 

I do not have a jackplate. 

[Sprocket]

Where do you spend most  of your time?  In the driver's seat or on the front deck?  I would put it where you would use it the most.

 

SE Kansas grass grower

[doughboy1979]

17 hours ago, Sprocket said:

Where do you spend most  of your time?  In the driver's seat or on the front deck?  I would put it where you would use it the most.

 

SE Kansas grass grower

Good point Sprocket.  I will have to think about that as for now I really don't use any of the finders on my boat since they don't really work. 

[FishinKansan81]

I just purchased and installed two of those 93's. You'll like them! They're extremely nice. Bluebasser is 100% spot on. If you have a jack plate it needs to be on the jack plate or a skid/hole shot plate below it. Mine tossed some mechanical interference from the original mounting location due to my plate. Learning experience... Without a jack plate, you should be good with the standard mounting location in the instructions I would imagine if you choose the transom.

 

There are benefits from both locations. The console is pretty sweet if you idle and use imaging a lot to scan things. Also, if I'm learning unfamiliar water I'll use the imaging while idling to figure out where it's safe to run and where it isn't. Hillsdale, Smithville etc... have a lot of timber I'd prefer to not slam into  . That being said, I'm on my 93 up front quite a bit watching it for depth changes, scanning etc... Tough choice with one unit.

 

Best of luck with the decision on mounting location. If you have any questions on the install, kick me a private message and I'll do my best.

[Lincoln]

I made it out to Lake Shawnee for just a few hours with very little to show for it. Two drum from a shakey head, 1 tiny jerkbait bass. And a lucky craft jerkbait that is missing a hook after something straightened out a split ring. The odd thing is I only had 10 lb test on and the drag wasn’t very tight at all. Are the ones that come on a lucky craft not very good? 

[Bluebasser86]

The bass were really grouped up Friday at Shawnee when we were there, as were the white bass and wipers (finally caught some wipers from that lake even though they were the same size as the white bass). We'd go a long time with no bites, then catch 10 off the same spot. Had a pretty solid pattern figured out by the end of the day. Only saw 1 smallmouth all day, my buddy had it on a Ned rig, probably 2 pounds, but his line when he lifted it into the boat and it flopped right back in. I may go back this Friday, undecided yet.