Perry Lake

Perry Lake, Kansas
20 May

Channel Cat on the Fly

I heard good things about the crappie fishing and some rumors of large mouth at Perry Lake for several months, but this was the first time I made the 45 minute trip to see for myself. The crappie and large mouth fishing was slow in the area south of the highway 92 bridge. In fact I was only catching a few crappie now and then. No bass yet, however things got interesting north of the bridge in the flats.

First, I hooked into a nice 6 pound Grass Carp using the old reliable squirrel tail. Didn't really know what I had since the water was murky and I was casting to a swirl. The carp put up quite a fight considering I was using a 5 wt with 5X tippet. Not an exciting fight, but long and testing.

Next, I took cast at a huge swirl generated by my friends spinning bait. We thought it looked Bassy, but the only thing we caught was a Channel Cat. Again with the Squirrel Tail. This fish really put up a fight! I thought it was going to snap me off several times.

The biggest issue for both fish? Who was going to pull them out of the water! These are not "nice looking" fish. Fortunately, I had the fish on the line so Rob had fish duty.

This is a fairly big lake with a reputation for crappie and white bass. Think I'll hold off on going back anytime soon, but I do have to say that if you are looking for catfish and carp on the fly this may be the place.

Back to Kansas