A Colorado guy in Kansas

[stinkyfingers]

It looks like there's not much traffic on the Kansas ice fishing board but if anyone reads this could you please post some advice. I ice fish the Colorado mountains every year but this year I'd like to try the Kansas warmwater species weather permitting. From Colorado Springs on the front range can you recommend some lakes within a 3-4 hour drive that fish well for crappie and perch?
Thank you

[wyoutdoors]

When I lived in SE KS (moved to Wyoming in late '88... sheesh I'm old!), it was a Stihl Workboss chainsaw to cut square holes and small farm ponds and county lakes which I ventured out on to. Regular crappie rods and jigs or bass rods and Mr Twisters in the shallows near weed lines or cattails did the trick. Now I'm bonafide with flashers, cameras, GPS, navionics, 4 strok augers, Ice Armor suits, Clam flips and thermal pop-ups!

The KS board was started last year or so and is gaining as more KS guys start to learn the winter fishing techniques. Hopefully you can get it going this year. Best of success to you!

- wyoutdoors 

[fish-core]

I'd like to get into some of those big kansas crappies this winter, we may have to meet up and see if we cant get on some fish! i'm from South Dakota btw. i got some family in colorado but out west, would be nice to try ice fishing there too.

[squ1rr31_]

Hoping Kansas can get some ice this year so you guys can get out and be safe!

[wyoutdoors]

Hoping Kansas can get some ice this year so you guys can get out and be safe!

 

[GB 83]

Well Stinky, We get ice but, not every yr tho. Sometime our ice season is only a few weeks long if that. We have crappies,gills,eyes,...ect ect Again NO yellow perch in our water. State of KS doesn't even stock em in our lake any more. Matter of fact, KS state record perch was pellets fed (yep just like a catfish) in a private pond. Now I travel to Neb,iowa and SD to ice. Ice is better and safer and you can plan a trip around their winters. Ours, you have to go at a drop of a hat...... But welcome to Kansas😉

[DannyBoy09]

STINKY  ,Give me a personal message with your phone number and we can talk.
 Dan siegfried

[stinkyfingers]

Guys,
Thank you for the responses. As I read a little further down through the Kansas forum it appears that in Kansas first ice and last ice can hit in the same week in January. As I'm sure you know, the problem in the high country is how to get through 30" of the stuff. Frankly though I've caught about as many trout as I care to and would much rather target the species I do in summer: crappie, walleye and even cats. There's a fair amount of discussion on the forum about crowding and overfishing. I'm not surprised that it's crowded if you can only fish one week per winter. I like to catch a nice mess of crappie for table fare but I sure don't need twenty five of them.
Again, gentlemen, thank you and I hope we can meet some day.

[Flint]

Most all lakes can have good crappie fishing and it helps to have some brush piles on the gps. I fish NE KS so cant help much with lakes in the western part. Go to the link I posted on the last page and corp installed brush piles will have some gps cords listed. There is a coordinate converter online that will convert decimal degrees to lat and lon and also show on a map where its at. Glen elder/ Waconda has bouys marking brush by the causeway.

[Cornseed]

Anyone put out homemade brush piles