For Us KC Area Guys - Fishing Reports

[skunked_again]

im not sure whats up with La Cygne. i used to be ok on that lake but the last few times i was out there fishing was bad. real bad. guess i should be glad though, its put me on Melvern a lot this year.

[Bluebasser86]

I think it's because the water is so far down out there. It seems that lake is at it's best when the water is up in the water willows and shoreline trees. Since it's so shallow a lot of them probably pull off the bank on hidden stumps and edges. Plus less water means less places for the millions of shad to go. Last time I went you could have almost walked on the shad in the river and the 3 fish we caught were so stuffed they probably didn't really need to eat anything.

We hit Pleasanton Monday and they were eating a spinnerbait like they'd never seen one. Water is way down there too and the bigger fish were no where to be found but the fish up to about 2.5lbs were slamming spinnerbaits, poppers, and Havoc Pitbosses. My wife had big fish of the day with about a 3lb catfish on a spinnerbait

[retro basser]

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.

[Bluebasser86]

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.

I catch most of my fish out of Perry up really shallow on riprap or around docks on dark colored plastics, mainly a baby brush hog. I've had spotty success on a spinnerbait, mainly in the spring though. Shad colored squarebills and rattletraps have done well for me also. Perry is pretty consistant for me during the warmer months. It has a pretty high population of quality fish and some big fish also. A friend of mine won a buddy bass tournament a few years ago out there with 3 fish that weighed over 21 pounds combined. He did that with the techniques I described.

[retro basser]

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

[Chris S]

Good Stuff!

[Bluebasser86]

Went to Douglas State Lake Sunday while my wife went to the Maple Leaf Festival. First time I've fished it since it reopened and there is tons of fish in it but they are serious dinks. I caught 31 in 2 hours with the biggest being maybe 15" and it was way bigger than most. I did get a double on an Excalibur XR50 rattlebait, a pair of 9 inchers.

Fished Wyandotte for about two and half hours today and caught 20, 17 largemouth and 3 smallmouth. Caught fish on a chatterbait, Excalibur XR50, shakeyhead, and homemade jig. The wind was a killer so it was nice that they were hitting a moving bait. I had a ton more fish hit the chatterbait but couldn't get them to hookup and they don't eat it nearly as well with a trailer hook for some reason. Seems like this cold weather might have finally woke them up and got them feeding!

[retro basser]

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...

[Bluebasser86]

I hope I'm right about the fall bite turning on too! I'll find out Sunday, Kanasbassfisher08 and I are headed to Melvern to hopefully smack some smallies and whites around. Wouldn't be mad about getting a few keeper walleye either

[KU_Bassmaster.]

How was Melvern?

Got my butt kicked at Lone Star today. Place just seemed dead and the two fish I did catch in 4 hours I was out there were very lethargic.

[Bluebasser86]

How was Melvern?

Got my butt kicked at Lone Star today. Place just seemed dead and the two fish I did catch in 4 hours I was out there were very lethargic.

We're going in the morning and will be out there most of the day. I haven't been to Lonestar in a couple years but last time I went late in the fall we experienced the same thing. Fish were few and far between and not very active, even though they should have been.

[Revo_Carrot Stix]

I was at Olathe Lake last Friday evening. I wasn't having much luck and started to look for shad. Near the dam there were some blowups. They didn't appear to be typical bass blowups - more swirling and tail splashing. I threw my Sammy 1 second after I saw a blowup. Twitched it twice...BAM! Twitched it twice...BAM! It was hit 3 times before I hooked up and boy did my rod load up! At first I thought it was a carp...or big saugeye. After a hard fight with 4 strong runs to deeper water, I pulled in a 25" Wiper (17" girth). The biggest I've ever seen, let a lone caught. There have been times when I've hit a school and caught 10-12" wipers, but nothing this big. I'm guessing between 8-9 #'s. Attached is the pic I tried to take by myself...

Does this surprise anyone else? I didn't know they got that big in Olathe?!?

[Bluebasser86]

I was at Olathe Lake last Friday evening. I wasn't having much luck and started to look for shad. Near the dam there were some blowups. They didn't appear to be typical bass blowups - more swirling and tail splashing. I threw my Sammy 1 second after I saw a blowup. Twitched it twice...BAM! Twitched it twice...BAM! It was hit 3 times before I hooked up and boy did my rod load up! At first I thought it was a carp...or big saugeye. After a hard fight with 4 strong runs to deeper water, I pulled in a 25" Wiper (17" girth). The biggest I've ever seen, let a lone caught. There have been times when I've hit a school and caught 10-12" wipers, but nothing this big. I'm guessing between 8-9 #'s. Attached is the pic I tried to take by myself...

Does this surprise anyone else? I didn't know they got that big in Olathe?!?

Those things are a blast on topwater. I've only caught a couple out of Olathe but not nearly that big. I do know of a 13.5 pound one that was caught out of there on chicken liver though. There's plenty of shad and deep water for them to grow big though.

