Author: Tate

GLEN ELDER FALL FISHING

We made a trip out to Glen Elder for a B.A.S.S. Kansas Youth Team Series Event. It was a great day on the water with my boys. We arrived at the ramp while the High School’s event was going on. There were a couple of teams fishing around the ramp, and they were hooking up almost on every other cast with white bass or non-keeper smallmouth. The fish needed to be over 15 inches to weigh-in with a bass pass which will allow tournaments on Kansas to weigh-in 5 fish over 15 inches between Sept 1 thru June 15 then released back into the water.

It was a very difficult day to pre-fish with the wind and high school kids fishing on most of the spots. Also, you try to stay out of the way of the High School kids fishing the event. I decided to start in an area we had luck before and was out of the wind. Nick hooked up with a tiny smallmouth right away. Then we moved to the back of the cove which I made a mistake and threw by some stickup. My line started swimming off and I set the hook. It was a nice keeper largemouth.

Then a high school team moved in on the spot, and we decided to move out of the way. We watched them catch two non-keepers off the stickups. I decided to move over to the south bank to some other stickups I have had luck on. It didn’t take long to hookup. But it was the wrong species, wipers. Twins were having too much fun not to let them catch some wipers. After a couple of hours, we decided to go watch the high school weigh-in, and after the weigh-in we would come back out.

We fished a couple of main lake points which we hooked up with drum and wipers. We were moving around and not having much luck, so the twins wanted to go catch some more wipers. We decided to hit the south bank again which we should have never fished again. Kyle threw up by a stickup with a small crankbait and hooked up with a keeper smallmouth. He was just so excited about catching the smallmouth that he was shaking. We then caught a couple of more wipers and smallmouth.

Tournament Day was very tough for the boys. I cannot fish on tournament days; I can only coach them, run the trolling motor and the big motor. It is so hard to be patient when they are not catching them. You keep thinking should we be fishing over there on that point. Maybe the dam or back of that cove. Then should they be throwing this or try that. I have not made very good decisions this year. We tried the stickup in the back of the cove which I caught the keeper largemouth. The boys caught three non-keeper largemouth right away, but then went another 30 minutes without a bite. I decided to move them to the south bank, and we would not even get a bite. Not good; we should have never fished it so hard the day before. We moved to a wind main lake point which Nick caught a non-keeper smallmouth on a crankbait. Then, I made a mistake instead of continuing to fish down the riprap along the point, I moved us over to the south bank again. The boys would hookup with a couple of wipers, but with 30 minutes to go I decided to go back to the point and fish down the riprap which Kyle would catch a keeper with 20 minutes left in the tournament. Then both the twins caught 3 more non-keeper smallmouth. They would just weigh one fish in. I found out the winning team fished riprap on the north side in the wind. Oops!!! I should have listened to that first smallmouth Nick caught off the point. The number one rule when you catch a fish is she maybe telling you whats going on. If we had fished down that riprap 2 hours earlier maybe we could have caught a limit.

White Bass Fishing in Kansas

Every year on most of the Kansas lakes that have white bass, they will turn on in September and October. The white bass move shallow to feed. It is a great time to take kids fishing. They can throw about almost any bait out and get hooked up. I prefer to have the boys throw Square Bills, Lipless Crankbaits and small spinnerbaits. If they are busting the surface, Topwater baits work great. We had a trip out about a week ago that we caught 23 white bass in 10 minutes, and ended catching 82 fish for the day. We could have caught more, but we decided to fish for smallmouth. You can always tell if you are going to catch the white bass when the birds are diving in the water for baitfish. Even Trey had has first double on a square bill. So, grab a rod and go fishing before the season is over. Good luck!!!

2016 Conservation Tournament on Melvern Lake

Last August the Kansas Bass Nation put on a Conservation Big Bass tournament at Melvern lake. A friend and asked if he could fish with one of the twins and other could fish with me. It sounded like fun, and I have always wanted to fish a tournament with my boys.

The Conservation event is for a great cause to help put structure in the lake so the fish can have some cover. One problem with Kansas lakes, they are getting older and we are losing a lot of cover for our small fish to hide from predators. How it works is the entry fee is a fish structure to put in a designated area. You can only bring one big fish in to weigh in and it has to be over 18 inches.

So, Nick teamed up with me and Kyle teamed up with my friend. I knew the dam was where Nick and I would start. We started catching fish right away along the dam on Topwater and Tubes. After catching multiple fish between 12-15 inches, we decided to move on up the lake to try our luck. We tried points, flats and bluffs and would only catch 2 fish in 2 hours of fishing. Nick looked at me and said “Dad can we just go back to the dam to catch fish.” So we went back to the dam. I was thinking lets just see how many fish we can catch. After returning to the dam, I hooked up with a really good fish on topwater. I thought maybe we had a keeper but it would only measure 17 3/4 inches. We caught two more fish in the 17 inch range. I was like well maybe we’ll catch a keeper. About that time my cell phone rung, it was my friend fishing with Kyle. He was having trolling motor problems and wondering if Kyle could jump in the boat with us.  We ran back to the takeoff area and picked up Kyle, and ran right back to the dam and started catching fish but the size was smaller. I missed a fish on topwater, and I told Kyle to throw at the spot. He hooked up right away, but it was just a small fish. He unhooked the fish and threw his bait in the water.  He was going to measure the fish, and just then his rod started to bounce. He had another fish on has bait that he laid over the side. He was so excited to catch that fish. One thing about smallmouth, they are very competive fish, and when you have one hooked a lot of times another one will try to take the bait from them. They often will follow the other one to the boat. A lot of times, the other people in the boat can cast behind the hooked fish around the boat and get hooked up too. We never caught a fish to weigh-in, but the twins and I had a blast catching 80 fish. Thanks Kansas Bass Nation for putting on a great event.

