Kanopolis Reservoir
33 miles SW of Salina on K-149 & K141 US
Corps Of Engineers 785-546-2294
GPS Location: N38 38.709 W097 59.244
Location/Address:
Kanopolis, KS
Impoundment Type: Reservoir
Surface Acres: 3,550
Maximum Depth: 35
Normal Lake Level: 1463 msl This lake is generally held 4 feet above this conservation level during the summertime.
| Fishing Population | Creel Limit | Min Length Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Bluegill | ||
| Channel Catfish | 10 | |
| White Crappie | 50 | |
| Flathead Catfish | 5 | |
| Largemouth Bass | 5 | 15 |
| Saugeye | 5 | 15 |
| Walleye | 5 | 15 |
| Wiper | 2 | |
| Trout | 5 | |
| White Bass | ||
| Black Crappie | 50 |
** Striped Bass or Wiper in Combination
*** Walleye, Sauger or Saugeye in Combination
Fishing Report - Last Update: 9/2/2010
|
Species |
Rating |
Size |
Baits, Method, & Location |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Channel Catfish |
Good |
Variety |
Summer catfishing is here and chumming is working - hearing good reports of limits of nice fish coming from the humps and around the brushpiles. Sponge and dip baits are often the baits of choice when fishing chummed areas. Remember, float line fishing is legal in Kanopolis from July 15 thru Sept 15 if you want to try that technique. Trot lines and set lines are still legal - be sure to mark them well with name and address. |
|
Crappie |
Slow to Fair at Times |
Variety of Sizes - mostly 11 to 13 inches |
You'll need to check out the deeper brushpiles to see if you can find them. Sometimes in August/Sept the crappie will move up shallow to take advantage of the food - look for them around any brush or logs laying in the water. They also might move in around the floating docks in the marina and in Yankee Run as the water temp cools down. |
|
Walleye/Saugeye |
Slow to Fair |
Variety |
Slab spoons will work from now through the winter but I have not heard any good reports yet. Anglers are catching lots of short fish this year- make sure you throw those back under 15 inches - it is the law!!!! You might try trolling around the shallows in 7 to 10 feet of water - that is working at Wilson. |
|
White Bass |
Good to Excellent |
All sizes - lots of 9 to 11 inch fish |
White jigs and roadrunners are good baits in the summer as are trolled shad colored crankbaits. Slab spoons are working now too!! The whites are chasing shad in the main lake, around the rockpiles, and windblown points should be the ticket. The shad spawn was good but the shad are getting pretty big already. Anglers are catching a lot of small white bass and wipers - be sure you know the difference if you are keeping them - white bass no limit, wiper limit is 2 fish per day!!! |
|
Wipers |
Fair |
All sizes |
Might try live shad now as they should be easy to get - slab spoons might work now too. They are catching some small wipers - be sure you can tell the difference between them and the white bass if you plan to keep them. We seined recently and there are LOTS of baby wipers - the stocking we did this spring really took!! |
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General Comments |
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Current lake elevation and water temperture is available on the location page linked to this fishing report. It is updated daily by the Corp of Engineers. All boat ramps are usable. The lake is 77 + degrees and the level is normal for summer, about 4 feet above conservation. The 2009 creel showed a good harvest from Kanopolis!!! I want to thank all you anglers for sharing your information with the creel clerks and helping us better manage the fish in the lake!!!!! You guys took 6867 saugeye/walleye that averaged 2.12 pounds each, 15422 white bass that averages 1.07 pounds, 5780 crappie that averaged .48 pounds, 602 wipers that averaged 3.51 pounds, and 7435 channel catfish that averaged 2.13 pounds. We estimated that 16,688 anglers fished the lake from March thru October. Of those anglers 23.1% expressed a preference for channel catfish, 52.4% for walleye/saugeye, 16.5% for white bass, and 4.1% for crappie. Anglers came from all over but Salina anglers accounted for 38%, Hutchinson 10.3%, McPherson 9%, and a lot of smaller towns in the area contributing 3 to 4 % each. Male anglers dominated with 62% between 16 and 64, 21% over 64, and 5% under 16. Female angler acounted for only 13% of the total anglers. Lets all hope we have another good fishing year in 2010. August seining on Kanopolis - we seined recently and found some interesting results. We did not seine up large numbers of shad and those we caught were all pretty big for this time of the year. Most were around 4 inches already, not really what we want to see in early August. We caught way more small 2 to 4 inch white bass and wipers than we did shad. These small whites and wipers are certainly high in numbers and are probably providing a lot of food for the larger game fish. We also found quite a few small channel catfish indicating a very good spawn of those. We also saw moderate numbers of small drum - they too will be chowed upon by game fish. Overall, it looks like we have a lot of food in the lake for our game fish, just not the shad that usually make up the bulk of the forage. NEW NEWSLETTER AVAILABLE NOW: A district newsletter for the Ellsworth District is available at this link site now. It will be updated at least 2 times per year, perhaps more often if time allows. If you would like to subscribe you can go to the following link to get a copy e-mailed to you. http://kdwp.state.ks.us/news/KDWP-Info/News/Newsletter-Request-Forms/Request-a-Newsletter-for-the-Wilson-Reservoir-Fishing-District |
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