Category: Kansas Bass Fishing

Sunflower Team Series on Wilson August 18th

This last Saturday was the last season event for the Sunflower Team Series. Kyle was my partner for the day. We planned on fishing a lot of water with topwater due to not being able to prefish. We caught a lot of fish, but most were in the 14 inch range. We lost two really good fish. It is really hard to catch every fish on topwater baits. One thing I wish I could have changed is to have started with a walking bait sooner. First cast with the bait about the 9 o’clock, I caught our first keeper and a few minutes later caught our second fish. Then I lost a 4 to 5 pound fish on the bait. It hurt really bad, but if you fish a lot you will lose fish. Just part of the game. We finished the tournament with only 4 fish around 7.87lbs for 21st place out of 46 boats. It really was fun to fish tournaments with my sons. The experience is going to make my sons and I better fisherman. There is nothing like fishing tournaments to help you learn how to catch fish. We ended the season in the top 20 standing. I’m so proud of my boys for fishing 8 hour days 4 times in all different conditions over the season. They fished so hard for me and were great teammates. Thanks Rick and Kip for starting a great circuit. Hopefully we will be able to fish it next year.

The Sunflower Team Series Championship will be on Melvern in October. We will not be able to fish it due to a schedule conflict. The boys will be fishing the Kansas Bass Nation Youth Team Series on Wilson that weekend.

An Incredible Day on a New Lake

We decided to try a new lake we had never been to. We drove an hour and half to the lake. On the way it was raining a little, so I was hoping we would get lucky and not get too wet. When we arrived at the lake, it was windy and raining a little. By the time we got to our first spot it was down pouring. Kyle started with a fluke and Nick with a frog.  We decided to start on a deep bluff out of the wind and rain. We fished down the bank without any bites.  Then we decided to try the dam which the wind was blowing in on. When you go to a lake you have never been on, it is always a good idea to try the dam especially when the wind is blowing in on it. Both of the twins decided to try a crankbait on the dam. My choice was a spinnerbait. It did’t take long to hook up. On the first pass down the lake, we all hooked up. Being the first time on the lake, we decided to have another pass down the dam. For the next two hours, we caught some really nice fish with a couple being over 5 pounds. After you find fish with moving baits, it is always a good thing to go back through with a slower bait. All the big fish were caught on weightless Senkos. I felt bad the big fish kept hitting my baits. I even moved to the back of the boat, but it didn’t make a difference. The boys were throwing the same thing. For the last hour, I sat down and just watched the twins fish. It was an incredible day, and our best five were 19lbs.

Family Day on Banner Creek

Flint Hills Bass Club had family day on Banner Creek on June 2. The twins and I would start the day without Trey and Melissa because Trey had a tee-ball game in the morning. A nice rain storm came through in the morning before the fishing derby started. We had about 4 good spots to fish. I knew our first spot would be gone. So, I planned on fishing our second spot, which just before we took off, I noticed some bank fishermen on the spot. We had to start on a spot that was similar to the other spots, but just doesn’t usually have the quality or quanity. But on the first casts, both boys hooked up with 15 inches. A great start! We would catch our limit in 30 minutes and started culling. Most of the fish were caught on soft plastics, and a couple of smaller fish where caught on crankbaits. Kyle was able to catch two fish on a frog. Melissa and Trey showed up with a hour to fish, and we only caught a couple of small fish in the last hour. We ended up with 11.88 lb for second place. It wasn’t a bad day for fishing. Anytime you fish with your family is a great day.

Sunflower Team Series on Wilson

The Sunflower Team Series hosted an event on beautiful Wilson Lake on May 12th. It was going to be a great day for a tournament as the weather prediction was sunny and only 10 to 15 mph winds. There were 41 boats ready to tackle Wilson lake’s largemouth and smallmouth.

I was fishing with my son Nick. We were looking forward to fishing Wilson. I have never fished Wilson in May. But, I have fished Wilson before so I had an idea where to start and would just need to go a little more shallow. Being the sixth boat out, I fiqured we could be the first one to the spot. We started on secondary and main lake points in the area. We fished for an hour before moving to another spot that had some shallow grass and wood. I would hook up with a non-keeper largemouth on a frog. After another hour of fishing, I decided to move to our third area.

We arrived at the area finding about four other boats in the area. I drove all the way to the back of the cove. I was throwing a Senko special rigged and Nick was fishing a couple of different types of plastics. We came up to a ledge on a bluff with some grass. I tossed the Senko onto the grass and it took off to the side. I set the hook on a three pound smallmouth. After landing the fish, Nick and I were very excited. We fished down the bluff to another ledge with grass. I hooked up again with another three pound smallmouth on the Senko. After landing that fish, I told Nick to cast up there quickly while I got another Senko rigged up. Nick right away said “Dad I have one and it is a big fish”. He fought the fish to the boat and I landed it with the net. It was another 2.5lb smallmouth. When it jumped, it looked huge! They always look bigger when they jump. After fishing the spot for another hour without another bite and watching a couple of other boats landed fish around us, I decided to move on.  It was a hard decision because there were fish in the spot. We fished around the cove for another hour in a couple of different areas, and never got another bite. So, we decided to move to a shallower cove, and Nick would catch 4 non-keepers on a tube. We tried a couple of main lake little pockets without much luck for the next few hours. With only 1 hour left, we moved back to were we caught the three keepers. I threw a Senko up to a white shallow spot between the cattails in 6 inch of water. The smallmouth hit it right away when it landed. I was able to get the fish out of the cattails and Nick landed it with the net. It was our fourth keeper.  We were so pumped, but we still needed another keeper. Nick even gave me a one handed hug. We fished for 40 minutes without a bite. It was a long drive back to the boat ramp with only 4 fish. There were a lot of five fish limits and four fish bags at the weigh-in. Most of the fish were averaging three pounds. There was also one big smallmouth at 5-11lb.  I won’t be very surprised if in the next year the Kansas State record smallmouth is caught in Wilson. Nick and I had 11.70lb for 18th place.  Not bad out of 41 boats, and one more fish would have got us in the top 10. It was awesome to fish with my son. Nick is a grinder; he will fish all eight hours and never quit. Even when he has not caught a fish, he won’t quit. Thanks Rick and Kip for giving me the chances to fish tournaments with my sons. We will see you at the Melvern tournament on June 9.

