For Us KC Area Guys - Fishing Reports

[Doc-Drew]

Will do. Still trying to decide between melvern, coffey county (hot water needed), or olathe lake. I'm hoping the warm temps the next couple days will warm the lakes a few degrees.

I'm kind of stuck in a situation like you cbass.  Melvern, Shawnee for trout, La Cygne, or some smaller lake that may be warmer than others.  Any one have any suggestions?

[sizzlefry]

I'm kind of stuck in a situation like you cbass.  Melvern, Shawnee for trout, La Cygne, or some smaller lake that may be warmer than others.  Any one have any suggestions?

usually cant go wrong at Shawnee for trout clayton does well out there. I have been hitting my pond and no bites yet had a huge one follow my jerk bait though.

[Wachati]

I'm interested to see what the temps are at Pleasanton east and west. Lacygne was horrible last week. Probably 50 boats and no one was catching anything. The stacks weren't producing and the water temps were warmer in the river than right by the outlet.

[kanasbassfisher08]

i was wondering the same myself im assuming cold and slow but big p is probably warmer and better chance cus its deeper maybe in a couple weeks maybe the next week or two with the lows coming up will help alot

I'm interested to see what the temps are at Pleasanton east and west. Lacygne was horrible last week. Probably 50 boats and no one was catching anything. The stacks weren't producing and the water temps were warmer in the river than right by the outlet.

[pbrussell]

20-30 mph winds tomorrow. Sheesh... another weekend I can't take out the boat.

Ugh.

[cbass12]

I'm kind of stuck in a situation like you cbass.  Melvern, Shawnee for trout, La Cygne, or some smaller lake that may be warmer than others.  Any one have any suggestions?

 

Didn't make it out today, but took the boat out to Hillsdale last night just to get the motor running. Casted jerkbaits and lipless crankbaits around the dam for a while without any luck. We found water as warm as 51 degrees.

[sizzlefry]

theres a nice bass boat for sale at my neighbors house I don't know how much but I think its a Cajun has 200 hp motor (looks clean) and newer foot controlled trolling motor. its an older boat red and gold with flake but it looks really good and clean trailer looks awesome. I live in Shawnee pm me if your interested and I will give you my address. my commission is 20% lol

[Hi Salenity]

I used to have a 20.5' Cajun with a 200 venom.

I'd be curious to know what they want for it.

[bkohlman]

Here is what is on my lines for tomorrow at McPherson, wish me luck!

 

1.5 KVD Squarebill Sexy Sunfish

Ned Rig Baby Bass

Weightless Zinker Z Peanut Butter & Jelly

War Eagle Sexy Mouse Spinner Bait

Custom Made Black and Blue Chatter Bait

[sizzlefry]

I used to have a 20.5' Cajun with a 200 venom.

I'd be curious to know what they want for it.

not sure theres a number on to call. sounds like the same boat though

[sizzlefry]

the boat has a Yamaha pro v 200 and there asking 5500

[Mr_Scrogg]

Here is what is on my lines for tomorrow at McPherson, wish me luck!

1.5 KVD Squarebill Sexy Sunfish

Ned Rig Baby Bass

Weightless Zinker Z Peanut Butter & Jelly

War Eagle Sexy Mouse Spinner Bait

Custom Made Black and Blue Chatter Bait

Slow roll that spinnerbait around the wood. I picked up 10 this morning on a Booyah

[Bluebasser86]

Glad you guys have been getting out while I've been gone. I hope this post doesn't hurt anyone's feelings   Jon and I just got back from our 5 days of White River/Bull Shoals/Beaver Lake fishing trip and I really have no idea where to start. We left around midnight Sunday night and got to the campsite on the river right as it was getting light out. We tossed up the tent and set up our gear real quick and staggered down to the river to toss a jerkbait at some trout. We both hooked up quickly and loss a couple fish apiece (an extremely common happening while we were trout fishing unfortunately). I finally got one to stick and after we landed it we realized we didn't have the camera so no picture of that one other than on my crappy phone. We went and got the camera and put our waders on and one of my first casts upstream a shallow shoal got popped by my first good brown of the trip.

They started generating so we decided to head to White Hole with the boat. There was fish everywhere and almost every cast we were getting follows, some of them were monsters but just couldn't get any commitment. I caught a couple more and then Jon got his only brown of the trip on a Vision 110.

When the sun got up high they stopped even chasing so we hopped to the lake. Wow the water was clear! We could see rocks in 25' of water and we were getting lots of follows on jerkbaits but very few actually eating. We tried several areas and baits with almost nothing to show for it when I decided to try a bait I'd heard about from another forum from guys who fish the lake a lot, a Keitech Swing Impact. If you don't have any, get some. I was fishing the 4" in electric shad and finally started getting thumped and hooking up with all 3 species of bass. Caught one of the biggest Spots I've ever caught at 3 1/2 pounds.

Of course I caught a big drum I thought was a big walleye  They were smacking the Impact so I picked up an A-rig. First cast I got hit so hard I almost fell off the front deck when I set the hook. One of my bigger smallies of the trip actually got 2 of the baits in it's mouth.

