Camden and I (the two happy gilmore's of bass fishing) got out today on LaCygne

[PBrussell]

If you're from the midwest, you've heard of lacygne. It's a 2000 acre reservoir, with a coal power plant sitting on top of it. The reservoir was actually built to cool the power plant, but lucky for us fishermen, they threw some bass in there. They get very big, and you can fish it year round thanks to the hot water discharge.

But, that's not the only reason you've heard of la cygne. La cygne is known as one of the toughest lakes in kansas. Not only does it get a lot of pressure because of its close proximity to Kansas City, but the bass are very temperamental due to the always changing conditions. One day they let hot water out, the next they don't. Add the unpredictable midwest weather and you have a tough lake to fish on your hands. If you find a pattern, it can disintegrate the next day, sometimes even in hours.

With that being said, Camden and I did pretty good today with about 8 fish a piece. We caught fish on everything today- lipless crank, squarebills, roundbill cranks, shakey head, jigs, biffle hard head, etc.
We couldn't find a pattern either. Some fish were caught on channel banks, others off rip rap, a few on the dam, and a number in the water willow. The best fish we caught came from particular changes in the grass line with a jig. The grass might have come to a point, or a hole in the line. If I had to do it over again, I would've hammered these changes in the grass lines all day.

Unfortunately, I didn't snap any pictures of Camden. He had a 3 pounder that hopped off that I wish we could've got in the boat. That would've been a good picture fish. If there's one thing I can say about Camden, he's a great fisherman. I was playing catch up with him all day. He sure knows how to catch em on a crankbait. And, he did about do a happy gilmore dance at the end of the day with one that broke off at the boat. I was about to swoop in with the net but I was too late. We won't talk about how big that one was 

With that being said, he did manage to snap a few pictures of me which I will post.


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[PBrussell]

Here's an action shot. Goofballs.

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[Camden]

Blake, it was a blast and once again a great host as always. Blake can put you in the spots for some big fish I just wasn't able to capitalize on some great opportunities. The first one was my fault as the crank was on the rise and he came up and slammed it and I wasn't ready for it. The second one...well was my fault again it was another solid fish and one that was needed since we had been on a dry spell and needed a energy boost. I had it right up to the boat and forced it a little to fast and snap right above the knot and watched it swim away. Like Blake said I was about to throw one of my famous Happy Gilmore fits and thought better of it so I just sat down cross legged on the back of the boat and pouted
Blake is a heck of a jig man too with his biggest and another beautiful chunk on a jig.
One thing I wanna say about LaCygne.... Every single fish we caught was a solid fish with some of the strongest fights I've felt. even little 2lbers would fool you by diving deep and doing everything they could to pull drag.

Not to Brag but if you put me and Blake in a boat. the two of us can do so many different things well that we can almost always put em in the boat

[Donald Garner]

Guys tks for sharing the trip and pics .with us

[Bigwrench]

Sounds like you guys had a blast !  Too bad Blake couldn't catch the Happy Gilmore on video .

[Mike Cork]

Sounds like a great time. Also sounds like between the two of you (jigs and cranks) you should team up and fish some central team events

PBrussell, if you get a few minutes can you copy and paste your first post into the Kansas (Missouri ?) Fishing Reports Section as well. This is a great fishing report that will get lost here in Catch of the Day

[Camden]

We'll make sure it gets over there Mike.
I realized what one of the hardest things about fishing the lake was. The major temp changes. Where we started fishing was only about 67-68 degrees and then of course the water near the discharge was a balmy 82+ degrees. this meant that even by moving from area to area meant having to use totally different techniques and even colors.

[Mike Cork]

We have a lake just like this here and I know what you mean about techniques. On one side of the lake they want top water baits and on the other you're dragging jigs in 20 feet of water 

[bluebasser86]

La Cygne has been pretty good to me the last 2 weeks. Not sure how many I caught 2 weeks ago but it was more than 10 and I had 3 keepers over 18" including a super fat 19" fish that went 4.87lbs. Last Thursday I kept track so of course the fishing was tougher  I ended the day with 20 bass, 2 whites, and 2 wipers. Only one keeper sized bass, it ate a swimbait at the outlet, as did both wipers and 2 other solid bass. A silver/blue rattlebait was king for me but I had a lot of fish come unbuttoned on it also. Towards the end of the day I landed about a 10lb carp that I snagged in the side on the trap and I had seen tons of carp in the areas I was fishing so maybe those fish that were coming unstuck were just carp that were getting in the way of my bait? Caught a couple on a spinnerbait, several on a shakyhead, several on a tube, and one on a squarebill. Normally I can get a good squarebill bite there this time of year but it just wasn't happening Thursday. Going to be a few weeks before I get back down there probably but for a change I'm actually looking forward to it 

The biggest fish from 2 weeks ago will be a stud if it makes it a few more years!

[Polaris425]

Wow nice fish!

[Siebert Outdoors]

Nice fish!!  Congrats.

[Creel Limit Zero]

The two Happy Gilmore's?  I was thinking more of Dumb and Dumber...

[Mr1ply]

how late into the year does the water stay warm?

[PBrussell]

The two Happy Gilmore's?  I was thinking more of Dumb and Dumber...

I guess that works too   

[Camden]

Yea but which one is which

[bluebasser86]

how late into the year does the water stay warm?

Year round as long as the plant is going which is almost always. I can only remember one year that more than the river and the very backs of the coves froze. The outlet was still in the mid 50's that year though and there was still plenty of fish to be caught, just had to slow down more than usual to get them.

[mo65]

Way ta go guys! 

[ring fry]

Yep, time of the year to make the 30 minute trip up there.

SE Kansas grass grower