KCFinesse

I just got my first side imaging unit (Helix 5) and broke it out at Gardner between 10 and 2 on Sunday. I found fish on wind blown green weeds on a split shot senko, no love on either a chatterbait or a swim jig. Biggest was 18" with two around 15" and a handful of smaller fish. The takes were super light. WT- 64°F -Jared

I ended up doing a long day trip down to Stockton yesterday. I started out going up way up some of the longer arms throwing a spinnerbait only catching one short. I switched gears and started catching fish (mostly shorts) on windblown secondary points in about 8 fow mostly on a ned. Some of the most productive locations were mudlines on points adjacent to schools of bait. I ran this pattern throughout the day catching two dozen or so cookie cutter 12-15" largemouth with few short spots, smallies, and a drum mixed in. In the evening I decided to take another shot at running up the backs of creeks. About 30 minutes to sunset the bite just clicked and the fish turned on. I was throwing a plopper and a cavitron with a followup swim jig/swing impact combo. Large fish was 17" on the cavitron. I tried a few casts waking a BBZ1 shad looking for better fish but they never materialized. Ended up with another 12 in a quick 45 minutes and missed a bunch of fish. Fun bite - extremely shallow water, almost all were in less than 2 feet. WT 66-71. -Jared

I was a bit apprehensive looking at the wind (still in the 17+ range) the other options were a bit more secluded, but I could see running way up Sons, Birch, Maze etc. being productive with a good chance at a spinnerbait bite.

I got a free pass to get out this weekend from the girlfriend. I'd like to fish the wind without getting wrecked by it. Southeast looks like the direction to head. The options are- LOZ, table rock, or Pomme. I have fished Pomme quite a bit, TR some around shell knob, and LOZ none. It sounds like Pomme might be a little slow, LOZ is getting a lot of attention between the BBB and the Costa but is still producing, and TR is always a good lake that can turn into a bit of a puzzle. Thoughts? -Jared

Fished Melvern today, I knew where the day was going after losing a real solid fish on a WP early. Ended up with four over 15 with the biggest being 18". Caught lots of shorts and burned a bunch of trolling motor battery. Successful baits for me were ploppers, swing impacts, and Neds. I was really hoping for the predicted rain/cloud to set things off but it just didn't seem to materialize. Water clarity was good in general but some coves were blown out badly. -Jared

Went out to Gardner this evening. I didn't find any numbers but did run into a tub of a 19" fish on an isolated weed patch. Found lots of bigger shad at the mouths of coves/pockets and rolled a good size channel cat on a chatterbait. Only ended up with a couple this evening, plastics and isolated weeds were the ticket tonight. WT 77-79.

Tough fishing makes for good chatterbait making weather. A few fur and feather chatterbaits, spins, and a rabbit jig mixed in. Bring on the fall bite! -Jared

Ended up a solo trip so decided to give Gardner a chance. I spent a lot of time on the trolling motor exploring and "junk fishing with intent"- ended up finding fish in and around where coontail patches met other cover with square bills and senkos. In retrospect I probably needed to slow down and fish those spots harder with a senko split shot/swimming senko. Really wanted to find fish on a buzzbait, but only caught one short on a buzz. Given the weather and it being a new lake to me, it was very hard to put down a winding bait.WT ~78-79.

I've had my struggles with Middle Creek... There's a fair amount of good looking water, but I just haven't found the quality bites yet.

Weather permitting, I have an open back seat for fishing the pre-front tomorrow evening at Miola, Middle Creek, or Gardner (never fished there before). I was thinking 5:30 at the ramp. Let me know. -Jared

Hit Wolf Creek yesterday from dawn till about 3 chasing smallies with the girlfriend. Started with throwing tops against the intake jetty without any action. Locating better fish took a bit, but we did end up finding fish up to 18.5" (along with catfish and drum) on windblown hard bottom flats adjacent to weed growth in less than 5'. The hot baits were green pumpkin shakeyheads and Neds with dark swing impacts helping eliminate unproductive water.

Fished Prairie Lee from 8-noon today. Marked shad at about 12 feet and started fishing main lake channel swings and and brush in the 10-15' range. I caught 6 at 15" before 10am and an 18" that came off a power shot beaver on a ledge adjacent to a point. After 10 I went shallow to see if fish were moving in either the water willows or the stick ups. I did not find very many fish shallow and what I did find lacked size. Water clarity was between one and two feet and the temperatures I found were consistently around 79.

Chuck- I learned to flyfish by the brute force/self-taught method chasing bass and panfish on small ponds and walk-able lakes. Lessons are great and I think that in retrospect I could have saved myself a lot of heart ache by taking some. I'm based out of Overland Park and there are several very flat, manicured ponds that would be fairly good for learning. Stream fishing is a little tougher to pick up around here, but I have gotten some weird looks while chasing carp around Indian Creek, so opportunities are out there. I'd still recommend lessons in the long run, but I'd be able to meet up with you to go through a few of the basics to see if you're interested in sticking with it. Shoot me a pm if you're interested. -Jared

I've had a lot of success this year on green pumpkin with a boottail trailer with the tail dyed chartreuse. I also had success with slow rolling bladed jigs with shad colored sluggos as trailers this spring.

