retro basser

Looks like not a bad summer at all! Kid's gonna be a natural...

Chris was replying to me, I know he catches em about every single trip out at Hillsdale. Thanks to all of you for giving me some ideas though. I guess it was just switching down to that light rig that let me catch one. I tell ya, if i had to do this to put food on the table I'd go for whites instead of competing with all the other crappie fisherman out there. Sounds like there is a hair more sport to it too. Let's hope this weather keeps giving us chances... good luck

By the way... You guys think that a white bass or a wiper? I guess I never really knew there was a difference.

I hit Perry today just because the weather was nice and it turns out I had one of the most fun days of fishing I've had all year... I only caught three, all bass, but they were all over 13'' I probably wouldn’t have stuck with the rattletrap as long as I did if Blue hadn't recommended it out there. I was fishing a blood red Yo-zuri for about 30 minutes around the slough creek rip-rap with no bites. But instead of going to the spinnerbait or something else I changed over to a shad color and picked up two nice largemouths almost back to back right under the bridge... one 15'' (which is a helluva fish for me at this point) and a 13''. Here's the first, bigger one, I thought I caught a snag at first so I was pretty suprised that it was this nice of bass.. I stayed there a bit longer but a guy wanted to fish for crappie from the bank so I went exploring up the lake... I picked up this wiper on a little blue-chartreuse spinner (1/4 oz) i think on a secondary point up a cove... I caught it on only 6lb test line with no trouble. Biggest one I’ve ever caught. What's the best thing to troll for these for? A little spoon or rooster-tail or something?

Well I FINALLY got down to ol' Lyon Co lake after about two solid weeks of trying to find a pair of days that weren't windy, wet, cold, or all three...I shot down Thursday night and got rewarded with having the whole lake to myself and lemme tell you, camping out in freezing weather really aint so bad if you happen to find a night with only 2 mph wind The lake was pretty darn nice. Now that I've been to a few of these 'County State' lakes let's just say I accept that dealing with one or two 'less than ideal' conditions are part of the deal. Not this one...It really has it's **** together as far as KS lakes go... Even better, it's clearly designed with Bass fishing in mind. Frankly, I wouldn't pick this lake to go catfishing off the shore because there really are only a couple of piers in good spots next to channel bends. Also they have a no booze policy so maybe it keeps a few of the 'lets get drunk all night and leave a bunch of trash the next day' crowd away. Here are some bassy things about this lake: - The lake had great structure: relatively deep water all the way up in the channels, lots of sharp drops, and 30+ ft depth by the dam, submerged humps if you can find em... - Cover EVERYWHERE. They have these impressive rip-rap islands, fishable laydowns everywhere, submerged trees, some deep water plants and some serious shoreline vegetation species that I've never even seen before, which might get tough in the summer but was very fishable now. More importantly these plants have taken so well you can see there is just SO much room for the youngin's to grow. - Finally clearer water than I've seen in many KS lakes and good boat lanes too. The ONLY bummer was the lake was down about two feet, so you could see plenty of exposed hidin-holes you would love to drop a lure in front of if only it was underwater...It really limited where you could practically do shoreline fishing. I noticed the bulk of the fish were holding closer to channels and underwater cover 20 feet off the shoreline. I'm not very good at fishing those scenarios, so I stuck with the white spinner and a crank for the most part, kept exploring and took what I could get.. I got to be on the water from about 2-5 on Thurs and 8-12 on Friday and managed to pick off 5 that evening and 4 the next morning. Secondary points up the creek in the evening and actually moved a little deeper to the mouth of the coves in the morning which was interesting. They were all over 10'' in fact most were exactly at 13'' strong, healthy bass, real fun to catch. They were eating the bait on the drop in the evening but in the morning you had to wait longer, slow roll it along the bottom and let them leisurely run it down.. Wish I woulda figured that out sooner I probably coulda caught more: I know I missed plenty of targets and quite a few strikes actually, but hey this is my first year with a boat and really learning how this works so don't let my numbers fool ya. This lake is for real. This is the best one I caught I think: a 'non-keeper' at 14'' If you can't tell, I can't wait to get back in the spring and spend a couple more days down there, maybe i'll check out melvern as well..

