I was at Smithville 3 weeks ago. Caught a few in the 1.5 to 2 pound range. It was pretty slow. Didn't catch anything in the trees. All were caught on main lake points.

From personal experience, I would avoid the main lake on labor day weekend. Boat traffic gets crazy on holiday weekends.

Finally got some time off this weekend. Where, oh where to go!?!?

1 hour ago, Dirtyeggroll said:

Finally got some time off this weekend. Where, oh where to go!?!?

Not Melvern or Perry, big youth tournaments on both this weekend. 

2 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Not Melvern or Perry, big youth tournaments on both this weekend. 

I know! I was really hoping to get out to one of those two to find a smallmouth or two, then I saw the 70+ teams tournaments out there.

12 hours ago, Dirtyeggroll said:

I know! I was really hoping to get out to one of those two to find a smallmouth or two, then I saw the 70+ teams tournaments out there.

I'm going to a different lake looking for big smallmouth or largemouth 

2 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I'm going to a different lake looking for big smallmouth or largemouth 

I found 1 of 2 of those. Guy at the ramp had a monster smallmouth.

 

On 9/24/2021 at 10:32 PM, Dirtyeggroll said:

I know! I was really hoping to get out to one of those two to find a smallmouth or two, then I saw the 70+ teams tournaments out there.

I fished both these tournaments, and it was bad in terms of tourney fishing.   We caught one keeper on Melvern, on a DT-6, and two keepers finesse fishing on Perry.  Our one keeper got us 33rd place on Melvern, and our two keepers got us 9th place on Perry.  Caught my first two flathead ever, they were both about 9 inches long, really cool looking fish especially the little guys.  We caught a ton of shorts, and caught the snot out of the white bass.  

On Perry the entire Junior devision blanked, and only 17 of the 58 high school team weighed fish.    We got some valuable team of the year points.  

More to come in Latest Catch Pics Thread!

Besides bluegill, what type of baitfish do lakes like Olathe, Lenexa, Shawnee Mission or James A. Reed have? I've been out on the bank on several, and while I've noticed some smaller baitfish, I've had a tough time matching them to google-searched pictures. 

I plan to experiment with a variety of colors, but it'd be great to have a solid starting point.

 

Thanks y'all!

Olathe and SMP both have shad and both have very healthy crawdad populations. There's also crappie in both and big bass love crappie way more than they do bluegills.

 

I don't fish the other 2 and JAR will vary from pond to pond most likely. 

2 hours ago, NickBender said:

Besides bluegill, what type of baitfish do lakes like Olathe, Lenexa, Shawnee Mission or James A. Reed have? I've been out on the bank on several, and while I've noticed some smaller baitfish, I've had a tough time matching them to google-searched pictures. 

I plan to experiment with a variety of colors, but it'd be great to have a solid starting point.

 

Thanks y'all!

They look like this?  

Stick with a the typical colors and you'll do great. 

On 10/4/2021 at 4:58 AM, NickBender said:

Besides bluegill, what type of baitfish do lakes like Olathe, Lenexa, Shawnee Mission or James A. Reed have? I've been out on the bank on several, and while I've noticed some smaller baitfish, I've had a tough time matching them to google-searched pictures. 

I plan to experiment with a variety of colors, but it'd be great to have a solid starting point.

 

Thanks y'all!

I used to fish JAR a lot. They have all have big gizzard shad in them. But, if you want to catch fish there, don’t even bother with shad style moving lures. Throw jigs or Texas rigs. Find cover and pitch to them. Get ready for some skunks, but this was what I found after many years of experimenting. Jigs for sure catch the pigs out there. 

The fish are moving into the creeks. 21" and 19.75" this morning plus several smaller bass, 2 white bass, and a channel cat. Most of them on a jig or baby brush hog but a few on a squarebill and 1 on a spinnerbait. The 19.75" flopped off my board before I got a board shot.

