Kansas Fishing Report - Reports from Anglers - July

Help keep others informed by emailing fishing reports to us. Include your name in the message part of your report if you'd like to receive credit for the report.

Source: Kansas Anglers like you and from KWP angler blog
Click on Photos to enlarge | Answer questions and submit reports by clicking here.

September 5, 2009 - Lake near Burden - Here is a picture of a 22" 6lb large mouth that I caught on a lake near Burden Ks. The fish was caught by Dave Bean while fishing with his uncle Eldon Schniepp and son Julian Bean. This fish was caught in the morning on a 4" tube bait. They always look like the weigh more than they do. We released the fish to be caught another day. We also caught another 20" bass that was skinny and only weighed 4 lbs.

August 30, 2009 - Fall River - Aug. 30, 2009. My son put a fishing trip together that included 7 seniors from his class to the cabin. Both days were met with a North wind and cool temps in the mornings. Tried to find the White Bass and could not find any. Boys noticed up on the face of the dam a few fisherman fishing from the top of the dam fishing straight down in the lake side pulling in catfish with a makeshift basket with a rope attacted to it. So, we investigated with the boat. Got up close, (supposted to stay 200 feet away) and saw MILLIONS of shad right up next to the concrete dam being chased by fish. We all changed out poles from trolling rigs to small twister tails and other small lures and started casting right into the shad. Catfish after Catfish we caught. 5-8 lbs. Boat packed with boys and fish after fish being caught. This lasted about 30 mins. So many shad we took the net and scooped up hundreds of shad right next to the boat.

Really have not gotten into much White Bass at Fall River this summer. Afternoon trip we went to a nice farm pond outside of Parsons and caught many, many Largemouth Bass. Then it was to McDonald's to feed these hungry 7 Seniors. Told them to order whatever they wanted. Big mistake. Most ordered DOUBLE meals. Threw all Catfish back into lake. Mark.

August 25, 2009 - Cheney - 8/23/09 - Went to cheney early Sunday, fished till about 9am.... .......caught 3 wipers in the 8lb range and 1 striper around 5lb. This was the first striper I have caught in over 2 years at the lake, and this fish was fat and healthy looking. First couple of spots I tried held just shad or just perch, so did not catch any large fish. But, once I found them
together, the fun started.

Locating perch, moreso than locating schools of shad, has been a key element for me in finding wipers. It seems that once I find some shad on bottom with perch hovering over them, there are larger wipers in the area as well. I have had several instances where I find the perch, but
no indications of shad or larger fish.

Have caught many "lunker" perch this summer, 12-14 inchers. These fish are pretty good eating also. Personally, I like them better than white bass/wipers/stripers and at that size, not much worse than cleaning a mess of crappie. Killing the ones that we catch and throw back. Too bad the laws are such that fishermen are not allowed to use the small
ones as live bait. I believe that the reason for cheney's great numbers of really big wipers is attributed to the amount of white perch they eat as well as the shad.

I agree with Mr Websters feelings regarding leaving large predators in the lake to help keep the perch population in check. I would like to see a slot limit or something similar placed on the wipers so that the largest ones are released. These fish are amazing fighters and voracious eaters...........I would guess that the wipers eat many, many more perch than all anglers together could catch and kill in a years time. The 21" walleye limit has obviously worked well, too. There are some really big walleyes in cheney now as compared to years past.

BB

August 23, 2009 - Cheney - Fishing has been good for walleye and wipers when you find the bait. Also catching tons of perch. More of a commentary than a detailed fishing report. I have been reading these reports for years but have never written anything. I enjoy reading about the success that some anglers have had at Cheney. Since I have never done this, I hope it goes through.

Anyway, for those die hard anglers that fish Cheney regularly, please make sure that if you are catching perch, either eat them, give them away, or kill them. Do not release them alive back in the lake. I am sure most of you do kill the perch, but I still see anglers releasing them back into the water. I realize that there are literally millions of them in the lake, but killing them can only help. The biologists are doing their best to keep the predator/prey relationship in balance.

I don't knock people for keeping their 2 legal fish,(although I would love to see even legal fish released) but we have to realize that every predator taken out of the lake only hurts the predator/prey relationship. We all know how White Perch can get out of control. Please do your best to help control this infestation.