Fished Milford for the first time with the girlfriend yesterday from dawn to about 5pm- Between the two of us we probably ended up around 40 smallmouth with a handful of wiper and drum mixed in. We did not get much of a topwater or swim bait bite and most fish came on either a Ned or a shakey head. A handful of the smallies were around 16", but for the most part finding sizable fish was tough. I traveled quite a bit of the lake from up by the Milford accesses to the dam. The lake looks great, but the boat traffic in the main lake and the algae blooms up lake made things difficult at times. I'll probably be back again in the fall on weekends when the weather around Stockton/Pomme looks unfavorable. WT 79-86 -Jared

I'm originally from Omaha and use to fish a lot of the metro lakes fairly regularly- My personal favorites are Prairie View, Walnut Creek, and Zorinsky. Of those three, I think Prairie View and Zorinsky have reasonable shore access and a great lakes for fishing weed edges with a weightless or split shot senko rig (I usually prefer green pumpkin). Zorinsky is still rebounding from being redone, but I have seen some decent fish caught out of there. Two Rivers has very good shore access, but it has been a while since I've caught any bass of size out there. In all these lakes try to concentrate on "transition" areas (rock jetties giving way to weeds, points where coves meet the main lake, where weeds meet a fallen tree, etc). I would also take a look at float tube fishing and hitting some of the retention (silt) ponds around the metro lakes, but even the main lakes in the area are reasonable to float tube. If you are looking for more "sit and wait" style fishing the above lakes (and most area lakes) also have terrific catfishing for both size and numbers. I usually do chicken livers fished with as little weight as possible just out from the weedlines. I'd also recommend googling the nfga fishing forum, there is a great knowledge base from folks local to the area. Good Luck! -Jared

Fished Middle Creek Tuesday and Miola Wednesday. Middle Creek continues to be a bit of a struggle for me, I ended up with one about 15" off of the dam after fishing the road bed and channel swing shorelines and adjacent timber. The rocks on the south side of the dam always look so good, but I still have yet to raise a fish out of them. Thanks to everyone that supplied tips on Miola. I was fishing with a co-worker and was limited to picking and nibbling around the edges a bit. We still managed to pull some out of the heavy stuff flipping beavers along the west shorelines with a few fish on spinnerbaits mixed in. I think I need to spend a solid trip out on the east end of the lake up against that weedgrowth.

I'm hoping that once I get a few bites punching I'll get a bit more confidence in it and that will probably go a long way... On a related note- hit Wolf Creek for the first time Sunday from about 9 to 4... Tried looking for some largemouth via jika-style punch with a beaver specifically looking at heavy stuff adjacent to deeper water, timber, and grass/cabbage transitions both in the southeast coves and southwest island without any action. I was able to locate some better smallmouth (15-18") on a bubba shot beaver on the windblown edges where scrub weeds met some of the heavier weed growth. Additionally found a few more good smallies wherever I could find thicker rocks in the 20 foot range along the dike, but these fish seemed more finicky. Cool lake, but at some point mid-afternoon the wind seemed to die down a bit and it got stupid hot.

Good to know- I fished a beaver on a power shot around some of the more interesting deeper stuff adjacent to channel swings, but really didn't give beavers and creatures much of a chance. Admittedly, my biggest problem (especially on the solo trips, shorter after work trips, or on new lakes) is getting too locked on to specific, usually over finesse pattern. One of my big goals this season is working on is getting away from decent bite on my confidence rigs and 'tinker'. Never super easy, but that's how you figure things out. -Jared

Hit up Miola after work tonight- after a couple weeks of really struggling with some new lakes since moving to the Kansas side, it was really nice to get something figured out. I ended up with about 15 or so (plus a few chatterbait catfish) in a couple of hours biggest being around 18" with at least one more lost of similar size. Fish were on senkos and Neds drifted past the water willow edge switching to a chatterbait as it got later... Threw a buzzbait through sunset without much action, but seeing the moon rise at the ramp tonight had me half tempted to relaunch. Despite the heat it was a good evening to be out. WT 87-90 -Jared

Fished Hillsdale for the first time after work yesterday and dodged some of weather. I launched from the Marysville ramp and went north from there. there seemed to be a fair amount if good looking channel swings in that stretch, but things were slow and the fish were running small. Ended up with a handful of 10 inchers and a few white bass. WT ~83 -Jared

I hit Middle Creek yesterday evening. I caught one 15" fish pretty quickly on a beaver and that was the high water mark for the evening. I had a few short strikes on a swim jig before getting a 5# channel... I'm guessing we're right up against the defensive portions of the catfish spawn for how many of these guys have been showing up on winding baits for me...

Hey all- I joined the forum after being a long time lurker... I recently moved from Blue Springs to Overland Park and I'm looking forward to learning a bit more about fishing lakes on the Kansas side. My dad came down from Omaha to see my new place, and we went out to LaCygne Sunday afternoon for a few hours with the intent of avoiding crowds and learning a bit more about the lakes offshore structure. We avoided the rain, threw lots of deep cranks and carolina rigs, but ultimately back tracked to a school of wiper/white bass/channel cat (?) On a main lake point jigging spoon bite, biggest of the wiper being around 5#. Got stopped by both the game warden and the creel survey guys on the way out. Ironically it sounded like the only other boat out chasing bass had done pretty well fishing shallow. Despite not finding deep water LM, the trip was pretty successful; I found some cool stuff and got my dad on some fun fish albeit of the wrong suit. WT 83-91. -Jared