SOLD!! I can't freeking wait now. It's only about 80 miles away from here, and all slow-poke backroads that the Rig Digs... I'll keep myself modest and shoot for 50 .. hehe Thanks.

I almost pulled the trigger on another overnighter Monday, this time to Lyon Co lake east of Melvern, but the forcast convinced me to save it for another day.... Anyone ever get out that far? Looks like they take their bass pretty seriously. I'll probably go next Monday night... maybe nose around Melvern a little bit too. It looks like cove paradise, as far as KS is concerned. Instead on Monday I took a buddy out to DG CO who ususally is content to drink beer and fish a worm on a bobber...i gave him a setup and he finally caught some dinker bass... Let's just say i think the lightbulb finally came on...

Finally got back down to Douglas County St Lake on Thursday morning, cool, cloudy, water temp was 58. I actually drove my old toyota 22-RE across the entire thing when they had it drained 6 or so years ago, but this is the first time I've been able to put a boat on it.... As you know you're not going to catch anything worth bragging about but the lake is a pleasure to fish. What can I say it's just darn nice for KS bass fishing... out of the 13 I caught during 10-2pm being out there there were 3 that were exactly 10'' If you guys ever get out that way make sure you talk up conservation because this thing could be a real beauty in a couple years... Oh also they were staging in the front quarter of the main cove so it looks like they were headin up the lake soon enough..

Wow, if that wiper hit it 3 times that fast he must have just been in there destroying shad. Awesome fish. Well, I got the rig fixed up and in good towing condition and decided to test it out with a little overnighter to somewhere farther than normal. So, Monday afternoon I decided to try out one of the highest bass density lakes in Kansas I've always been curious about, and made the 82 mile trip up to Brown County State Lake east of Hiawatha. I got on the water about 3PM monday, drove around and pinged the whole lake because it was that small, which was nice, but it was also really shallow, which wasnt so great for having a boat on it. The water was still 62 up there, mind you this is the higher country near Nebraska and the VAST majority of the bass population were still in the deepest part of the lake (14ft..) by the west of the dam. There is a nice piece of structure there about 50ft out from the spillway, pulled a couple dinkers off of it with a crank, then right behind it in the same corner I nabbed four out of this stretch of submerged trees, i'm getting excited at this point cause it's like 6 fish in 20 minutes and I just got started...It's feelin pretty bassy let me tell ya! Then I started to fish the rest of the lake.... I'll keep this part short but I'll just say that they have the rip-rap piers all over up there but the lake is so old sedimentation has all but filled in the water between piers. Most of that lake area between piers is 2-3 feet of water if your lucky.. With the wind coming in out of the south like it was driving me into shallows / piers and I had like 1 cast that can reach shorline cover before my boat was going to hit bottom or rock. It was rough going and the wind had just started apparently because Tuesday's wind was absolutley insane. So I somewhat fished the whole west side of the lake, using anchor alot. I might have screwed up on a couple pieces of cover cause i was getting so ticked at the wind, but I did well on alot of them. No fish. No bites, nothing. I was kind of shocked because I thought I had the spinnerbait going after that start. Here is my theory: I really think most of the bass population was holding in that one section of lake. That population was nice enough, but really when you talk about a day of fishing you want more options than one section. I'm going to be careful reading into the density from KDWP on really shallow lakes next time. A shallow lake compared to a deep one of the same size has less water, so I think it's easier to get a higher 'density' of fish with less water... I dunno just the things you think about. So anyway, it's a nice enough little lake with actual bass. Great for someone fishing from shoreline or in a bass buddy for a couple hours. Good camping options, right by a highway, but not a place you can really work for more than a half day in my opinion. By far the best part of the trip was being lucky enough to be out camping when the Northern Lights happened. That was the first time I've seen it in my life. That was some amazing stuff right there...

Boy I hope you're right about them getting moving for winter. I just got my truck tip-top for some fall fishing trips... By the way everyone: Cajun 100% floro is in the cabelas bargain cave right now dirty cheap...

