Free Day in the Park & Free Fishing Weekend

This coming Saturday is the Johnson County free Day in the Park, which also alligns with the state wide free fishing weekend (where you don't need a license). Shawnee Mission Park will be having free admission to the beach (from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.) and free pedal boat & canoe rentals (from 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.). They will have a "Paws in the Park"  canine water party at the unleash area. There will also be animals from the Ernie Miller Nature Center, along with free GPS unit checkout for geocaching and trail exploration, and free sailboat demonstrations and rides.

Kill Creek Park will also be having similar activities. For more details, go to:

http://www.jcprd.com/special_events/dayinthepark.cfm

Mildale Farm Open House 4-27-2013

I had fun down at the annual Spring Open House at the Mildale Farm, down by Edgerton. The barn is open along with the ponds for fishing. The fishing was pretty good at the close pond this year, although I didn't see any monster size. Charlie joined me later in the morning and we caught a decent number of Bluegill, Crappie, and Largemouth bass. Caught a couple on a popper but most were underwater on bigger flies like the Woolly Bugger. It rained in the early morning but stopped around 9:30 or so and turned out very nice. Wasn't very crouded this year.

Terry

Fly Fishing Arkansas 4-03-2013

It was another great fly fishing trip down to Arkansas last week on the Spring, Norfork, and White Rivers. It was me, Dan, Ron and from out of town, Jim & Rocky. The weather was great the whole time, usually between the 40's and 60's. The trees down there were a little ahead of here, with many budding out and at peak were the red buds, bradford pears, forsythia, and hawthorn. Of course my allergies were going crazy too. And with a sore knee, I did a little less fishing than the rest of the gang. But we all caught tons of fish and had a great time. Wednesday, we fished the Spring River all day, and just hammered them. Thursday we fished the Norfork in some lower areas and did pretty good, although not the numbers from Wednesday. Friday we fished the state park area and did fairly well again in the morning, and then went to the Narrows in the afternoon (and what a caddis hatch!). Last morning we fished Rim Shoals which was slower than usual but we still caught fish. I'd say the best flies this trip were the Wooly, sow bug, scud, midge, dries (especially caddis), and some on bedspread and Jim's egg pattern. The water generation was off everywhere we fished; no problem getting around water release (which is a big change over the last couple of years). Here are a few photos and for the whole trip album, go to:

Complete Album

Terry

Dan's nice Brown Trout

 

 The gang

 

Red buds turning 

Jim with "fish on" 

One of my Rainbow Trout 

 Ron casting

 

Who? 

 Rockster

 

Flyover Innovations' new Blumoo Audio Controller

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Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTgL6YUBpu4

Press release:
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Facebook:
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Quick Stop at Guy B Park

While I was dropping off a sign at a house up north, I decided to make a quick stop out at that Guy B. Park, just north of Platte City. This was on Friday, 3-15-13, when it was such a nice day got up to 80 degrees. When I got there, one fisherman was on shore and one was on a boat. The water was pretty clear and didn't look too bad, so I tried a little shore fishing up by the dock. Didn't have any luck so I went over to the dam. I was also closer to the guy in the boat and I saw him land 4 fish in about 20 minutes. I was about ready to give up and blame the time of year or the lack of being in a boat when I caught 1 Largemounth, about 14 inches (see picture). So I was quite content with such beautiful weather and decided to call it a day.

Terry

 

Bennett Spring Trout Opener 3-01-2013

Ron and I had an enjoyable but pretty cold Trout Season opener this year at Bennett Spring. They had gotten quite a bit of rain recently and a little bit of snow, which helped drought conditions as well as helped the stream levels. It was 24 degrees on Friday, the opener, and 27 the next day, along with some wind and light snow. That was probably why the opening fisherman count was way down at 1,338 as opposed to the expected 2,300. This was one of the 2 or 3 coldest openers that I've attended. We took pictures at the opening whistle, which was at 6:30 and sounded by local Don Brown who has apparently seen 56 previous openers. There was also some changes in the park by the dam this year, as they opened a new wheelchair ramp and new pier. Later on the opening day when it thinned out, we fished some and probably caught around 16 rainbow trout. The next morning we got out at 7:30 and it was very cold. I got skunked this time, although Ron caught a trout. Most of the Liberty gang made it down as usual, and even managed to canoe the river one day. I'm also working on a short video.
A few pictures are included below and the rest are here:

http://s1189.photobucket.com/albums/z438/flyfishkc/Bennett%203-01-2013/?albumview=slideshow

And a short and crude video:

http://youtu.be/B0U-VpktnOE

Terry

Starting to fish

 

 Don Brown getting ready to sound the Whistle at 6:30

 Ready, Set, Go!

 

Part of the Liberty Gang 

New Wheelchair ramp below dam

Traditional biscuits and gravy breakfast 

 Terry & Ron

 

Trout Stocking Kill Creek Lake

I enjoyed seeing the first ever Rainbow Trout stocking at the Kill Creek Lake Park on Wednesday, Feb 20th, 2013. This is a Johnson County lake that has been added to the existing stocking lakes of Heritage Park and Shawnee Mission Park. They did all three parks the same day, and just barely beat the snow storm. I brought along my grandson Carson, who is 2 1/2, who really seemed to enjoy it too. The weather was colder than predicted, at around 23 degrees, so we both got cold pretty fast. They decided to tag 8 fish, so they could be caught later for prizes. The lake was closed to fishing until Saturday, so the fish could get a little acclamated. As the truck was a little late, Carson really enjoyed a playground area in the park that was just his size. See pictures and video below.

Terry

 

Carson getting ready

 

Carson saw the truck coming while playing

 

The truck has arrived!

 

 

Getting 8 fish out to tag

 

Marking fish with plastic tag

 

Releasing the main bunch