Milford Lake, Kansas Bass Report

This weekend we headed down to Milford Lake, Kansas. Milford Lake is one of the hottest smallmouth fisheries in Kansas and home to the current state record 6.68 lb smallmouth. This was first of five NBAA tournaments we plan to hold on Milford Lake.

After getting all the teams out we launched and began fishing around 7am. We took off out of the south boat ramp in Milford State Park. The wind had been blowing hard for that last couple days but seemed to be bearable at the moment. We made our way across the cove to a secondary point near the boat ramp. This particular point is covered with rock and gravel and extends 100 yards or so from the bank before dropping off into deeper water. I immediately started throwing a Chartreuse Shad Lucky Craft Pointer 78. My partner Justin began throwing a Chartreuse Blue Norman crankbait. It took roughly 15 minutes before I hooked up with our fist fish of the day. It was a 12" smallie. Several minutes later Justin hooked up with a 14.75" smallie. It was just shy of the min size limit. We fished the area for about an hour with no additional bites.

We decided to give the dam a try while the wind would allow it. We didn’t spend much time there. The water temperature was 51 degrees and it seemed like there was a steady flow of boats all trying to fish the dam. Most of the time the dam is pretty hot, but with the cooler temps all the fishing pressure we decided to look else ware and get out of the wind.

We headed up to the Rush Creek area and fished in a couple of the coves. The area I wanted to hit was loaded with half a dozen boats so we hit another cove close by. We spend and hour there. We threw finesse worm, crankbaits and jigs with no luck. We worked our way fishing a stretch of rocky shoreline to the cove I wanted to hit. Along the way we picked up a small wiper, but that was it. By the time we made our way to the cove I wanted to fish there was only one boat left in it and they were pulling out. We pulled in. This area was pretty protected and I had been dying to try out a new rod and reel combination. I had a Daiwa Steez spinning reel on a Kistler LTX rod. Then entire combo weighs less than 10 ounces. It was incredibly sensitive. We fished the cove for about an hour. The only fish we caught was another small 10" smallie on a Ghost Minnow Lucy Craft S.K.T. Mini DR.

The wind had picked up and I knew of another area out of the wind, but it meant crossing the open water. It wasn’t too bad. Most of the waves were less than 2 feet tall. We headed to an area where there used to be a rock quarry. The south bank was pretty protected so we began working our way down the bank. Again, Justin was throwing his Chartreuse Blue Norman Crankbait and I was throwing a Ghost Minnow Lucy Craft. S.K.T. Mini DR. Justin caught our last fish of the day. It was a 13.5" smallie. We fished the area for about hour when we decided to head back. The wind had come up to about 30 with much higher gusts and we had about 4 miles of open water to cover to get back to the ramp. After taking a pounding on 3 to 4 foot waves we decided cut the day short and loaded the boat around noon. Overall we didn’t do too back considering the wind really limited the fishable water.

After loading the boat we killed some time before the 2:45 weigh-in. After about 1:30 boats started to come in. Apparently, they also had enough of the wind. One of the boats traveled to the far north part of the lake before the wind came up, but paid for it with a 2 hour pounding on his way back. Normally, it is a 15 minute trip. Only one team was on fish. Jeff Jones and Cliff Bell of Colorado came in with 3 smallies weighing 6.11 pounds. They claimed 1st place paying $300. They also had the big bass weighing 2.46 pounds. That earned them another $45. After the weigh-in we enjoyed some hotdogs provide by Beacon Marine of Junctions City, Kansas. Congratulations to Jeff Jones and Cliff Bell and we look forward to seeing everyone at the next tournament May 12th.