Hey Blue, thanks for the info! That make sense at Perry, to use wide-area, fast, loud baits around the rocks. It's actually my first attempt at big-water bassin and I gotta say the biggest difference is that using the big motor is mandatory if you want to fish alot of quality spots. Fortunatly the '76 has quit blowing every fuel line I install (and I dont rev her much over 4k anymore) Anyway, thanks for the good tips, I'll head down-water next time... Which leads me to what I got on here to post... I'm stoked to report that after that devastating trip to Perry, getting kicked around by the 30/mph whitecaps all day I went out early, for once, to a smaller lake and fished the 30/mph, easy, Lonestar whitecaps... The day turned out awesome... I finally got I disagree up before dawn and got on the water from 7AM - 3PM. My gameplan was just to hit alot of lake.. the points with crankbaits ... shallow cover with my favorite 3in grub spinner, and not waste time changing multiple lures, or do as much driving across lake tying up to hopefully find prime structure, exploring I guess.. Anyway, I stuck to two main searchbaits, kept driving simple, and really just focused on the craft better... feeling the structure and bait, trying to put myself where my bait wanted to go... instead of where I was trying (for fun) to apply lures in their not-so-best way... The bass were still very deep on this lake too, 14-20 ft. off of main lake points mostly. Staged more on the west side. I caught bass consistently all day, usually 2 per hour, got to cover the whole lake... AND...for the first time ever... I caught more bass off of crankbaits than the grub.. It was fun...just a deep water, multiple fish day... The crank is just a little deep-diver storm flash that I got off of the close-out bin. Wish I woulda used it sooner! The other ironic thing is that the best place to catch a keeper bass would have been the point left of the west boat dock. The vast weight of the lake was staged outside of there and I nabbed four just pulling in to load the boat. It was just a big day of learning out there because focusing on paying attention really paid off.. Good time. My only regret was not being able to fish the point west of the bait shop and beach is the deepest short drop on the lake and there were a couple of lunkers staged about 16 deep by it...Unfortunatly, working the point was impossible because the wind was STRONG directly into the point, and the main lake I was trying to anchor in was hit 32 ft deep...with about that much rope... GODDAMM there were some BIG BASS there though... and on only one, huge piece of structure, this short, violent, point. They weren't going anywhere, just looking for something convincing... Wish I had a GPS lock trolling motor or like 100 feet of anchor rope. Anyway...FAITH IN BASSIN' RESTORED!! Matt

I went to Perry yesterday from 2:30 till sundown and fished almost every cove & point on the west arm of slough creek north of ferguson road. Hit alot of isolated stumps and some rip-rap too. Water temp was in the upper 60's, but sonar was showing way more fish in 12-20 ft of water than i saw when i got up the lake in the 5-10 depths. I was kind of imagining those were more crappie and stripers but since i didnt catch anything I'm kind of wondering if I was too far up... I was going for it: Trying to cover lots of ground with reaction baits. 3/8 red-white spinner, several cranks, mostly shad imitaors, pb&j jig around laydowns. topwaters in the coves after 6. I got one swipe on the spinnerbait all day. I wish i would have jigged a spoon more, that was in the gameplan too. The reaction bite was non-existint. It was frustrating. I thought about trying more subtle colors. I also noticed there are just so many shad on that lake every time i've been there I cant imagine a bass worring about eating anything else. Maybe I need to be there for the morning bite. I also noticed the majority of pelicans were wayyy up there, like shallower than 5 feet mid-channel... so maybe that's where all the bass n shad went. The problem with big-water is there are so many places the fish aren't.

Wow! Nice trip, way to fight through the engine B.S. and get back to business. Those spots sure do look healthy down there at Table Rock. Nice.

Hey Chris, thanks for the info! That biffle head looks pretty useful. Never seen one of those before. I think the moral of the story is that i'm rigging more for a midwater/grass target and might be better off just working the bottom. I'll drag and hop jigs and sometimes do a shakeyhead for that but spend more time on the texas rig because it's a little more fun to fish. When it does hit bottom it just lays there though, which is probably not as good. Hopefully i'll get another shot at it by the weekend. Be well!

