Februaries of the Past

In February, Old Man Winter regularly keeps Midwest finesse anglers at bay in northeastern Kansas.  For example, there were 368 days from Feb. 1, 2004, to Feb. 29, 2016, and during that time, I was afloat only 69 times, which is an average of five February outings each year.

When ice covered most of the northeastern Kansas reservoirs, my outings were spent at two power-plant reservoirs. The other outings took place at some of the community and state reservoirs and one of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' reservoirs that grace the countryside within a 40-mile radius of Lawrence, Kansas.

Some of the outings were solo endeavors, and at other times I was joined by another angler. During these 69 outings, we were afloat between 2 1/4 and five hours. On those outings, we caught 1,343 largemouth bass and 97 smallmouth bass, which is an average of 21 black bass an outing and less than five black bass an hour. The best outing occurred on Feb, 9, 2012, when Rick Hebenstreit of Shawnee, Kansas, and I caught 118 largemouth bass and nine crappie in four hours at one of the many community reservoirs in northeastern Kansas, and we caught 102 of those 118 largemouth bass in about three hours.  I suffered through my worst outing at that same reservoir on Feb. 26, 2007, when I battled too much ice and a 37-degree surface temperature and failed to elicit a strike in two hours of fishing, and in an attempt to placate my fishing fever, I spent another two hours at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' reservoir, where I failed to garner a strike.

Since 2011, we have published 55,633 words that describe how, when, and where anglers who employ Midwest finesse tactics catch or do not catch largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and spotted bass at waterways in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia. The preponderance of these words revolves around the endeavors of anglers in northeastern Kansas and north-central Texas.

To read about how, when, and where Midwest finesse anglers battle Old Man Winter and catch some black bass in February, here are the links to six guides that will reveal their methods:

(1) http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/a-month-by-month-guide-to-midwest-finesse-for-bass/.

(2) http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/an-addendum-to-the-month-by-month-guide-to-midwest-finesse-part-2/ . This is the guide to February of 2012.

(3) http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/month-by-month-guide-to-midwest-finesse-february-2013/.

(4) http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/midwest-finesse-fishing-february-2014/.

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(5) http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/midwest-finesse-fishing-february-2015-2/.

(6) http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/midwest-finesse-fishing-february-2016/.

Here are some photographs from Februaries of the past