For Us KC Area Guys - Fishing Reports

[Busy]

Retro and I hit Perry today. The water was like glass and we had bluebird skies. He landed a few good LMB and a drum; I got skunked and missed a few. Had the day off today & couldn't take not catching a fish so I hit up LV this evening & finally hooked up with one but missed a few others! Not sure why I couldn't connect with them lol.

[joefish]

Fished Perry today, was an awesome day on the lake. Mirror water and bluebired sky. I was after crappie instead of bass. Caught quite a few but couldn't stretch any of them enough to make 10 inches.

Caught a couple nice drum.

[Bluebasser86]

I feel like I was the only one that didn't go fishing today I actually went to the Kansas River at 435 and tossed the throw net to see if the shad were up there yet. Not many shad but I did get a big surprised in the form of a 13" largemouth in my net I caught one about 4lbs out of Mill Creek a mile away from where it runs into the river and have caught a bunch in Mill Creek off Shawnee Mission and Barker but I was really surprised to see one in the main river. I had a bunch of whites and wipers end up in my net though, some nice ones too. Think I might have to take a couple traps or swimbaits down there in the morning and see if any of them will bite before I start my moving marathon.

[AllDay]

Had a real nice day out at Lonestar on Thursday morning.

Nice catches. It's been over 20 years since I've fished Lonestar. I'll put that on my list of to-fish!

[AllDay]

I actually went to the Kansas River at 435 and tossed the throw net

I've never fished the KS River before - looks like it could be interesting. So right there on 435 eh? Are the banks walkable?

[AllDay]

Had the day off today & couldn't take not catching a fish so I hit up LV this evening & finally hooked up with one but missed a few others! Not sure why I couldn't connect with them lol.

Saturday is redemption man, have faith!

[Bluebasser86]

I've never fished the KS River before - looks like it could be interesting. So right there on 435 eh? Are the banks walkable?

You can walk a pretty good portion of the north side of the river. Can't fish the south side because of the railroad tracks. I've considered fishing for bass in Mill Creek where it runs into the river and back into the creek as far as I can get my boat but haven't ever done it. I've caught a few bass fishing for catfish or wipers in there and there is a lot of laydowns and some rocky areas but just haven't ever gotten the nerve to try it. The 4 pounder I caught up there was really healthy looking though and very strong. The one I caught in my net today was directly below the dam in a slack water area where there was a lot of minnows visible.

[Chris S]

Fished Olathe Lake Monday and the Whipers won! Did manage a chunky LMB on a crankbait in about 10 feet of water.

[Bluebasser86]

Well after getting all those whites and wipers in my throw net on the river yesterday I decided to take a break from packing today and see if any of them would bite. They were still there and they were hungry! I caught somewhere around 12-15 of them that all look just like this one.

I caught a few really nice whites to go along with those wipers plus a couple healthy channel cats that ate some cut shad while I was casting for wipers. The high point of the day happened right before I was going to leave. I switched to a 4" Storm swimbait and launched it as far as I could. My retrieve was perfect with the current and my bait swirled around the upcurrent side of a big boulder and into an eddy and bam! Wasn't sure what it was for a long time in the fight. I was fishing a 6' 8" Mojo spinning rod with 12lb Nanofil and a 14lb leader so I was getting a workout in that current! managed to steer her around my catfish lines and out of the current and finally got a hold of it. My pictures didn't really do it justice, hard to get good ones by yourself. She was about 25 inches and 18 inches around. I didn't have a scale but the fish calculator on here puts it at just over 11lbs. I was guessing between 10 and 11 so that's probably pretty close. A really pretty fish and just not something you expect to see out of that dirty river.

[retro basser]

Hit Pleasanton and Miami today. I went to try out the new trolling motor so it's good to go on Saturday, and that's what I ended up doing all day, just riding around. Had one bite the whole day, and broke off on the set. When I pulled up bassresource tonight, the video "Secrets to bass fishing success", came up. I guess I should of watched that before I left today. I have never had a day that bad, it was really frustrating. There was one other boat on Miami, and I didn't see them get anything either, it was like the twilight zone.

That was a rough bluebird day allright. Good thing is the pigs eat in any weather during the fall so your breakoff was probably a monster... you must have done something right...

I'm glad Jeff (Busy) got one up up at leavenworth cause Perry was pretty tough in my opinion..

She was about 25 inches and 18 inches around. I didn't have a scale but the fish calculator on here puts it at just over 11lbs. I was guessing between 10 and 11 so that's probably pretty close. A really pretty fish and just not something you expect to see out of that dirty river.

I'm no moving expert but i think packing wipers in moving boxes is gonna make a stink after a few days...

[Bluebasser86]

That was a rough bluebird day allright. Good thing is the pigs eat in any weather during the fall so your breakoff was probably a monster... you must have done something right...

I'm glad Jeff (Busy) got one up up at leavenworth cause Perry was pretty tough in my opinion..

I'm no moving expert but i think packing wipers in moving boxes is gonna make a stink after a few days...