By the way, I am sure most Cheney anglers can easily distinguish a White Perch from a White Bass, but be careful, for the first time in several years I have caught SEVERAL young White Bass. That is a GREAT sign! Good Fishing,

Ted Webster, President Kansas Walleye Association

August 15, 2009 - Cheney -Mark to Tim's question - Yes Tim on the top water fish. Last Monday morning when i was out at Cheney very very light winds. I was on the West side when the sun rose you can look back to the East and see hundreds of what looked like huge Wipers surfacing. Manly in deep water of 18-20'. It's a normally occurrence that i see that early in the morning on calm morning. And it's pretty much all over on the West side Northeast of the swimming area I'm seeing this. No concentrated area just all over. I'm finding the shad in 7-15' of water on ledges trolling using the 3-way. The pearch catching them jigging not trolling. And it's a blast jigging and a 11 lber. hits it llike a freight train. There in complete controll until they tire out. Your drag better be working with lots of line. No better feeling using ultra light tackel when that happens. Mark.

August 14, 2009 - Cheney - Aug. 14th 2009

Mark, I too was fishing Cheney the same day as your report. Sorry to say I didn't have the good catch you did. There were alot of large fish of all varities hitting top water. Brown flies which look like the "Mayfly". I spoke with you after the storm drove us off the water a couple weeks ago...... but due to rain we didn't get a chance to finish the conversation. My question is are you still fishing aprox. 10 to 12 feet with the outriggers and what lures are working best. Hope to be back out on Cheney next week with outriggers intact.

Tim

August 14, 2009 - Cheney - August 14,2009 Friday morning. Found a nice school of shad on a ledge. I figured it held pearch. So, i got out three poles and put two in rod holders and one in my hand and jigged with cast masters. It was a blast. Almost constantly fish on. All white pearch. Nice sized ones. It got to the point were I'd just leave the two poles in rod holders alone with fish on and just kept catching fish with the pole in my hand. One time i hooked a nice Wiper. It took out drag like mad. Ultra light gear with 8 lb. test. Landed a nice 11 lber. Wind picked up made it hard to keep on the spot. So, headed to another spot with the downriggers. Located shad and landed another 6 Wipers around 8 lbs. Last several days nothing but 21" plus Wipers being caught. No Walleye today. Makes no since. Last Monday could not keep the Walleye off my lines. Mark

August 10, 2009 - Cheney - August 10, 2009 Monday morning. A really nice quite morning. Very light winds from the South. Sunny skys. Not a thunderstorm in sight. "YET". Had to look around awhile to find the fish feeding on the shad. About an hour or so. When i found the shad the Walleye were on a feeding frenzy. Just about every other pass Walleye on. At first all were in the 5-6 lb. range. Real big fat Walleye. First round i caught a total of 6 along with two nice 23" Wipers. So, i had my limit of both within two hours or so. Wanted to give the area a break and i seen BB (BOB) up aways jigging. So i joined him and his son Paul on a huge school of shad and white pearch. Screen on the fish finder was FULL. What a blast. Both boats catching pearch and a few Wipers. Left after a while and hit the first area again and caught several more Walleye. I'm shaking my head. Man, all these Walleye today odd i thought. Went back to "BB's area and he and his son left. So, i started trolling and caught several more Walleye. These were anywhere from 16 to 24" long. Then, Yeah, here comes the the thunderstorms. Made a few more passes and hooked a very nice, brand new spinning reel combo with a castmaster lure on it. First thing i thought of was this is got to be Bob's son's fishing pole. It was snagged right in the area we were jigging an hour ago together. So, I'll get with Bob and ask him. Had to make a MAD RUSH again to the Eastside and load up the boat and clean my catch and then the rain hit around noon. I lost count. I caught around 12-14 Walleye and the Two Wipers. Cleaned 2 each of my catch.

