For Us KC Area Guys - Fishing Reports

[Revo_Carrot Stix]

Went to Olathe Lake Thursday morning after work and fished from the bank for about an hour to an hour and a half. Just walked the dam and caught 9 fat, healthy looking bass. None real big, had one probably 16 1/2 to 17 inches was the biggest. 7 on a buzzbait, 1 on a shakeyhead, 1 on a squarebill. This cooler weather seems to be getting them going pretty well. Fished Wyandotte Wednesday night and thought the cold front would kill the bite. We caught fish steady and even fast a couple times all night on buzzbaits and shakeyheads. Hoping to get to Melvern Monday and Tuesday.

That is pretty darn good for Olathe Lake, especially from the bank. You can snap an ankle on the rip rap getting to the dam. I've had decent luck with square bills near the brush piles lately. It's nice to know they are moving up for a buzzbait bite. Tight lines.

[Chris S]

Went Private Pond Fishing Saturday slow but had few nice fatties!

[retro basser]

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.

[skunked_again]

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.

a HUGE THANK YOU for doing so. i assume zebra mussels will get into all the waters sooner or later but id rather have it be much later.

[skunked_again]

fished the wind at kill creek today. bunch of small fish and this.

ive seen it all now...

i would show you a nice crappie on a spook but all i get is:

Internal Server Error

[Bluebasser86]

I caught one that was almost 15" on a pointer this spring, didn't know they got that big in there.

[Chris S]

Any one hear any water temp reports at Lacygne?

[skunked_again]

Any one hear any water temp reports at Lacygne?

id rather fish in my bath tub than go to La Cygne. we fished there last Sunday and got skunked.

catch of the day right here:

[Bluebasser86]

Any one hear any water temp reports at Lacygne?

It was still pretty hot a couple weeks ago when we were down there. Fished hard for 4 hours and caught 3 fish. Water was down and fish were no where to be found.

[Chris S]

Thanks for the info! Last time I was down was end of June and it was boiling.

[skunked_again]

doubled at Melvern right off the bat. more large mouth than the smallies but still caught fish. caught a buttload of walleye and white bass along the way.

[Bluebasser86]

Went to Olathe Lake Sunday after work from 10-2. About 10 other boats on the lake and all bank fishing spots covered but we did better than I've ever done at Olathe. We had 20-25 between the two of us with several over 15". We both had one 18" fish apiece for the two biggest fish. Most fish caught on small plastics fished slowly but had a couple fish on cranks and one on a spinnerbait also. My friend caught a little saugeye on a shakeyhead also. I'm hating myself now for staying out that late when I knew I had to work tonight.

[retro basser]

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.

[Chris S]

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?

IMO: I would trash the swivel, ever put your plastics in a bucket of water to see which ones stand up or float off the bottom? I have been fishin Power Worms with a Biffle head 3/8 oz Texas rigged and its been doing the deal. the lightest line I have on any of my reels is 12 pound, ask your self are you getting the max action out of your plastics, whats the main forage in the lake you fish? This time of year you have to match the hatch, small swim baits also work well this time of year and yes fish them slow.

As for Blue, he has a fish magnet on the bottom of his boat!!

[Bluebasser86]

Well I have a couple reports. I went to the new Critzer Lake in Mound City and have to say I was disappointed. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was all the sudden fishing pressure, maybe it was me. Fished from 10am-5pm and caught 23 largemouth, 1 catfish, and 1 sunfish. Most fish were caught on compact flipping baits, but they liked a crankbait in the few areas I could actually fish one. Even in my small boat I could only fish about 1/3 of the lake because the trees are so thick. The wind was blowing so that didn't help. There is no laned cut in the trees so navigation is impossible in a lot of areas. I could see it being a really good lake in 5-10 years though when things thin out. Here's what I guess they're calling a brushpile, I caught 6 and busted off 3 times in this pile.

There's about 9 feet of water under it but the holes I was flipping in were so small I literally couldn't pull the fish back through. My biggest I caught was 17 1/2 inches.

Got out to Olathe Lake today for a few hours before work. Didn't catch as many as we did the other day but I did get my biggest fish from there so far. 19" on a slider head and a Havoc Bottom Hopper.

Sad part is it was only 3lbs 3oz so it was really skinny. Starting to like that lake a little more now that I'm learning it a little.

[Chris S]

Nice report Blue! I hope to hit Lacygne and Hillsdale this weekend!

[retro basser]

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!

[Chris S]

The Biffle head is best of both worlds! They just got them at Bass Pro in Olathe, I have not used it with a senko, but because of the worm hook you can rig it weedless and toss it all over the place! It kills me to fish slow, I like rippin crankbaits!

[skunked_again]

i think the water needs to drop another 10 degrees or so before the big fall bite starts. the best luck ive had lately is fishing the wind with hard baits.

[Bluebasser86]

I'm headed to the Rock either Friday night or Saturday morning. Going to do that for the weekend and then Pomme Monday to try and get a muskie. Sounds like the fishing has been good both places so hopefully it stays that way.