Yeah the wife probably wouldn't be too happy either. She had her days mixed up so our closing day is actually tomorrow the 18th, she thought the 18th was this Wednesday so I had plenty of time to get stuff packed up. So much time in fact that Chris Schauer and I went back down there today to try it again Unfortunately there was a guy already camped on the spot I was catching them at yesterday with a stringer of white bass. Didn't catch as many as I did yesterday but we still did alright. I caught the biggest wiper of the day on one of my first cast with a swimbait. She slammed it!

Scale said 4.68 but I sure thought she looked bigger.

Chris probably had big fish honors of the day, he had a couple really nice drum on a spoon

[Hi Salenity]

Go Chris!!!

[Bluebasser86]

I don't know if anyone will be interested in this but I thought I'd just throw it out there. Basshunter0731 (Jon) and I will be taking a trip to the White River/Bull Shoals in Arkansas the first week of April (1st-5th). We did this trip last year and had a blast. We fished the river in the morning and evening, throwing jerkbaits for big brown trout (someone caught a 36 pound brown about a month ago I believe) and then fishing Bull for all 3 species of bass, monster stripers and white bass, and some of the thickest walleye I've ever seen. The fishing on the White is very visual, you can see the fish chasing your jerkbait and we watched most of our fish hit the bait, just about as much fun watching them slash and miss it as it was when they connected. Last year at Bull they were killing the A-rig (you can fish the 5 arm in Arkansas) and we caught about everything on it along with some fish on jerkbaits, shakyheads, and jigs. We're camping right below the Bull Shoals dam on the White River, it's about 5 minutes to have the boat on the water at either body of water. It's about $16 a night to camp with electricity so you can put a space heater in your tent or run electric blankets so you don't get cold at night (average lows are in the mid 40's for the area that time of year with average highs in the high 60's) so it should be pretty nice weather. It looks like a very nice camp ground, or there's plenty of lodges around, we're just trying to do it for as cheap as possible. There's some other guys on the forum that fish the White every year and love it. Here's some pics in case you're interested. If anyone is interested in making the trip shoot me a PM or just post on here and I'll answer any questions or try to get any info I can, I don't think you'll be disappointed if you make the trip

[retro basser]

I don't know if anyone will be interested in this but I thought I'd just throw it out there. Basshunter0731 (Jon) and I will be taking a trip to the White River/Bull Shoals in Arkansas the first week of April (1st-5th). We did this trip last year and had a blast. We fished the river in the morning and evening, throwing jerkbaits for big brown trout (someone caught a 36 pound brown about a month ago I believe) and then fishing Bull for all 3 species of bass, monster stripers and white bass, and some of the thickest walleye I've ever seen. The fishing on the White is very visual, you can see the fish chasing your jerkbait and we watched most of our fish hit the bait, just about as much fun watching them slash and miss it as it was when they connected. Last year at Bull they were killing the A-rig (you can fish the 5 arm in Arkansas) and we caught about everything on it along with some fish on jerkbaits, shakyheads, and jigs. We're camping right below the Bull Shoals dam on the White River, it's about 5 minutes to have the boat on the water at either body of water. It's about $16 a night to camp with electricity so you can put a space heater in your tent or run electric blankets so you don't get cold at night (average lows are in the mid 40's for the area that time of year with average highs in the high 60's) so it should be pretty nice weather. It looks like a very nice camp ground, or there's plenty of lodges around, we're just trying to do it for as cheap as possible. There's some other guys on the forum that fish the White every year and love it. Here's some pics in case you're interested. If anyone is interested in making the trip shoot me a PM or just post on here and I'll answer any questions or try to get any info I can, I don't think you'll be disappointed if you make the trip

Looks like a great spot to go. 320 miles isnt as far as I thought it would be but still way to far for my old rig.

Shoot mid 40's are hot if you got a good sleeping bag. Bet it will be a blast!

[retro basser]

Did the atchison run monday eve/ tuesday morning. I wasn't too impressed with Warnock despite pulling a 2 pounder out of a brushpile on my 3rd cast. Wind was coming in brutal and the were mostly just hiding down in the channel by the (damm) dam so i didnt stay long at all and just went to town for some dinner.

Atchison was great again, this was my second time this year, both times I'm the only boat on the lake and caught 20+ bass. Which is pretty much exactly all i ask for I didn't land anything of great size but i know there are in there. I've never seen so many 5lbers jump within feet of my boat. I really regret running with my dock light on pre-dawn because 4 fatties jumped basically 30 feet in every direction surrounding my boat, you could hear from the smack they were landing fat side on purpose just to make noise to warn the others. Maybe i'm over thinking it but i think on these small lakes on a still morning, stealth is just so frigging important.

Anyways it was real good up there I caught fish on jigs, cranks, and once i patterned the jerkbait bite: senkos, flukes, and stickbaits. The only thing i devoted any time to that wasn't working was a spinnerbait, but thats easy to forgive when everything else works

The jerk-jerk-pause pattern was MONEY but i couldn't get any of the fatties to bite it. What do you tie on when a 5-in senko or rogue isnt big enough?