Mark

August 6, 2009 -Cheney - August 06, 2009 Thurs. morning. Checked the weather before i left. No rain. Got to the lake an hour later and BIG thunderstorms heading in. Got 1/2 way accross the lake and put the brakes on and made a mad rush to the marina to get under a vacant boat slip. A min. or two later the hard rain hit. It rained, and rained. Hard. Kept dry untill the 40 m.h.p. wind showed up and i had to pull the rain gear out. Yea, it was blowing like heck. Lighting like mad. I'm wondering? Is this a safe place to be under a boat slip? 45 mins. later it kind of cleared up and i head to the Westside and caught a nice 6 lb. Walleye within mins. Then wham and nice 8 lb, Wiper. Then two huge carp. Then, Yeah, hear comes the rain again. I could see it coming. Heavy rain. So, i made a mad rush to the Eastside. Loaded up the boat and cleaned my fish in a hurry and the rain hit. Hard rain.. I only fished around 45 mins. so the fish were there. Just can't win this summer. The weather is so screwed up. Mark.

August 5, 2009 - Where would you go?- I am just curious and was wondering if you had a choice of Melvern, Pamona, Perry, or Clinton to go fishing for crappie or bass where would you rather go?

-Beerguy23

August 5, 2009 -Cheney - August 05, 2009 Weds. afternoon. Things picking up for me. Had a mix bag. Two 23" Walleyes. Two 23" Wipers, Four short ones. Two 5 lb. Catfish. Had to work to find them. Only 2.5 hours of fishing. Got off the lake at 7pm. Got too windy for me. Mark.

August 5, 2009 -Question on deer hunting in Unit 3 - Editor's note - Normally this would not be posted here since it's not fishing related, but we thought we would see if we could get him some help -

Hello,

My name is Jim and Im out here in a suburb of Detroit Michigan. This is the first time that my three buddies and I have been able to get a tag for Kansas, bowhunting. We will be heading out to unit 3, 1 on the 16th of November this year. I am looking for information on areas to concentrate on and anything to aid in my research of this hunt. Three of us will becoming in from Detroit by truck and the other will becoming from Montana and pulling a camper.

I will take any advice that you can provide to get us started on and enjoyable experience out there.

Thank You

jbelmonte@sterling-heights.net

August 3, 2009 - Milford - Milford Saturday August 1st. My family and I did some drift fishing on the North end of the lake along the Republican River Channel in 9 to 15 feet of water using shad. Caught several cats kept six, three channel and three blues with the largest was a blue about 6 pounds. This was only my second time to the lake. I have some questions for anyone who can answer. I would like to find a nice place to be able to park the boat and walk to the shower house and restrooms to change after skiing. Where is the best location on the lake to do that? Also, there were quite a few boats out after dark up by the Marina fishing in 35-50 feet of water? What were they fishing for in that deep of water after dark? Catfish?

Thanks,

Leon

August 1, 2009 - Halstead Little Arkansas River - Not the normal fishing report here but I thought I would mention it. Wife and I went for a walk in riverside park at Halstead 8/1. Walking along the bank we saw at least 6 channel cat that had been filleted and left on the bank for the turtles and raccoons and whatever else might stumble upon them. Judging from head size and length I would guess average weight to be 7-8 lbs. I tried twice with no success there last year but maybe I should retry?

July 28, 2009 - Cheney - Sunday morning, July 26th
- Another really nice wiper for my son..........he has had quite a good
summer fishing!! This was caught on live bait (not perch)and released
back to the lake for others to enjoy. Several others same morning, but
none as big as this one.

July 6, 2009 - Cheney - Some of the walleye's we've picked up the last couple weeks. We can't seem to find any wipers.

July 6, 2009 - Cheney - 7/2/09 - Finally, the shad are moving and schooling up and so are the wipers. Thursday was the first time this year I have seen a school of wipers chasing shad on the surface.

Trolling 3-way not working well for some reason this year, but jigs and spoons seem to work just fine. Also pulled a 20lb catfish same evening, same spot as the wipers. Good times ahead!

BB

July 5, 2009 - Webster -Been hitting Webster lake for the last several weeks now and the largest fish i have seen was the 17" walleye that i caught on a spinner bait. Can someone please tell me where are the bigger fish at. I haven't caught a wiper over 3/4 pound, have not caught one cat fish yet, no flat heads. Me and two others are just frustrated that no bigger fish have been caught. catching lots of smaller fish on all kinds of bait from worms, to minnows, shrimp and everything else. Any information would be appreciated.