I have a question about Milford lake. I am staying at a cabin on the lake the first week of Oct. and I have never been there and was wondering where is a good place to start, I know that is a a great smallmouth lake so I was guessing down by the dam area in the coves from the points to the back of the creeks with the water cooling down using some hard jerkbaits and cranks, and of course jigs. What are some other ways to get great smallies. Anything will help. Thanks

I grew up right by Milford and have fished it tons of times. October is a great time to be out there usually as long as you can dodge the wind. Jigs and cranks are usually good but day in day out the most reliable bait is a shakey head rigged finesse worm, either watermelon or green pumpkin. I like either french fry style worms or BPS Stick-Os in the 4 inch size. I've also done really well swimming a grub and on Chompers style grubs on chompers heads or football heads. Wiggle warts have been pretty good to me out there. I would definately have a topwater rod ready at all times. Not only can you catch bass on it but you'll probably see some wipers and whites chasing bait and that's always a nice bonus. As for location you had it pretty right on. I like points and coves towards the dam. I've never fished the actual face of the dam much but after the last two state record smallies coming off of it I might need to start! Hope that helps! Let us know how you do!

Thank you for your help. I hope to have a good time with the smallmouth. If i get any good ones I'll post the pics.

Do you fish the strip pits down by Pittsburg very much? I've been down to them several times but I've only caught a couple bigger fish along with lots of smaller fish. Are there certian pits that produce bigger fish? I have one of the pit maps that I keep notes on and so far the best one has been one that it doesn't even show as a pond but a swamp. Other than that one I've only caught a couple 3-4lbers and had a couple bigger ones on. I've fished ones from Pittsburg all the way down past the trout lake. Thanks for any help you can give me!

Bluebasser, most of the pits are loaded with small, up to 15" bass.  The bigger bass are somewhat scarce in the public pits.  The best ones for me, for bigger bass have been one two miles east of Cherokee and a quarter mile south, the power line pit one mile west of the KDWP station, on the south side of Belleview Rd., and the trout pit.  Another good one is on 180th St. between 540 and 530 Ave. on the easst side of the road.  Good luck!

SE Kansas grass grower

So did you make the trip to Milford? If you did, how was it? I've heard from a couple different guys that they've done pretty good out there lately.

It was a good time it was a little cold on Mon. but didn't to to bad had only a small limit about 8lbs with 5 fish one nice 2lb smallie.  It was windy the last day so I didn't go very far from the cove. But overall good time. Thnaks for the help.

Yeah that wind is a killer out there if it even gets much above 10mph. Did you get any walleye? I've been trying to talk my dad into a fall trip out there (we go every spring already) but he never wants to go out there in the fall. I've never fished for walleye out there in the fall but I've caught some nice ones fishing for smallmouth out there in the fall!