I couldnt get em much bigger than this to bite, 16in on a 5in rogue:

Overachiever of the day, thats only a 3/0 hook, set through both sides of his jaw like you would string up a line of em..

That sweet new cabin that they rent out up there. Think were gonna do an easy family vacation up there in the spring.

[Mr_Scrogg]

Was going to hit a local lake today, but after seeing all the Bronzebacks in the MeetUp thread, I wanna head to Melvern Sunday. Ill be in a orange kayak SO DONT RUN OVER ME!!! Stop by and say hey.

[Hi Salenity]

Was going to hit a local lake today, but after seeing all the Bronzebacks in the MeetUp thread, I wanna head to Melvern Sunday. Ill be in a orange kayak SO DONT RUN OVER ME!!! Stop by and say hey.

I hope its not windy

[Mr_Scrogg]

5 with 8mph gusts is forecasted. But I know to not trust forecasts in KS.

[Bluebasser86]

Looks like a great spot to go. 320 miles isnt as far as I thought it would be but still way to far for my old rig.

Shoot mid 40's are hot if you got a good sleeping bag. Bet it will be a blast!

It actually kind of requires a smaller boat, at least one that doesn't need much water to float. A lot of the White is shallow and a strong, dependable trolling motor is a must a long with a dependable gas motor. Renting a jon boat to float the river then using your normal rig on Bull Shoals would work well or if someone just wanted to go fish the lakes you'd be fine. Last time we took my boat and it worked fine but we were limited to what water we could fish/get to on the river. This time we'll be taking Jon's boat with a jet motor so we should be able to get to a little more of the river. I have no doubt it will be a blast again this time. I'm hoping for a big brown on the river then a nice striper on the lake. I finally got to cross the brown trout off my hit list last time, even caught a nice keeper sized one, but I honestly can't say for sure I've ever caught a striper so they'll be in the cross hairs big time this trip

[Bluebasser86]

Well I wish I would have tried to get ahold of a couple more of you guys to see if anyone wanted to go with me Wednesday but with the wind the way it was supposed to be I decided I didn't want to drag anyone else out in it, should have tried harder. I started the day at Bourban State Lake and spent the last hour at Richmond City Lake. Bourban is a great little lake if you want to just go catch a ton of fish or take some kids fishing because they will hit just about anything. Now they have the road coming in from the west paved until the last mile too so it isn't as rough getting to. I caught 100 at BSL before heading to Richmond and catching 6 more with a much better average size. Had a pretty good mix of largemouth and spots at Bourban on a bunch of different baits, with a squarebill, trap, chatterbait, jig, and shakyhead doing most of the damage. Of all those bass I only caught 1 that was a for sure keeper over 15", thought it might have been my biggest of the year when I first saw her. I pulled one of my chatterbaits through a brushpile at the south end and my line just went slack. She rolled on the top at the hookset and I saw a big white belly, thought I had a catfish at first. When that big head and mouth wallowed on the top she looked huge, I thought she might go 7. Once I got a hold of her I knew I'd over estimated her a bit but at 21.5" and 5.68lbs I can't complain. She was fish number 69 of the day.

She had a 8-10 inch spotted bass sticking out of her throat, made me wish I'd thrown the 6" swimbait I had tied on at her first, oh well, first good fish on one of my new LTB rods and my Lew's reel

One of my bigger spots I caught, fish number 99.

I may have only caught 6 at Richmond but at least I made a couple of them count. Didn't measure or weigh either of them but both very solid fish. I missed the first one 3 times before finally connecting on her.

This one was in the middle of the brushpile in the background and she must have hit my jig and just started swimming laps around one of the limbs because she was all kinds of wrapped up, thankfully I was able to reach her and pull her out.

.

[retro basser]

Heck ya!... nice trip.

Day three of a sustained warm SW wind... I think I like that for fall bassin.

When do you expect the floor to fall out of this thing? With this cold snap i'm thinkin it might slow em down for the year.. I went into late november last year but i'm not sure i'm gonna this season..

[pbrussell]

Yup. It's cold. I'm thinking of heading to melvern again tomorrow with my brother. I'm not really looking forward to freezing. I'm not really looking forward to light winds and clear skies either. It's gonna make things tough. But, at least the sun and lack of wind will provide a little warmth.

[pbrussell]

Well my brother and I whacked em pretty good today at melvern. Bite was crazy at the dam... whodda thunk?

Anyhow, here's some of the better/prettier fish we caught today.

[Mr_Scrogg]

Nice fish.... im planning on going tomorrow, what kind of presentations were working?

[Bluebasser86]

Well my brother and I whacked em pretty good today at melvern. Bite was crazy at the dam... whodda thunk?

Anyhow, here's some of the better/prettier fish we caught today.

That one on the far right is a good looking fish, probably 16.5-17 inches I'd guess.