Kansas Bass Youth Qualifier & Championship

On Sunday, May 6, the twins had two tournaments to fish on Melvern for the Kansas Bass Nation Youth Trail. They were making up their 4th Qualifier tournament that was supposed to be on Milford, but due to weather in April, it was cancelled. The Qualifier was going to be from 7am to 11am. The lake was cut in half so we could only fish from West State Park straight across the lake to the south and west part of the lake. This would save the east area and dam for the championship. It was going to be a very nice day to fish.  In fact, maybe a little too nice as the wind wasn’t going to blow much. Boys and I had done our homework for this event pre-fishing 4 times. We had found 4 good spots; two for the Qualifier and the other spots for the Championship. Being spring, fish are moving around everywhere. During the cold weather, we were catching fish in prespawn mood about two weeks ago. Then the weather warmed up, and the fish decided to start spawning.  The fishing had gotten harder. The last time the twins and I pre-fished, it was tough as the Kansas Buddy Bass tournament was taking place. We had only caught one keeper, but we were getting a lot of bites. I told the boys the fish are picking our baits up and moving them off the beds. It would be our best spot in the championship.

Kansas Youth Bass Qualifier #4

We decided to start in Turkey in back of some of the pockets. Which the Friday before, I had a couple of bites pre-fishing. Fishing was going to be tough with the high school and another adult tournament fishing the day before. I told the boys to start with crankbaits and topwater. Never know this time of year, you can sometimes get a big fish to hit something by fishing slowly across the surfaces. We fished it for about a hour. I told the twins, “Lets go to one of our best spots and see if we can catch one there”. It had not produced for a couple of weeks, but we were hoping the fish had pulled back up on it. The twins both started with plastics on the spot dragging them slowly back to the boat. All of sudden, Kyle set the hook right next to the boat in 9 feet of water. The big smallmouth jumped right out of the water next to the boat. I was getting the net out of the locker telling him “Don’t reel!  Just keep your line tight.” We finally got him in the net, and after a couple of high fives, put number one in the boat. Kyle would hook up with another smaller non-keeper a couple of casts later. I decided to move out a little deeper so they could fish the 9 feet range better as we were seeing a lot of fish on the depthfinder in that range. Kyle would catch 2 more non-keepers before we moved on. We had only one hour left before weigh-in, and decided to check a couple of other spots that had produced for me in the past. Never know, maybe we could find a spot for the afternoon championship. We weren’t able to catch any more fish, and had the one smallmouth to weigh-in. All the teams had a hard time with just half the field catching fish. A lot of teams were saving their spots for the championship. Two teams had two fish, so I knew it would be hard to win with one fish. Twins ended up tied for second with 3.65lb, but having big fish took second place. They had a lot of confidence going into the championship. The championship wouldn’t start until 1pm.

Kansas Youth Bass Championship

I knew we were going to start at our best spot on the lake. It had not fished very well the last couple of weeks. Twins started with plastics slowly dragging them along the bottom. They caught about 4 non-keepers before we got in the back of a pocket which had fish moving around. Kyle casted up to a stickup very shallow and his line took off to the side. It was our first keeper and largemouth of the day. We fished for another 30 minutes without catching another fish. I decided to move to the spot that a week before I had caught the good largemouth. We pulled up to the spot and Kyle hooked up right away with a keeper. Both the twins would catch three non-keepers and missed some fish. We were fishing back and forth, then Kyle hooked up with another keeper. Had three keepers with 2 hours to go. After another 30 minutes, we moved to the spot we caught the big smallmouth. We were hoping to catch another big fish, but we fished for 45 minutes without a bite. I looked at the twins and said “Let’s go to a spot that maybe we could catch another keeper.” Idling out of the cove I decided to go back to the spot that we caught the two keepers. It would be the best decision of the day. I told the boys on the drive over this could be a champion move. I pulled up to the best spot. Nick’s second cast, he hooked up with the fourth keeper largemouth of the day. After landing it, celebrated, and had 20 minutes to go. I told the boys, “We need one more.” Which wouldn’t happen.  It was a hard ride back to the boat ramp. Pulling up to

the boat ramp all the kids started to ask who had fish. Another boat had 4 keepers, so it would be between us and them. It was going to be close as they had 4 smallmouth and we had 4 largemouth. They weighed first having 7.57lb.  We were next. Gulp.  Our weight was 7.83 pounds. The twins won the Championship! It was close, and both teams deserved to go to the nationals. I was so proud of the boys and how hard they fished. Kyle was on today catching 4 keepers through the day. Nick never quit, kept fishing hard, and caught the final fish that would win the tournament. They worked so hard for the Championship. This July ,the twins will represent Kansas at Bassmaster National Junior Championship in Tennessee.