[skunked_again]

I'm headed to the Rock either Friday night or Saturday morning. Going to do that for the weekend and then Pomme Monday to try and get a muskie. Sounds like the fishing has been good both places so hopefully it stays that way.

nice. i talked with a few kids who won a tourney on TR and they did it dragging a jig. food for thought..

[Chris S]

Stopped by Bass Pro Friday to get a few things and spoke to one of the guys in the fishing dept who told me there was gonna be 2 tournys at La Cygne Saturday, so I went to Hillsdale all day. Fast start two Bass in the first 30 minutes, biggest at 16 inches, caught a fair share of White Bass casting and trolling, was just a nice day to be out on the water!

[Bluebasser86]

Got back from Table Rock and Pomme late Monday night. Table Rock was Table Rock and Pomme was Pomme. We started off fast on Table Rock Saturday morning with me catching a short spot on my second cast with a grub and then a keeper largemouth about 10 minutes later on a wart.

Chris (kanasbassfisher08) caught a keeper largemouth on a shakeyhead and we caught a few more shorts of all 3 species before the sun got up. Once the sun got up and the wind died completely it got tough. I caught a short spot on a sammy (our only topwater fish all weekend) and a keeper largemouth on a shakeyhead. Chris stuck a good fish on a jig that got hung in a tree on the way up. The way he could lift it a little ways and it would stop you could tell it was on an old line. I tried and tried with my lure retriever to get it loose. Finally on a desperate attempt to just catch the line I caught something and pulled and felt a line pop. I lifted and swung in about 15 feet of line, an old jig, and Chris' keeper smallmouth that weighed 2lbs 9oz.

It got really tough from there. We tried to run to Cedar cove when my boat went into alarm because the outboard was overheating. We limped to a point and could see nothing wrong. We weren't far from Big Cedar Lodge so we putted to the docks there but they don't work on boats. Thankfully one guy had the number to someone who does work on boats and he was nice enough to listen and answer our questions. He said it sounded like my thermastat was stuck and was an easy fix and not expensive. It took about an hour to get back to the ramp at idle speed but we finally got to Bass Pro in Branson and they took a look at it. It was the thermastat but they didn't have one and neither did the 5 or 6 other shops he called. Luckily BPS in Springfield did have one so we hit the road and got the part.

Back on the lake it continued to be tough but at least my motor was working. We scratched out a couple more shorts before hitting a bluff wall we'd caught a couple keepers off of earlier. It was getting dark and cold but we could see pretty well with the light bluff wall and half moon. I flipped a jig next to a tree and turned to say something to Chris when a fish about yanked the rod out of my hands. After a pretty good tussle to keep it out of the cedars I swung my biggest smallmouth of the trip in, 3lbs 3oz.

We ended day 1 with 15 fish, 7 of those being keepers.

Day 2 started terrible. 38 degrees and fog so thick we could hardly see the trolling motor. In the first 3 hours we caught 5 fish, no keepers. I was tired of picking the spots so Chris scrolled around the topo map on my depthfinder and found a spot he liked. Someone else liked it too and was already fishing it when we got there so we hit a different area close by. Soon after getting there some fish started busting shad. We caught a few short spots throwing grubs but nothing even close to keeping. I noticed a large standing tree out in the middle of the cove in about 40 feet of water so I dropped a spoon down next to it. It barely sank out of sight when my line jumped and I stopped the spool with my thumb and set the hook into our first keeper spot of the day. As I fought it up about 15 or 20 others chased it. I dropped a grub down with the first one still on and doubled on keeper spots.

The school disappeared quickly so we ran back to the bluff we'd done well on the day before. I quickly caught another keeper spot on a jig.

A couple more shorts and then I got thumped hard on a jig and stuck a good fish. She jumped like a smallmouth and fought really well before I lipped her. 20" 4lb 6oz largemouth was our biggest at Table Rock.

I wish every fish that I caught on a jig ate it this good!

We ended day 2 with 16 fish and 5 keepers. We caught fish on several different baits but a jig was by far our best bait for keepers and numbers.

Pomme was fun, lots and lots of fish but no big fish. We ended the day at Pomme with 44 fish and 14 keepers but the biggest was only a 15 1/2 inch largemouth. Chris had one muskie follow a bucktail to the boat and another hit his bucktail when he wasn't paying attention and missed it. I couldn't get any love from the toothy fish. Trip was a lot of fun and Chris got to learn a lot about fishing deep, clear water like he was hoping to.

[retro basser]

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.

[Chris S]

Went to La Cygne Sunday and I should have saved my gas $, wind picked up, white caps and the water level was down 10+ feet, ran to the back of the lake towards the river and there is an island back there now, sad. Caught 3 fish nothing worth taking a pic of. Ran up towards the dam and trolled for a while, marked lots of fish in 20-25 feet of water, just could not get them to bite. Pulled out at 3 and the tourny guys where having the weigh in, winning weight I was told was 11 pounds, I remember when 11 pounds and 3 fish where a bad day on La Cygne, heard last Saturday one Tourny only caught 3 keepers on La Cygne. Lots of short fish! Wonder if the freezing of the lake last winter for the 1st time in 20 years has had an effect on those fish? Think I will wait til Mid Nov before heading back down.