Good week of KS/NE fishing

Since I had 7 days off from the job, I decided it would be a good time to get out and get some fall fishing done. The weather was less than nice, most of the time, but we still managed to get some fish in the boat.

We’ll start with the best day first, which was yesterday, Wednesday, which found my Dad and I down fishing Norton Reservoir in northern Kansas. We met Chris (sharkbait on IDO) and his Dad out on the water, and later on Chris hopped in with us and fished all afternoon with us. We trolled all day, and it started out slow, but turned out to be a great day. The sun was out, the wind switched directions a few times, but we did manage to get about 18-19 wipers in the boat, along with 5 real nice crappies that also hit crankbaits. All crappies were 11″ or over, with the biggest almost touching 13″. The wipers appeared in a variety of sizes, with some being around 16-17″, but we did get some good fish in the 21-22″ range, and our last fish of the day was this dandy MA wiper that went 25″. Thanks for all the help, Chris!

The wipers hit on a wide variety of cranks, but there were a few cranks that did outperform others. My buddy Jay and I went down to Norton on Saturday and picked up Chris’ daughter on the way out. She was our guide for the morning, and she is a blast to fish with. She gets in there! She got the big fish for the day with this nice 22″ fish, and we also got a few others around the same range. Mostly all trolling on Saturday as well. Our count on Saturday was 7 wipers, 7 nice crappies, and 1 each of a walleye, flathead, LMB, and a huge drum. Later that evening, after getting into Chris’ boat, Nikky got this nice 28 inch wiper into the boat. Picture isn’t that good, and I was a mile or so away when it was caught, but wow is she a fisherman!

Fishing at Norton sure was a blast for a couple days this fall; I always like to make the trip down. Here is another pic of what the smaller wipers were looking like. They were still fighters and a blast to get in, though. My Dad had a real nice one on that took him into a snag and was subsequently lost. He did get a few 21 inchers in though, so his arm still got a workout.

Thursday and Tuesday were both spent in the Tri County canal in Nebraska. I took my buddy Tony out with me Thursday, and it was a real challenge. Wind was gusting to 43, and the water temp was all the way down to 53 in the canal. We hit Elwood briefly and left without a bite, so we hit a part of the canal and got only 2 crappies into the boat. It was good to get out, but wow, a little less wind would have been nice. Tuesday my Dad and I went out and we were able to get out of the wind a little bit and found some fish. We found crappies suspended in deeper water, and managed about 40 fish in the boat. I was pretty happy about finding a tough pattern that put quite a few fish in the boat. It was a very slow presentation with jigs that required some patience I don’t always display, but it sure worked well, even in the 35mph+ wind we again had on Tuesday. One of the nicer fish was this 11 1/2 incher that fell to one of my hand tied marabou jigs.

It was a great week to be out on the water, regardless of massive wind or cold. Too bad it all had to be ruined by returning to work tonight. I don’t know how long this nasty weather will last, but I sure hope I’m able to spend a few more days on the water this fall before finally putting the boat away.