Caught several more on the rig when a fish knocked slack in my line and I caught a 4.5lb largemouth, our biggest from Bull. 

Got really tough from there with only a few more fish caught and very few bites. We went back to the river that night but nothing of any size wanted to play like we thought they would.

[Bluebasser86]

Day 2 we were greeted with cold temps and even colder rain but good water was running the river behind our campsite so we dropped the boat in and started fishing. One of my first fish of the day was a very surprising bass from a little slack water area off the main river. He wasn't built like a river fish at all.

Shortly after that little guy I had a big flash of gold behind my bait. He missed 2 more times before finally connecting and giving me one heck of a fight during which I was sure he'd get back to the log jam he came out of but he never made it. 5.62 pounds and 23.5" long made him my new PB brown, the first of several PB's that would fall this week.

No more browns but Jon did find this gal sitting around the end of the boat ramp. She liked him so much she made the trip home with him

We tried to go back to Bull and hit a different part of the dam area. On the way we spotted a small bait shop we decided to stop and check if they had more Keitechs because I only had a bag and a half left. When we got out of the truck I glanced at the trolling motor, the prop was gone! Even worse, so was the shaft! The prop was in the bottom of the boat with about half the shaft. Somehow it had broke the shaft and landed in the boat as we were driving down the road. Thankfully we had Jon's trolling motor (also a 70lb Maxxum) in the bed of my truck just in case of such and emergency. So we played pit crew with the crappy truck tools I had and switched the motors out in the "intermittent" rains that fell for about 6 hours straight. It was tough with the clear water but we still managed a few on an A-rig and Keitech. We both caught a nice smallie.

I finally managed a couple walleye, the one in my left was my new PB at 4.01 pounds. Both of them ate a Keitech slow rolled along the bottom.

 

[Bluebasser86]

Day 3 started terrible. We couldn't buy a brown on the river, barely a rainbow either. Guides came out of the wood work and we were tired of weaving in between boats so we packed up camp and headed down lake in search of dirtier water. Well we found that and we found shad, but very few fish. I think in 3 hours we caught 3 fish, all solid and healthy but not what we were looking for. The decision was made to pack it in and head to Beaver early so maybe we could find a little something to go off of the next couple days. When we got to the ramp I actually caught a fish my first cast with an A-rig.

Normally a kiss of death but not this time, this time it was just the beginning. We fished around the marina point to where some gulls were diving and just started to wear them out! Spots and largemouth mainly were chowing down on an A-rig and Scatter rap.

While we were enjoying the mayhem I glanced across the lake and saw what looked like boat wakes with shad flying all over. We hurried over and fired casts at the area and Jon hooked up! It was a long and careful fight because he had very light hooks but we managed to get her landed. 14.57 pounds is what his first ever striper and new PB went.

One of my next cast after the Stripers left resulted in the biggest largemouth of the trip at 6.30 pounds and 21.5" long.

 

Birds started diving behind us and I managed to get a striper to eat my Keitech, my first one ever and my new PB by default.

 

And we finished out the day with some super fat white bass.

[Bluebasser86]

Day 4 started off quickly with my first smallmouth at Beaver

and then another 5 pound largemouth knocked slack in my line at the same spot I got the 6.3 the day before. 

It got tough from there though. At one point we'd probably gone 4 hours without a fish. We finally decided to try an area that we'd seen birds diving on earlier but we hadn't caught anything. Glad we did as I got a couple more stripers on an A-rig.

and Jon got a nice smallmouth on a jerkbait.

Jon spotted a red fox on the rocks in a nearby pocket. As we trolled closer we noticed a couple small animals running around near her, she had 3 little kits that came out and played while we watched and I took pictures and even a short video.

We fished a nearby island where we'd seen birds diving by. Didn't get anything at first but as we trolled down the bank I noticed a couple boils behind the boat near the surface. We both fired cast and Jon hooked up with a hard pulling fish on his jerkbait. It was a great fight with the fish burning off drag before I netted her. His hybrid sent the scale to 6.85 pounds and PB number 5 fell.

I finished off the day by catching one of the fattest spots I've ever seen. 

[Bluebasser86]

Day 5 started bad. I lost my A-rig I'd been catching my fish on to a tomato cage? I got it up once but lost my grip and it sank and couldn't get it back but I did catch a nice bucket full of cement with a short piece of 2X4 sticking out with an eye bolt. Hooked to that was about 30 feet of barbed wire, which was hooked to another bucket just like the first. No idea why somebody would put that crap in the lake but it cost me my A-rig   I did get somebody else's A-rig off the wire but it wasn't nearly as nice as the one I was throwing. We ran to the same area we'd caught a couple stripers and Jon got his wiper the day before. The striper guide boats packed in close made it pretty obvious something was going on. We started slow but once we got to the island I caught a couple smaller stripers and missed a couple more quickly. I was marking a ton of fish on the bottom so I fired a long cast and let it sink to the bottom. Not long after I started my retrieve it got hammered and I set into a very heavy fish that was giving me some huge head shakes. Suddenly my line went limp, I thought I'd lost it but as I cranked I started to feel weight again. I couldn't believe how fast that fish changed directions and came at the boat but it did and the fight continued. I was amazed at the combination of speed and power in the big fish and the adrenaline really started going when I got my first glimpse of her, she looked huge! I was worried because I was using pretty light jigheads and I could see at least one was already straightened out so I backed off and went easy on her and when the time felt right I eased her into the net  . I had the shakes pretty bad but she registered 20.01 pounds and was 34" long.