[Bluebasser86]

Well Melvern was pretty disappointing on Sunday. The weather was really nice but I think the calm weather and bright sun probably hurt us more than anything. We caught plenty of smallmouth and white bass but the smallmouth were really lacking any size. Chris had one of the biggest ones on a RC 1.5 off the dam.

I also caught the smallest smallmouth I've ever caught on a 78 pointer.

Fished all over the lake and just never got any kind of pattern. We caught them shallow and deep, off points and the backs of coves. We caught fish on squarebills, traps, shakeyheads, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, tubes, and shad raps. The white bass were really nice ones but we never found any concentration of them, just scattered everywhere. We caught a couple largemouth and a spot also and that was it for the day. Water temp was 63 degrees so I'm guessing in a week or two it will really fire up.

[Chris S]

Good info as always! Got my Dad in town from FLA to freez the next 4 days, may try for some whites and walleyes at Hillsdale Saturday, Revo thats a nice fat Whiper!!

[Revo_Carrot Stix]

Those things are a blast on topwater. I've only caught a couple out of Olathe but not nearly that big. I do know of a 13.5 pound one that was caught out of there on chicken liver though. There's plenty of shad and deep water for them to grow big though.

Ironically on Sunday, the KC Star had an article about Wipers and Topwaters this time of year. I don't know much about the species, but you're right - it was a blast to catch!

I've heard of guys catching them on chicken livers when they're fishing for catfish. I talked to an older guy earlier this summer at Olathe and he was telling me about one Wiper (he said close to 20#) that he caught after stalking it for a couple years near the West dock in or near the cut-in. He said it took nearly 15 minutes to land. I think he got it with an inline spinner or something.

[uptonfish]

I see that La Cygne is way down, is it still possible to launch a boat there? I may be heading there on Friday but didn't want to waste the trip if I cant get in. Thanks

[retro basser]

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...

[Bluebasser86]

Ironically on Sunday, the KC Star had an article about Wipers and Topwaters this time of year. I don't know much about the species, but you're right - it was a blast to catch!

I've heard of guys catching them on chicken livers when they're fishing for catfish. I talked to an older guy earlier this summer at Olathe and he was telling me about one Wiper (he said close to 20#) that he caught after stalking it for a couple years near the West dock in or near the cut-in. He said it took nearly 15 minutes to land. I think he got it with an inline spinner or something.

I couldn't even imagine catching a 20lb wiper. I decided I wanted to catch one over 10lbs about 6 years ago. My first trip to La Cygne I caught one that was 9lb 4ozs, thats still my PB even though I caught hundreds of 4-8 pound wipers each winter at La Cygne.

I see that La Cygne is way down, is it still possible to launch a boat there? I may be heading there on Friday but didn't want to waste the trip if I cant get in. Thanks

It's possible to launch a boat but I think most that have been there recently would agree that you should save your money, the fishing has been horrible down there for almost everything for the last couple months. Wait until it starts to get cold and then it should start to get good out there.

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...

I've been to Brown once and was not impressed. Like you said it is very shallow and silted in. We saw one bass about 5lbs beach itself chasing bluegill but we only caught one over 18" and it was very skinny. I won't be going back anytime soon.

[Bluebasser86]

Anyone been to Hillsdale recently? I'm trying to get a last trip in to try to get my dad on some walleye since we aren't going to make it to Milford like we'd like. KDWP says jigs on points in coves, so I'm assuming secondary points. Anyone have any other suggestions?

[Chris S]

Blue I was out at Hillsdale 3 weeks ago, caught whites trolling off of Hillsdale Point, dragged Walley rigs with night crawlers, picked up nota on the Walleye, heading out in the morning with my Dad and my son to Hillsdale, gonna work the same pattern as above, now that the jet ski's have gone home!

As for Lacygne dont waste your gas $$$$$ that lake is down 10 to 15 feet and yes you can launch your boat but the rocks and tires by the ramp are 100% out of the water!

[retro basser]

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..

[Chris S]

Fished Hillsdale Saturday, white bass bite was good, kept a few for the deep fryer! WT 58, all caught on chrome blue and orange lipless crankbait, drifted for walleyes for an hour nota. Only about 6-8 boats out total! Nice day with my Dad and Son.

[KU_Bassmaster.]

Fished Gardner Saturday evening. Only was out for about 2.5 hours before dark. It is not a dead sea!!!! First time I have been out there in at least 5 years. Lake was really struggling the last few times I fished it. Landed 3, but had about 5 or 6 more blow ups. Was fishing a LFT magic shad.

[Bluebasser86]

Fished Hillsdale Monday with the old man, hopefully I learned my lesson and will never go back there. Fished from 9-2, trolled cranks, casted cranks, casted grubs, jigged crawlers and grubs, drug shad on a 3 way rig. I ended the day with 3 whites, 4 crappie, 1 walleye, 1 catfish, all while casting a grub, dad caught a drum jigging a crawler. We were fishing for walleye but I still have yet to catch a keeper walleye from Hillsdale. Should have just gone to Wyandotte, at least I could have caught some bass and still had a shot at catching some walleye.