Growing up in central KS. my family almost always targeted largemouth bass in ponds. We only caught crappie accidently. After veiwing a couple of years worth of Rick Z.'s and Joe H.'s articles waxing eloquent on the pursuit of crappie, I gave it a shot tonight on our subdivision pond. Naturally, I trusted the venerable hare’s ear (#12) as per Joe’s addiction. Casting the HEN at the end of a 6X tippet, I just let it sink real slow. Tonight, at least, the crappie were very gentle taking the HEN–indicated by the changing rate of the leader sinking. Without the RZ’s and JH’s articles here on FAOL, for guidance, I doubt that I would have caught on the subtleties of shallow water spring crappie fishing. I had a blast, with around 2 dozen black crappie, a dozen nice bluegills, 4 green sunfish and 3 small largemouths in a couple of hours. Since our subdivision collects all of the lawn runoff I don’t keep any fish–strictly catch and release. I know–almost sacrilege when it comes to crappie.
I think the best part of the night was learning to recognize the subtle take and improving as the night went on…
Brad, sounds like you had a great time fishing on your pond. You’re right about those subtle takes. Got to wonder how many times fish take and spit out our flies with us being none the wiser. I spent the majority of my life in CO and fished for trout most of the time with occassional warm water fishing for bass and panfish. Been in the Topeka area for the last 10 yrs so now its pretty much fishing warm water lakes. One thing that suprised me was the number of channel cats and a few other species you can catch on flies. Sometimes they’ll hit a fly aggressively but other times its just a real subtle take. Does’nt take long to know you hooked something bigger than a panfish once you set the hook, though. Glad you had a great day!
Terry Quality flies~ great prices…www.teflyfishing.com
So Betty are you wondering about fish in Olathe or that I posted from Olathe?
I’m out on the west edge of town and have taught biology here for a number of years. Most of my fly fishing on our sub division pond has been for bass using mostly poppers. But late last year I started moving over to trying to match the aquatic insects–a lot of fun.
Brad,
I knew you were from Olathe, and I know your name from the Biology departments, (long story of how I’m familiar with the schools) … but the fish? In Olathe?!? We live on the far west edge of town … but we sure don’t have a subdivision pond! Closest pond would be Prairie Center. (Used to help do a tall grass burn out there with Steve Case, and all the kids).
Betty
I’m out at Persimmon Hill and unfortunately the pond is private–just for residents. I must admit that over the last 6 years I haven’t had as fine a night as I did last night. I used to catch a bunch of bass when we first moved here but more of the residents fish, now than then.
I first fished the Prairie Center Lake 30 years ago back when it was private (I was student teaching). I did really well–several large bass. I think a person could still do fairly well out there in a float tube but I haven’t been there much since Steve left…
We’ve done more than a few burns out there as well. Mucho excitement. Maybe we worked the burn together…
I’m just outside the Olathe city limits on the east side in Overland Park. Kids go to Olathe schools.
One of my favorite spots is a subdivision park pond nearby. Sunday I caught about a dozen green sunfish, about the same for bluegills and one 10" largemouth.
No wonder the fishing is so wonderful in Olathe. Close enough to the line to be considered Missouri! A warmwater fish-in would be a wonderful idea. JGW
Another Kansas guy here. We’ve got a fish-in crowd going! Next fall you all need to come down to the Wichita area for trout season. Slough creek in Sedgwick County park is flyfishing only. I pulled a 19" rainbow out this year. Maybe a twice a year event!
Brad;
That KS Fish-In sound’s like it would go over great! Think about it. I’d be obligated to be there as Betty is coming up for the Michigan Fish-in.
I think you have got something started there!
Don’t forget the Michigan Fish-In August 14th to the 20th. The Holy Water’s of the Au Sable await you!!
I feel like the new guy at “coffee” who finds out he is going to have to pick up the check…
As to the “KS Fish-in” suggestion. I don’t think I’m the the person to work on this–my KS fishing career has been mainly on private waters. In fact, I didn’t buy a license for more than 10 years because I quit fishing public waters completely. I have just started trying public waters again but have very limited experience. I would certainly be leary of making KS my fishing destination as an out of stater unless I brought along a boat. There is some great fishing in some of the resevoirs (especially for walleye, wipers, and white bass) but stream access and stream fishing is very limited compared to other states. For instance I would suggest that the diversity of waters in NE Iowa, NE OK, northern AR, or southern Missouri make them much better destinations for a warm water Fish In. If my schedule works I’d enjoy such an outing.
That said, I think it would be great if some of our local folks got together. Locals, send me an personal email if you want to get together for an evening of fishing one of the local spots…
Oh, shoot!! Brad figured it out before we all got together! Have to try again with someone else!!
It’d be fun to all get together, but I’m not a warm water fisherperson, and I have no idea where to even fish around here. I’d still do what ever I could to arrange something. Even go as far as filling Abby’s pool up, and chill down the sodas, to enjoy an evening in our back yard! Pirates are pretty adaptable!!
Closest pond would be Prairie Center. (Used to help do a tall grass burn out there with Steve Case, and all the kids).