Night bassin in fall eh? Neat! I wished 10AM-2PM worked that well. I need to get out once this week and make it count. I've been building my kid a treehouse in my spare time but I think i'm getting ahead of schedule enough to goof off a day. Question for ya: I'm texas rigging my texas style on a 3/0 straight worm hook with a swivel and very small needle weight 18in up on 8lb Pline floro hybrid line. I'm not catching ****. I'm using senkos, worms, lizards and brush hogs, even craws occasionaly. It seems like you always get good fish on plastics... I understand if it's too much of a trade secret to ask, but what could I be doing wrong? I always wonder if i'm fishing the wrong structure or letting it splash too much. When you see fish in the area on sonar but cant catch them it's frustrating as hell. It seems the only time I catch bass on plastics is when i'm running carolina style but it's a little slow for my tastes.

Skunked: I do wash my boat after I get back from Perry. Probably should do it for all lakes these days. By the way, a ranger out at Perry told me if it's warm and dry out the zebra mussels die in about 4 days: they need to stay wet to live any longer.

I just got my truck fixed up from the tree that fell on it last big storm so i went out both Friday and Saturday this weekend. At Perry alot of guys were fishing the Slough Creek bridge riprap. I did a little exploring elsewhere around there. I really like that drop in, there are alot of options right around there. Caught a striper and 3 largemouths at various places. I still need to go down to the marina and try but i'm learning a couple of spots around there. On Saturday I took my daughter up to leavenworth so she could catch one. She officially caught her first fish all by herself. That little pink reel takes up so little line on each turn that it actually took her awhile to 'land' that monster, which was great cause she was flipping out the whole time bringing it in. In other news we got caught in a rain squall with her new guinea pig on board. Apparently just a hint of hypothermia is great for killing those things... he got out safe fortunatley. Good trip.

You guys are pretty quiet...hope a little heat with a 30% chance of death isn't keeping you off the lake. I mixed up the strategy some and went out from 7PM - 2 last night. I gotta tell you it felt really good to log some serious hours on the water again. It's amazing how many advantages come with that little time shift over fishing 5-sundown: You get an hour to locate fish or work the shady side of the lake, then you get to fish the entire sundown thouroughly. Traffic both on the roads and on the lake works in your favor. Best of all the fish dont quit biting after dark. I got bit on crankbaits and was catching on a colorado bladed spinner after the sun was long gone. I know this sounds crazy but I think i actually fished better having less vision. You dont realize how much of your cast is pure muscle-memory until you're slinging long casts basically blind and still hitting your spots. Your feeling is more in tune, you're listening better. Basically your not as distracted by what you can look around at and really paying attention to whats UNDER the surface. This is all probably old news to alot of you guys but let me tell you as a guy who's never fished at night for anything but catfish: this did way more towards me becoming a better angler and was a hell of alot more fun. I spent a good amount of time following deep-water contours trying to locate isolated cover, I couldnt shake the idea that there is a bass-city on some piece of cover 20-30 feet down. Call it a hunch, but I really think they are huddled together somewhere in huge numbers. The bass I did catch closer to shoreline were hitting agressive lures and fiesty. They've got the energy to fight, run, jump, and do any little dirty trick they can to spit that lure out. It's good sport, I'll be going back for a night shift.

I got out to Lonestar last night from 4-8 and found a decent school in main water chasing bait and pulled a couple out with a rooster tail. Later I found them suspending around 12 feet just below the top of a main lake point...finally found a good use for a crankbait: casting to the other side of the point so it nicks the top before going over the heads of the bass. No keepers, but it was nice to be able to stay put for once and catch multiple bass out of one spot without them getting spooked. Oddly the bite was best before 6PM while it was still pretty hot. Either they stopped or I wasnt figuring out what they wanted later on. It was a fun trip overall.