 

5 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

The fish are moving into the creeks.

 

Nice catches brother! When you say the fish are moving into the creeks, are those the areas where the creek feeds/attaches into the main body of water, or the creek channels running through main body of water away from the bank? 

1 minute ago, NickBender said:

 

Nice catches brother! When you say the fish are moving into the creeks, are those the areas where the creek feeds/attaches into the main body of water, or the creek channels running through main body of water away from the bank? 

I was way up a feeder creek for those fish. The big shad have moved into them, and the big bass follow. Both those fish puked up 6-8 inch shad during the fight and the bigger fish coughed up an additional 6" bluegill as well. They had their feedbags on. 

3 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I was way up a feeder creek for those fish. The big shad have moved into them, and the big bass follow. Both those fish puked up 6-8 inch shad during the fight and the bigger fish coughed up an additional 6" bluegill as well. They had their feedbags on. 

 

Thanks for the clarification my friend! It would never occur to me to just head up a creek from a main lake to target bass and certainly not bass that size. Beginner's mind conditioning that needs broke :). 

Video from yesterday. @HaydenS took that rod for one last spin before it's yours. Video proof it'll handle fishing a jig ?

https://youtu.be/bX7Oi0K3qP4

1 minute ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Video from yesterday. @HaydenS took that rod for one last spin before it's yours. Video proof it'll handle fishing a jig ?

https://youtu.be/bX7Oi0K3qP4

Oh yeah, she'll fish a jig! ?

I was watching this during school today, and was wondering if it was the same rod lol.

For anyone looking to take a ride, Table Rock is starting to come on. The big bite is still after dark, but the daylight bite was good also. Had a personal best Spot last week on a spinner bait. White or close too is good. Good jig bite, not much top water. There are jerk bait fish out there. Those bites were skinny bass. Square bill. I fished mostly ledges. The only good bank fishing was from Piney Creek up to Cape bridge. Late in the day I dropped the spinner bait and picked up an underspin with any run of the mill soft, white, shad bait. I used 3/8th tungsten. This is what the bait looks like.  Def would do again soon. I tossed all types of jerk baits from Megabass to Rapala. The best for me was the Jenko 110 suspending, in of all colors Table Rock. Caught fish the whole time.

On 10/7/2021 at 10:51 PM, Bluebasser86 said:

The fish are moving into the creeks. 21" and 19.75" this morning plus several smaller bass, 2 white bass, and a channel cat. Most of them on a jig or baby brush hog but a few on a squarebill and 1 on a spinnerbait. The 19.75" flopped off my board before I got a board shot.

 

 

 

 

Well done.

 

9 hours ago, skunked_again said:

The best for me was the Jenko 110 suspending, in of all colors Table Rock.

If the jenko jerkbait is good, might have to give it a try, pretty cheap for $10.

Does anyone have any experience fishing any of the ponds listing in the WIFA Program? 

2 hours ago, NickBender said:

Does anyone have any experience fishing any of the ponds listing in the WIFA Program? 

Is this WIFA? https://ksdot.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=3e0ba6a852d2479aa6e384b4f87a0c2b

Check out Antioch Park.  I've never gotten more than one bite a day, but there are good ones.  This was last summer, on a jig.  Almost 5.  

Lake Lenexa has okay bank access, but the fishing it fun there.

14 hours ago, NickBender said:

Does anyone have any experience fishing any of the ponds listing in the WIFA Program? 

Lots of them are a complete waste of time, but there's some good ones. You're going to do some driving to find the good ones. 

Hoping to catch some crappie this fall / winter. Have a couple different colors of “crappie tubes” in the way of gear but but done really know what of much else to try. Minnows, of course, too.

 

anyone else have any tips round these parts?

If anyone is looking to road trip, avoid Table Rock for a few weeks. Fishing so very tough right now.

https://www.facebook.com/darren.graham.54/videos/1045443969577015

 

True story.