KCFinesse

I never understood the need to box fish while fun fishing. Perhaps I'm not catching the right caliber of fish... I'm hopeful for that lake, but I have certainly been it busy and I did appreciate having a bit of space out in the high winds on Saturday... Given the forecast I think there might be lot of space on the water available going forward. -Jared

Fished Mound City in the wind yesterday hoping for a winding bait bite (chatterbait, swim bait) along weed flats. I ended up with a few in a swim jig and a few shorts on a spinnerbait, but the best bite seemed to be senkos or flukes in gaps in the weeds in coves/pockets. The better fish for me were kinda scrawny? My big fish of the day was a 20" that I thought was a world beater when I saw it's head come out of the water, but it maybe went 4. I had a few in the 16"-18" that were similar. WT~ 63. -Jared

I'm a big fan of vmc spin shot hooks as a means of reducing line twist; the simplified rigging and ability to quickly change dropper lengths can be nice too. I really really think the key to a lot of slow, methodical, finesse presentations is confidence. Drop shotting can get technically involved and it's easy to lose confidence or focus in what your doing. Keep it simple- find a few baits you like, find spots where you know you're on fish, hunker down, and put weight in the boat. Good luck, have fun! -Jared

I fished Melvern yesterday despite the cold front based upon some previous success I've had this time of year. I ended up only catching a handful on Neds mostly along the dam. My biggest were a 15" largemouth and a 15" smallie. Prior to giving in to the dam bite, I chased fish up the creek arms and had six or seven short strikes from better fish and caught one short on a bbz1-shad; I could not get hits on follow-up baits. Water clarity was about 18" on average with a heavy brown tint to it. Water clarity was a bit rougher in the back of turkey creek. Water temp ~66 -Jared

The spinnerbait bite should be pretty good in the backs of creeks if you can find a little breeze. It's a very pretty and solid lake in the fall. I fish mostly south of the state park directly in the center of the lake. The lake is generally clear, but you can definitely run the lake towards the south to find the clarity you prefer. I would check on the Ozark angler forum for some more specifics, otherwise it's a nice lake to explore. -Jared

The screw still works- try heating up the screw with a cigarette lighter. Zmanz has some great shakey head products. -Jared

I recently purchased a fiberglass boat, and noticed a nick through the gel coat right on the underside corner of the chine to where I see fiberglass. I do not see any damage to the fiberglass, but it almost looks like the fiberglass and gelcoat separated in this small spot. Note that the gel coat seems pretty thick in this location, and I'd have to fill this nick from below. I have ordered both marinetex and gelcoat repair with hopes that the gel coat repair will be sufficient. Is there a way to add build to the gel coat in order to fill this nick or is there a readily available high build resin to coat with the gel coat? It sounds like the Marine Tex and gelcoat aren't super compatible. Thanks, -Jared

I haven't been able to get out fishing of late due to selling a boat, but I caught a shiny one today! I'm thinking smallies on Sunday... -Jared

I've never hit any of those, but I have been really tempted to look around the Blue River around Minor Park. The potential for sewage run-off downstream kinda dissuaded me. I have fished Indian Creek some for carp with fly gear and ran into a surprising number of (small) bass. I would assume the blue at or above would fish somewhat similarly. -Jared

I was at Truman Saturday looking at a few boats and figured I would hit the lake if nothing panned-out. I heard there was a sizable tournament out of long-shoal and decided to launch out of Tebo/Windsor and have a bit of space to work with. The lake fished high and unfortunately not super well for me. I ended up with a 16" and a few shorts pitching senkos and brush hogs into flooded bushes as well as a couple small spots off of bluff banks. I also pitched a bunch of jigs and 10" worms to no effect. I like fishing it because of the raw amount of turf to fish without heavy boat traffic, but that lake seems to beat the crap out of me pretty consistently. I ended up at Gardner last night but hadn't heard of the recent success in tops out there over the past week. I threw senkos and swim jigs and caught a few in the 16"/17" range as well as a handful of shorts. I had a tough time putting the swim jig down at dusk because they were hitting it pretty hard when they did decide to turn on it. -Jared

I was out at cedar valley yesterday, and did ok on numbers of shorts, but only caught one bigger fish at 19". I found good amounts of bait and marked a bunch of suspended fish. The water clarity was better than I thought it would be and I spent a fair amount of time trying to get bigger bites deeper on football jigs, c-rig, and scroungers without getting anything going. Anyone have success slow rolling a scrounger/money minnow combo on shad lakes locally? I've been beating this technique with a stick this summer without success. -Jared

I fish the fingerless Cabela's guidewear gloves in the winter and have really liked them. I carry a pair of extra large HT polar liner mittens for running down the lake or a quick warm up. For sun/warm weather gloves, I like the glacier gloves. I have a pair of Simms that I don't like as much because they have "stripping" index fingers that get pretty annoying if you're fishing a spinning rod. -Jared

Fished Douglas on Friday- Fish were pretty predictable, right off the weed edges in about 10 feet of water. The brush piles weren't as productive as the areas next to good weed growth. I didn't find any size; the fish were pretty cookie cutter between 12 and 15 inches... Fished LaCygne tonight and got my butt kicked. With how slow it was, I spent a bunch of time scouting new water. Water temps were right about 80. -Jared