Man I had a couple paragraphs all written out on here last week, and I when I clicked 'post' the whole website crashed. This thing needs to quit going offline for days at a time. Something tells me this forum has been bought and sold a bunch of times and the last thing these guys care about is gettin' bassy. I had a couple nice trips out to lonestar awhile back but my big motor is out so I gotta delay any big water fishing till i get a new part in the mail, which should be any day now...heres to hoping. Maybe it was all the cold-fronts coming through making it tough out there but it sounds like the summer doldrums have kicked in huh?...guess i'll look deep and pray they are hungry when I get to chase em' again.

Awesome! Thanks for the tips Blue, I'll check em out. Now I'm all fired up to go fish Perry. Might try to snag a few wipers up there too I hear it's loaded with em.

@Patience I do love the scenery and wildlife up there, Couple weeks ago Ihad a doe come down and drink from the lake 12 feet from me. Hell, we even saw what we think was a Golden Eagle one time last season nested in the NW wetland area at the top of the lake. Have one of those fly right over your head and you'll know what it feels like to be the prey. Great country, wish it was bassy.

Well, you could always work on impressing the Mother-in-Law Actually it is good to have some confirmation i'm not (going) crazy out there. After seeing some of the fish you land it does make me feel better to know you gave it run and got the same basic results. I've thrown a good variety of rigs and lures at them this season as well and honestly it seems like senko's are about the only thing they hit with any regularity. But yeah, they are almost always dinks. Also I've never seen any significant regulation, but I have seen some 'less than classy' types out there so I'll agree it's possible people are baggin the lil ones. I really like the scenery up there but it might be time to consider moving on to bigger/different waters. I'm in North Lawrence so it's exactly the same distance to go to Perry... I think I might throw that into the mix too. It's alot bigger than the waters i'm used to but I once put my trusty ol basser in there and got up Rock Creek pretty easily. I might try that again. I'd love to hear if you guys know of any places to get off to a good start there.

I got out there twice over the long weekend. In fact, I began and ended the Memorial day break on the water, Friday morning and Monday evening. Playing with fire both times kinda cause there was a storm rolling in at Leavenworth friday around noon and that wind on Monday at Lonestar was NO JOKE. Water temp was 70-71 at both places. It was overcast on Friday with a that front coming in so I was pretty excited to be fishing. There were guys on some of my known spots so i struck out some new territory to see if i could locate em with a smoke grub or spinners....no such luck. I tried pitching a jig in tight to the bank just for the hell of it and was just about to give up on it but decided to go a little smaller (3/8oz) and with a light color (white w chartruse trailer). On the first drop a bass slammed it from the side. I was stoked since i was about to give up and have never caught one on a jig, plus it was damm near a keeper which is a good fish for me. Monday was all about being out there. I shook off a little hangover the all-day bender the day before was kind enough to leave me with around 4 and headed out there. 25-35mph winds, gusts above that. It was wild. There is actually a ramp at lonestar that pretty much goes in due south, which is where the the wind was coming from, so it wasnt that bad considering what it coulda been. I stayed where it wasnt too windy, which wasnt great fishing but i didnt care. Caught a few fat bluegills but no bass. There were actually a ton of people fishing off the bank in good spots and they probably had a way better setup than someone on a boat. Good for them. Chris I notice you hit Hillsdale alot. There are some really good maps for alot of KS lakes through a KU science department. Hillsdale got more of a full on report, but there is a good map on page 14 of this document, just so ya know: Hillsdale Lake Survey

Hey Chris, thanks for getting back That sounds like a good way to go with the cranks. I might be fishing a little deeper than that too often. I'll try to get 'er in close to the bank so I can hit bottom and structure more. Come to think of it they probably resemble a crawfish real well sifting through the mud on the bottom. I loaded up on those yo-zuri's too. They're cool looking lures for sure. I got a bunch of the deep divers and a kinda neat pin-minnow that would be fun to throw ultralight sometime. I think I'm not taking enough chances getting in close and risking getting hung up. Even if I bought it on sale I still kick myself for losing a $12 retail lure. Fishing shouldnt have to be a rich-man's sport if you ask me. Plus my lake has Curlyleaf pondweed in most shallow areas but i think i'm going to find a couple spots where I can smash bottom with a crank Thanks,