December 31, 2015
By Ned Kehde
Bob Gum of Kansas City, Kansas, with a largemouth bass that he caught at a northeastern Kansas power-plant reservoir in January of 2015.
As we have noted in the past, January is typically the most trying and coldest month of the year for Midwest finesse anglers in northeastern Kansas, and to some extent it is that way at most locales across the nation.
Despite the wretched conditions that often confound us, we have published 38,091 words on this Web site since 2012 about how Midwest finesse anglers deal with the weather and their quarries in north-central Texas, southern Missouri, North Carolina, northeastern Oklahoma, northwestern Arkansas, and northeastern Kansas.
During Januaries of the pasts in northeastern Kansas, I was afloat three times in 2005, 13 times in 2006, eight times in 2007, once in 2008, once in 2009, zero times in 2010, three times in 2011, four times in 2012, three times in 2013, once in 2014, and five times in 2015.
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Our most fruitful outings for largemouth bass in northeastern Kansas occurred on Jan. 9, 2007, when we caught 45 largemouth bass at a community reservoir where the surface temperature was 40 degrees. We also caught 45 largemouth bass on Jan. 7, 2013, at one of northeastern Kansas' power-plant reservoirs, where the surface temperature ranged from 45 to 54 degrees, and these largemouth bass were caught in the warm-water plume. Our most fruitful outing for smallmouth bass in northeastern Kansas occurred on Jan. 25, 2006, at a power-plant reservoir, where the surface temperature was 44 degrees, and we caught 25 smallmouth bass in the cold-water portions of this reservoir rather than in the plume of the warm water that jettisons out of the power plant.
To read about how, when, and where Midwest finesse anglers fish in January, here are the links to four guides:
(1) http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/a-month-by-month-guide-to-midwest-finesse-for-bass/ .
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(2) http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/the-monthly-guide-to-midwest-finesse-january-2013/ .
(3) http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/midwest-finesse-fishing-january-2014 .
(4) http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/midwest-finesse-fishing-january-2015/ .
Rick Allen of Dallas, Texas, with a north-central Texas largemouth bass that he caught while walking the shoreline of a community reservoir on Jan. 28, 2015.
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