Midwest Finesse

[dtrs5kprs]

Here is a link to a nice article from Ned Kehde of Lawrence, KS. It describes in detail the super small stuff some of us used with good results last spring and summer. Worked everywhere I tried it, for myself and the family. A great way for wives and kids to get some bites, as well as finding some last minute keepers yourself. Super easy.

finesse blog

Hope everyone is well. Have been on the football field or basketball court with the kids since August. Looking forward to longer evening light.

[dtrs5kprs]

Should have noted it also details a day Ned had with Stacey King in December 2010 at a Kansas City area lake. Might have seen that one on the Bass Pros last year.

[Guest Buck Creek Mike]

Thanks for putting that out there. I live in KC and think I know of a have been to a few of the lakes they are referrencing. I would like to know where the smaller lakes they are fishing at are located though.

[dtrs5kprs]

Thanks for putting that out there. I live in KC and think I know of a have been to a few of the lakes they are referrencing. I would like to know where the smaller lakes they are fishing at are located though.

Mike,

Public lakes in KS for the most part. La Cygne and Wolf Creek (Coffey County, or whatever it is actually called) are the hot water lakes, and then the little city, county, and state lakes from the MO line out towards Topeka. Believe the trip with Stacey was at Gardner City lake. The little "mud puddle" lakes from 50-200 acres or so. They also hit Perry, Clinton. Never have heard anything from Ned about Hillsdale. I frequent a few on the MO side since I am closer to the line in Lansing than Ned is in Lawrence...Guy Park area at Platte City, Belcher Branch at Faucett. Have been curious if it would work down at Montrose by Clinton. It definitely works at Mozingo up North. Expect it would work pretty well at Smithville.

He has a loosely organized group of folks he sends info to, sort of an ad hoc finesse club. Anyone interested can PM me an email and I will pass it along to Ned to add to his list. Several of the regulars here are on it. Once in a while we get a report from Brent Frazee of the KC Star about Riss Lake, or some of Ned's family at LOZ, but the rest are just regular little lakes and regular little fishermen passing on info.

Just spent the last several days worth of free time pouring some "improved" heads to go with the technique. Used the Gophers, some heads form Outkast, and some plain round crappie heads with it last year. Excited to see if they are any better or worse.

As far as Table Rock goes...it flat makes fish appear out of skinny, coverless, clear water. Especially brown ones. Had an article and pics from a PAA tmt last year with Stacey fishing it at Lanier in cold water.

[Champ188]

Cool blog, dtrs5kprs. Thx for sharing the link.

[exiledguide]

Here is a link to a nice article from Ned Kehde of Lawrence, KS. It describes in detail the super small stuff some of us used with good results last spring and summer. Worked everywhere I tried it, for myself and the family. A great way for wives and kids to get some bites, as well as finding some last minute keepers yourself. Super easy.

finesse blog

Hope everyone is well. Have been on the football field or basketball court with the kids since August. Looking forward to longer evening light.

Thank for the info. Last year may 10 on Indian Point in the flooded sycamore trees in Stiilwaters cove my bride and I found LM feeding on very small sunfish. She wore them out using 1/32 oz with a chartruse Gulp Alive fish fry. For some reason people think that you can't catch decent fish on small baits. Now we fish for fun so both of us catching and releasing more than a limit of 15" to 18" in less than 3 hours made her day. I always carry small plastics with me whenever fishing clear lakes.

[bluebasser86]

I have fished with one of the gentlemen from Ned's group of finesse guys. In the hands of someone who is good at it his techniques are scary effective. Some of the lakes that he has 100+ fish days on are tough for most guys to put 20 in the boat on the best days.

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

Come on now, you guys know you can't catch bass on them little tiny finesse baits!

[Sam]

I'm not surprised that little finesse baits do good on bass, because I often catch bass when crappie fishing with small lures. My best fish last season was a 21 1/2" largemouth caught on a swimming minnow and 1/16 oz. jighead out of brush in the Long Creek arm. Fortunately, the fish headed for open water and I was able to chase it with the trolling motor, because I had an ultralight pole and 6 lb. mono line.

I lose more bass than I catch when I'm crappie fishing because I've got to assume a bite is a crappie and I usually don't set the hook hard enough to stick a bass. Even if light crappie poles would allow it, a "bass" hookset would bring up crappie lips, mostly. Still, I get a good bass in (and release it) once in awhile - and in my experience, bass of all sizes often bite small lures.

[dtrs5kprs]

For history buffs, some of Ned's info also dovetails well with a post in the General Angling forum about Virgil Ward and baits from the boom time of the 60's and 70's. Couple of the guys in the blog were big parts of the Beetle (not the Spin version) and other finesse methods.

To BlueBasser's msg:

As an example we fished a KC metro lake last July when it was over 100 degrees, and surf temp was heading north of 90. Between two decent anglers we had about 4-6 fish on "big stuff", and about 35-40 on the little rig by the time we came off around 11am. Takes some patience and confidence, especially if it is windy.

I've been fishing seriously since 1985 and have yet to see anything like it for finding one last fish...plain banks, docks, ramps, etc. The overlooked places that are always on the way in.

Glad some of you enjoyed it, hope you give it a shot.