powerplant fishing

[Bluebasser86]

Went to one of the local powerplant lakes today. Fish were biting pretty good but mostly small fish. I got one of my biggest ones on a texas rigged zoom magnum finesse worm.

My buddy wasn't getting quite the numbers but he did get big bass of the day on an X-rap

and big fish of the day, a 7.29lb wiper that ate an Excalibur XR50 rattlebait,

All and all it was a pretty good day.

[Grey Wolf]

A pretty good day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Helluva_Engineer]

Nice, which lake was this?

[bassinbob54]

Hey i also fish a power plant lake here in NC and find it to be awesome all winter. Theres a warm water discharge thats called the hothole where all kinds of fish are found  but i usually catch more bass down from the warmest water to the 50 degree range. I'd be curious to know if you noticed water temps where you were catching fish?...Thanks Bob

[Bluebasser86]

Engineer-this was at La Cygne lake in Linn County, KS about 45 minutes south of Kansas City. This Lake and Wolf Creek are both powerplant lakes but I prefer La Cygne because it's about 30 minutes closer and on Wolf Creek if the wind gets higher than 20mph they page you off the lake and you have to wear a lifejacket the entire time you're on the water. La Cygne also produces bass up to and somtimes surpassing 10lbs, something that is very rare in Kansas.

BassinBob-Normally the water temps range from low 60's at the outlet (what we call the hothole) to the mid 40's at the ends of the lake. There is a river that runs into the lake that freezes up most of the time but sometimes you can catch fish up to the edge of the ice. They haven't been generating nearly as much lately so the water temps were down quite a bit. Almost all the fish we caught came in water temps between 55 at the outlet to below 45 at the rock banks we were catching lots of our fish off of.

[KU_Bassmaster.]

What do you do with you boat when you fish this time of year?

Do you have heated storage?

[Bluebasser86]

My boat sits outside year round, I try to blow the water lines out as good as possible and let it drain out really good before heading home. Mainly my boat is a 16' aluminum semi V jon boat so I'm not really worried about hurting it!  ;D

[paul.]

great hybrid!  wish there was more of those where i'm fishing!  those things pull like trucks.  way to smack 'em around.

[Bluebasser86]

They are a blast to catch. My friend had never caught one but he has been with me when I've caught several so he was pretty excited. On a medium crankbait rod and 10lb test they are a real challenge!

[JamesH]

Very cool man, the temps have been above freezing here for the past few days so I am going to try to go to a power plant lake tomorrow. I hope to have some luck. That lake supposedly has some heavy bass and saugeye.

[Bluebasser86]

Went to a different powerplant lake today, Wolf Creek in Coffey County, Kansas. High temp was supposed to be in the low 40's, truck said 22 when we got to the lake with a light wind. It was awfully cold first thing but we motored across to the outlet and started fishing. It was my friends birthday and he made his first cast of 2011 with a spinnerbait on his new baitcasting combo and caught a fat whitebass. I told him that was the kiss of death but he managed to be one of the only people I've ever seen catch more fish after catching one on his first cast  ;D. Caught a few more whites real quick then I got my first largemouth of 2011,

like I said, it was cold. A few cast later I got a nice fat little bass.

At the end of the bank right at the cables that keep you from getting to close to the outlet I caught this little porker on a spinnerbait.

We fan casted some flats catching several nice whites when my buddy got his first bass of the year on a rattletrap.

We moved back to the bank that we were catching our bass on and my friend was slow rolling a spinnerbait and I heard him grunt and turned around and saw his rod bowed. I thought he had a nice bass or a big wiper as he fought it for a couple minutes before this finally came up.

Finally tally was 17 whites, 14 largemouth, and 1 slimer. Pretty good start to the year  8-).

[KU_Bassmaster.]

Not bad for January in Kansas.

[Texasfishingtips]

Which skeet reese rod is that in the second picture?

Clancy W

[Bluebasser86]

Wow, good eye, I had to go back and look just to see where you saw it at . It's a 7ft crankbait rod, I really like it so far. I've had it about a year and it feels really good, casts all sizes of baits and fights fish really well.

[Texasfishingtips]

Haha well yellow really stands out Im looking at buying the cranking stick and one of the flipping rods but couldnt decide on which. I like the 7' one because I think the 7' 10" is just to big.

Clancy W

[Bluebasser86]

I agree with you there. If you fish at all in standing timber like I do sometimes that big rod would just be too long to try to fish in and around the trees. Even in open water it just seems way longer than anything I would need it for.

[Bluebasser86]

Well I got out on Monday with a friend to try one of the powerplant lakes. Pulled up to the first spot, a flat point with the wind coming across it and birds diving all over. My friends first cast he doubled on white bass.

We caught over 20 fish off that point on rattlebaits and swimbaits before we stopped counting, largemouth and whites. The wind slowed down so we jumped across to some riprap and started smacking the largemouth on spinnerbaits. Nothing huge, my biggest was this one at 3 1/2 pounds.

Caught a few big crappies later, up to 13 1/2 inches but no pictures of them. I lost a 3 1/2-4 pound smallmouth on a scrounger head and bass magic swimbait  :'(. She was coming straight at the boat and I just couldn't keep up with her when she jumped and threw my bait back at me. Never did feel as warm as it was supposed to be but we were catching fish so I'm not complaining  ;D.

[bassfisherjk]

Congrat's.