Pond Fishing Part 2

Last Week we went over Stickbaits, Spinnerbaits and Poppers. This week I will add one of the first baits I was giving by my grandparents. It was a Berkley Power Worm 7 inch on a Jobee Hook 1/8oz or you can Texas Rig 3/0 hook with a small sinker. Throw it out and slowly drag it back when the fishing is slow. Also, don’t be scared to throw it out and reel it in with a steady retrieve. There are plenty of different colors to try. But I would recommended in clear water watermelon, green pumpkin and pumpkinseed. Pumpkinseed is a great color in any water conditions. In dark water try Junebug and Blue Fleck.


The last bait I would recommended is Swimbaits. They come in many different sizes from small to big. I would buy a couple of packages of swimbaits that are pre-rigged with hooks like Berkley and Storm Wildeye Swimbaits, and start with 2 or 3 inch bait. This is a great bait for kids to start with as they can throw them out and just reel them in. Just let them pick out a couple of colors white, baby bass and firetiger are some of the best.

Ok, I went over 5 different types of baits: Stickbaits, Spinnerbaits, Poppers, Worms and Swimbaits. The next question you have is where to start when you get to the pond. When you walk up to the pond, try to be quiet and stay low. Also, try to walk up to the pond into the sun so you can keep your shadow off the water because if you walk up to the pond and make a bunch of noise, you will scare the fish. You can tell if you scare them by all the wakes as they are swimming  away from you. So by being quiet, you can usually hook up right away and sometimes the biggest fish can be caught first. I would also recommended to throw along the bank parallel. Fish will be sitting right along the bank looking to ambush something. Look for the ditch or creek that comes into the pond, it will hold fish. If there is any objects in the water, throw to it.  Bass love to hangout around anything; even a little stick will hold a bass. Another tip, I always like to fish two or three days before the full moon or new moon. I hope the tips help you catch fish at pond and catch your personnel best.

 

Pond Fishing

In Kansas, the best fishing maybe just across the street or down a little dirt road just outside of town. Ponds are everywhere in Kansas just teaming with fish from small to large. The state record bass is from a pond at 11.8lbs caught by a kid. I will go over just a couple of great baits and tackle that you can use on a pond to catch a lot of fish and maybe your personnel best. Also these baits are great for kids to start fishing with.

If you only have one rod, I would recommended a spinning rod 6’6 to 7′ with a good reel that holds a lot of line around 8lb to 10lb of mono. If you have another rod, I would have a 6’6′ to 7′ baitcast rod with a 6.2:1 or 7:1 reel speed and holds 12lb to 15lb of mono.

The first lure, I would recommend is a Stickbait in Green Pumpkin and Black Blue Flake. You will want to throw it weightless on a Texas rig 3/0 hook. This is a great bait to use all year long, and it will be mostly weed proof. You can use it on the spinning combo recommended above. You can fish it many ways with small jerks or just throwing it out letting it     slowly sink on a slack line making sure to watch your line for any movement. If you feel weight on the end of the line, reel up and swing away. My boys have caught some really big fish on a stickbait; so if you want to catch your personnel best I recommended investing in some type of stickbait.  You can find a variety of stickbaits in most stores.

The second lure would be some type of topwater, such as a popper. This is a great bait to throw on both the rod/reel combos recommended above. A smaller popper works better on spinning. Catching a bass on the surface is just awesome! It is hard to explain the feeling of seeing the bass explode on the surface attacking your popper or any of the other topwater baits out there. But make sure to watch out fishing this bait.  I have been hooked 6 times in me life, and 4 times were with poppers.

The third lure would be a Beetle Spin or Spinnerbait. I recommended throwing the beetle spin on spinning because they are usually a very tiny bait. But don’t let it fool you, they catch a lot of fish both big and small. I have had some of my best days on the water fishing a little beetle spin. All beetle spins come with silver blades, but I recommend buying some gold blades. I would throw the silver blade in sunny, clear water. Then use the gold blade on all cloudy days with clear and muddy water or sunny days with muddy water. For the Spinnerbait, use the blade colors in the same conditions as just mentioned. The two spinnerbait colors you need  are white and white/chartreuse in a 1/4 oz, and use it on the baitcasting rod and reel.  A good technique with the spinnerbait is to burn the lure as fast as you can just under the surface. You cannot reel faster then a bass can swim; if they want the lure, they will catch it.

In the next article, I will go over top lures 4 and 5, and what to look for in a pond to catch fish.