Kansas fall trolling -still fun!

With all the great reports of fall trolling on the pond up north this week, I headed….south. I wasn’t able to make it north this year, but fellow IDOer Sharkbait (Chris) invited me down to fish Saturday with him and his kids Cody and Nikky. I took him up on his offer and as a result, we had a great time.

Chris posted a report last week on IDO that really turned me on. If you click on the link in the below post, you’ll see why. They were catching some real nice flatties with a few wipers and walleyes mixed in. But anytime you’re trolling up 20lb + flatties, that’s a good time. So I was anxious to make the 80 mile trip down south to check it out. We encountered a real nice day with just a little breeze that actually turned out to help us with our fish. No flatties were had this time, but the wipers sure were!

If you aren’t familiar with wipers, they are a cross between a white and striped bass. They are very hard chargers, and when you get a decent fish, all you can really do is hold on and wait for them to give you an opportunity to gain some line on them. I imagine we caught 9 or 10 fish all afternoon (slow by Chris’ standards), but they provided a lot of fun. Chris stuck with trolling his Lund all day, and we focused on one main area where the wipers had moved into, which was helped by the wind, no doubt. The wipers weren’t real picky, but they did prefer a couple Shad Raps and stick baits over a few other baits. One particular color seemed hot for a while, and it was hit numerous times with a few hook ups as well. We also trolled up one walleye that came unbuttoned just behind the motor, but the wipers ruled the day. Like I say, no flatheads were reeled in, but I do suspect that maybe I did have a run-in with one. Right before dark we were headed in, and my line tightened up, and it sure felt like a snag, as flatheads like to do that. I didn’t get much of a chance, and my line twitched and my hot stick bait was a goner. We were in deeper water with a lot of marks on the graph, and Chris knows this area well and said there really is no snag in that area where our baits were. So….who knows. Maybe that was the 50 pounder!

Although Chris has been fishing this lake for years as a recreational fisherman and guide and has seen many days that were better than this one, I sure did not complain one bit. I don’t fish for wipers much, but I have caught quite a few on Elwood Res back when the water was normal and the fish were plentiful, 4-5 years ago. With that lake being down 50′ the past 4 years, the NE Game & Parks has stated that it’s taken a particularly hard hit on the big wiper population. When I was catching 22 and 23 inchers, they were nice fish, but I sure don’t remember them being as thick as these fish from Norton were. These were the nicest wipers I’ve caught in probably 4 years or so. With our weather turning bad tomorrow night and dropping to forecasted lower 30s Tues and Wed nights, I know that’ll definitely throw our fish for a loop. Otherwise, I’d be headed back down this next weekend as well! So, thank you very much Chris and gang for a great trip, and I can’t wait to fish this great lake again.