I think the lake has fished a little better to how I like to fish this year with one of the two units being off essentially all summer. The fish I've found have been relating to transition areas around loose groups of larger baitfish. The bite has been super slow and catching them has taken concentrating on small areas found with electronics and fishing them meticulously. I'm sure someone has figured them out a bit better, but if I'm headed to LaCygne I'm resigned to the fact that I am not targeting numbers as much as one or two bigger fish. I might get bites, I might not. I'm not fishing for active fish chasing shad so much as the bottom oriented negative fish around the right stuff. I have confidence in knocking something on the head with a shakeyhead eventually, but I'm not convinced that it's a matter of the right bait so much as a slow, natural, presentation right in their face. Good luck, let us know how you do. -Jared

Aside from the manicured section by the dock, I'd walk to the dam from the south access off of Bee Creek Blvd. I'm not sure how tall the grass is by this route right now; I haven't been out there in 5 years or so. I did do a bit better off the dam. -Jared

The Kansas side gets a bit more discussion on here but when I was shore bound in Missouri I liked the Guy B Park lake up north. I lived in Blue Springs and fished quite a few lakes south and east of town. Lake Rememberance off of 70 in Blue Springs was OK, but access was somewhat limited. I spent a bunch of time at Lone Jack lake mostly from a float tube and generally found a few fish there. The small 'butterfly trail' ponds between Blue Springs and Grain Valley actually had decent sized fish and was great for walking the shore slinging a senko. Further east, Maple Leaf is a fun lake with good fish potential. I fished the small Odessa lake a few times out of a tube and liked it, but shore access was tough. After I got a boat, I fished Blue Springs, Prarie Lee, and Maple Leaf quite a bit. I'd say Blue Springs was the toughest of those lakes for bass, but the lake has both potential and some pretty fun wiper to keep you occupied. The dam can be productive for a variety of fish. Maple Leaf has reasonably good shore access as well as a few adjacent ponds that I've always wanted to explore. Prarie Lee is pretty limited as far as shore access. I never really fished Jacomo all that much (I was never a fan of their boat rules) but I've heard of folks having more consistent success out there. Good luck! -Jared

Fished LaCygne Sunday- I started up lake and noticed quite a few boats in the river section. I pitched flooded brush and water willows for a while ending up with one fish about 2lbs. Came back down lake and picked up a shakeyhead. I found a couple nice fish over 20". All in all, spent about 7 hours on the lake for five bites one of which was a drum, one of which was a dink. A few good ones make everything better. -Jared

I have never hit numbers of fish there, but I also only fish that lake once or twice a year. -Jared

I ended up at Critzer on Sunday and fished mostly mid-lake. The bite was extremely tough. I ended up catching two fish around 15" and lost one- all off of the same tree- about half-way back into a pocket. I spent a lot of time trying to pick apart creek channel swings as well as working shallow. It looked to me that the thermocline was somewhat shallow around 17'. That was the first time I've fished that lake, and it seems pretty fun. In retrospect I wish I would've stayed towards the dam. I'm also not sure how much of the strange Saturday weather set things off. -Jared

Fished Wolf yesterday- fishing was brutal slow in the heat and calm. The fish we did catch were shallow cruisers about half of which were caught via sight fishing. Ended up with 12, all smallmouth, none of which were on winding baits. Really struggled to find concentrations of fish in deeper water. It was nice to get out, but looking at the weather forecast, I think I might be fishing elsewhere for a bit. -Jared

There was a fair amount of being fortunate involved. That has always been a very tough lake for me.

My folks came down from Omaha for a long weekend and we fished Wolf and LaCygne to avoid some of the boat traffic. Wolf ended up pretty hard for us. We found some better sized smallies (16-18") in very shallow water along some weed points but the fish were pretty scattered. Fished LaCygne on Monday (more or less just to get out)- after catching a few wiper we switched gears to target largemouth. From 1:30 to 4, my dad and I put twelve in the boat, with the best five around 20lb; the kicker fish being a solid 21.5" on a shakeyhead. It's nice to figure something out at that lake, especially given the weird time of day and my original expectations. I feel some LaCygne-karma is probably in order in the near future. Consistency and LaCygne are two very independent things... -Jared

I've noticed that sometimes figuring out a drift with the lighter 1/16 oz heads can make a world of difference in both fall rates and catch rates. If I can cast quartering upwind and work the bait back slow with the drift of the current, I can get lighter baits down a lot further. Shorter casts, 100% flouro, and rod position all can make a big difference. I fish 1/16oz about 90% of the time in depths down to 20 feet in typical Kansas/Missouri winds and down to 30 feet in calm conditions. Sometimes the bottom contact suffers, but the natural look of the bait can be awesome. -Jared

I fished Gardner for 3 hours with my girlfriend earlier this week and ended up catching 15 between the two of us, mostly small fish with four between 15" and 18". The better fish seemed to be on the water willow edges and were caught on a senko. Fished some of the deeper rock areas with brush hogs, jigs, and neds and found numbers but not consistent size. With the nice weather this weekend, I'll be running down to Stockton to fish some 'new-to-me' water up the big Sac. Good luck out there. -Jared

I fish there Carolina rig when covering a large amount of area with roaming or spread out fish. I power shot some of the same areas if the fish are holding tighter to cover. The power shot allows you to work the bait stationary when you feel something different in the bottom composition. Traditional finesse-y drop shot is a little different game. C-rigs still have a time and a place, and a lightweight Carolina rig is super under-utilized for locating spread out neutral to negative fish. -Jared