Where are some of the places you guys are fishing? Lately I have been hitting some of the local lakes in the area (Johnson County outside KC on the KS side) that I have never fished to see what I could find. Such as Lake Olathe and Cedar Lake. I used to fish Shawnee Mission Park Lake often just because it was so close but that place is such waste of time. I haven't hit Kill Creek yet this year but I imagine by now the bass fishing there is epic. Last year you could see endless 13-16 inch bass guarding their eggs from the shore so by now there must be some decent size fish there.

Other than the local lakes I usually enjoy the reservoirs such as Perry or Clinton and on occassion John Redmond because you never know what you will catch, especially in the outlets.

They aren’t much of a problem in the river but lakes and ponds are swarming with them. They’ve pretty much ruined fishing the bottom in several spots. Only choice is to find a hole deeper than the turtles are going or go to slip bobber rig and keep your bait off the bottom, which is what most of us around here are doing.

Another silent option.


Get a cement block. Tie string to it, make sure there's not enough to get all the way to the surface. Add a hook, add some minnows or cheese or whatever they're biting on. Tie a rope to the block (or don't) and toss it out in the water.

This is how a buddy of mine caught and ate the campus ducks when he was in college.

Now that you mention fishing the bottom, I wonder how many times I have lost bait thinking it was a fish but was actually a turtle. Because occassionally I do like to just relax at a lake and fish for catfish. I was thinking you were referring to fishing with minnows or something which I never really do so I guess I never made the connection.

I’m mostly going after big flat head and blue cats so I’m taking a perch or goldfish about the size of your hand and putting them on the bottom. It’s been a successful strategy but the last few years the turtles have been taking over to the point that I can’t keep bait on long enough to actually attract what I’m after.

Edit: I should say that not all the lakes around here are overrun like that but the one I was fishing Friday is.

Sometimes I am happy just to catch a fish that big, yet alone use one as bait :) Where you been fishing if you don't mind me asking? Don't worry I won't go there and impose on your turf :thumb:

Its fine, just public lakes. I don’t have any super secreting honey holes that no one else knows about.
This is the one I was fishing Friday.

http://www.stateparks.com/wilson_sta...in_kansas.html

Its actually a very deep lake for around here and it holds some huge flatheads.

Cool. You actually aren't too far from John Redmond (an hour or so?) which I have visited from time to time. You ever go up there?

Haven’t made it up there yet, heard there is some decent fishing, particularly below the dam.
Redman actually feeds the Neosho River, so I keep an eye on this site that monitors what the Redman dam is doing.

http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/JOHN.lakepage.html

Here’s one for the river where you can track level and flow.

http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/web...1.current.html

They actually have sites like that up and down the river from Redman all the way to Grand Lake.

http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/PENS.lakepage.html

I use those army corp stats sites often as well to monitor how the react to rain, etc. The outlet at Redmond is where the best fishing is at. The damn itself is one of the larger ones in area that I am aware of and the river is also wider than most. Right now they are doing some work on the damn and are not releasing much water. But there is a point that the catfish people LOVE to fish below the damn. If you have access to google Earth you will see the point I am referring to that gives you access to so much water to fish. I love using google Earth to follow the rivers and such and get a different perspective of the areas I am fishing.

Hit the lower Elk River today. Floated from about 13 miles to about 3 miles up from the OK border and Grand Lake. Caught a variety today... That stringer has 4 Drum, the biggest at 24 inches, 1 Channel Cat (caught two more while we were filleting them), 1 Crappie, 2 Blue Gill, 4 Goggle Eye. It was a damn good day. We set out lines while we ate lunch, and that big Drum pulled my pole out of the boat, my Dad ended up catching it on one of his lines, and that 24 inch Drum was on the other end of my rescued pole.

A solid day.

http://i44.tinypic.com/oibsx2.jpg

A float trip like that alone sounds incredible, but thats a killer mixed bag indeed, those kind of days are always the best.

Drum are fighters in their own way, not athletic but they really know how to hug the bottom, in my experience they'll pull down like a catfish twice their size, took my trusty Zebco spincast several good turns to get them in... just a thick slab of a fish, i've heard they're not the best eating though, so havent tried that, supposedly very bony & oily.

That must have been nice out there with the cooler weather the past few days. Drum are insane fighters and I love catching them but they really aren't the best eating, at least not in my experience. The worst part about catching them is if fishing for crappie and you hook one thinking you have a monster crappie and the drum shows up but oh well. What is a goggle eye? Looks different anything I have seen.

Check out these pics of monster crappie from John Redmond. The one with my hand weighed in at 1lb 13 oz and was one of a full stringer of crappie that size. The other pic is 2 lb 3 oz with proof on the scale! That was such a big one my dad and I let it go.

What the hell is a goggle eye?

Drum are fun. Late in the summer when the river is down I like to wade around with some light gear and a jig to pull drum and white bass out from under cover. I just don’t know that many other people that keep them. Don’t know why I’ve eaten them before and thought it was delicious, at least as good as channel cat meat.