We fished around the island some more and caught a couple more small stripers when they did what they do and disappeared. When we doubled back for a second pass Jon's rig got slammed by the boat and a fish scorched off some drag and hunkered down on the bottom. We both were sure it was another striper until we saw flashes of brown. Turned out to be a beautiful smallmouth that was 19.5" long and 4.51 pounds, Jon's new PB smallmouth.

We hit a couple more spots with little to show for it before we had to pack it in to hit the road home. We fished hard and had to work for the fish we caught this week but the quality more than made up for the occasional lack of activity. The only bad part about this week was I think we're both now hooked on striper fishing which is unfortunate since we have no lakes close by with stripers in them! If you've never been to any of these bodies of water I highly suggest you make the trip. 

[Quillback]

Great trip, thanks for the report and the pics!  You thinking about moving to Arkansas?

[Bluebasser86]

Great trip, thanks for the report and the pics!  You thinking about moving to Arkansas?

Seriously thinking about retiring down there if retiring is such a thing by the time I'm ready to retire. I love the variety of the fish species and lakes. Plus it's a beautiful area around those lakes. 

[Quillback]

Yep it's a great area, lots of water within a hour or so, Beaver, Grand, Table Rock, and some smaller lakes.  I live in Bella Vista, which is a town you should check out when you get to that point in life.  We've got some community lakes that have some good bass populations, they get a lot of pressure but keep kicking out the bass.  If you're down here again and have some time, let me know and  we can get out and fish one of the community lakes.

[Fishes in trees]

Finally got out Friday, April 5.  Went to Indian Creek, north and west of Chillicothe.  A cool day, and a little breezy, didn't matter, first trip of the year.   Water was up several feet from the last time I was there (Nov. 2012) closer to "normal pool".  Water temps varied from 49 to 51 degrees.  40 or 50 minutes into the trip I caught a keeper off the dam on a shad rap and a couple of casts later shook off another short fish.

 

I already know how to catch fish off of a dam on crank baits, so I went looking on other parts of the lake.  No luck.  Looked around several  groups of trees, some ledges,  open water humps, shallow flats, beaver dams etc.  Couldn't get bit.  In the end it didn't matter, I got to go fishing, ended up spending quite a bit of time driving around and looking at stuff with my depth finder.

 

I did get to play with some new and repurposed gear and that worked great, for the most part.

New Fenwick Aetos 7'4" MH rod is a great square bill rod.  Wind up and heave, I get a little farther than I was getting before, more amazing is that standard length casts require much less effort than last year.  Overall a great purchase.

I had a Falcon Lowrider Eakins Jig Special rod that I never could find a good use for.  It just didn't handle 14 lb. fluorocarbon that well.  Anyway, it seems to like 10 lb fluorocarbon.  Paired with a new Shimano 50 E this seems like it will be a great finesse jig combo.

 

Over the winter, Cabelas had a US Reel Hibdon 800 SX on sale for $40.  Slightly over a year ago these reels were "on sale" for $150 and then they were "on sale" for $120.   I put some l7 lb mono on it and I mounted it on one of my spinner bait rods and threw half ounce spinnerbaits with it.  The jury is still out on this reel.  It is difficult to adjust.  Different baits seemed to make a difference, the more wind resistant spinnerbaits, the harder it was to adjust.  A heavy compact War Eagle was somewhat easier to cast.  The reel seems "touchy", you'd make one great cast,, then have an over run.  Backlashes happen frequently.  The design of the reel makes backlashes easy to untangle, never took me more than a minute to untangle it and some of them went pretty deep.   I thought I had found a bargain, but comparing it to my standard spinner bait reel (Calcutta 200 TEGT) it compared unfavorably.   Yes, I know I am comparing a $40 reel to a $ 250+ reel, but I was hoping I had found a "bargain"  I am going to fish with it a few more times before a final decision is reached, but I might have another catfish reel here.  Anyway, it was good to finally get out on the water, maybe next time I will catch some fish rather than turning the day into an equipment testing session.

[bkohlman]

Great time at McPherson!

 

Caught this new PB on a custom made Chatterbait Black/Blue

 

20.5" Chunk!

5lb 5 oz

 

[Bluebasser86]

Great time at McPherson!

 

Caught this new PB on a custom made Chatterbait Black/Blue

 

20.5" Chunk!

5lb 5 oz

 

Very good looking fish! Where'd you get that custom built chatterbait? 

[Mr_Scrogg]

Good looking fish, pull her off some brush?

[bkohlman]

Very good looking fish! Where'd you get that custom built chatterbait? 

That would be your chatterbait with some Megastrike scent!

 

 

Good looking fish, pull her off some brush?

Pulled her from some reeds on the opposite shore from the fishing piers.