Snow Carping in Kansas

by

Loren Walters

Being my first blog opportunity and not being one of the cool kids in the US carp community, I’ll go ahead and introduce myself. Bear with me, I’m not an accomplished writer and I put thoughts together like a 5 year old that’s had sugar.

My name is Loren Walters, and I have a problem. I used to be perfectly happy spending hours of time endlessly chucking rubber worms to catch 13-inch ditch pickles and feeling happy to catch a couple pounds of fish. Unfortunately, I started hanging out with the wrong people.

One of my friends (Kevin Zirjacks) introduced me to what has become not only a hobby but is something that I cannot quit, carp fishing. After finally agreeing to do what I thought of as “trash fishing,” all it took was two fish for me to reevaluate my whole opinion on something I had been doing since I was seven.

It changed fishing for me completely. My second carp I had ever caught was 26 pounds!

Very shortly after, I was introduced to a group of shady fellows, the KCCA (Kansas City Carp Anglers). We formed a Facebook group as well as a WhatsApp group. Man those early days on that app got heated sometimes, but all in good fun. The group very quickly became very tight and spending several days a week together on the bank was not uncommon. Any skill I have in carp fishing is attributed to the early members of this group (Kevin, Ricky Wiseman, Peter Wraight, AJ smith).

Not to go on and on about KCCA but it has grown to have many, many active members in a small area of the country that cherish and protect the resource we have in our waters. I feel like I have gained brothers and sisters with this community of carp anglers. The best part of the group is its dynamic; Doctors, high-end chefs, forklift drivers, teachers, Culvers worker etc., we all hit the bank together and enjoy the company.

For those of us here in the Kansas City area, winter is a frustrating and interesting period every year. Most of the time winter is when we clean our gear, re-spool reels, 3-D print carpy stuff, and make plans for the upcoming year. But because we are pretty much obsessed, we still cannot fully pause hitting the banks even in the least desirable conditions.

Being in the middle of the country, our weather swings from very cold to mild from day to day. Our waters never fully freeze to a point to feel confident walking out on ice nor does it stay warm enough where fishing continues to be prolific.

Here in this area, we must look to the rivers and warm water outlets. Even still, the rivers are often completely un-fishable. As with probably most of the US carp community, we scour maps to find waters we have yet to bless with our alarms and bank sticks.

Even though it is mostly fruitless, we sometimes find a spot that we have skipped over or previously dismissed as not worth trying. The members of KCCA have almost made a sport of these endeavors. Almost weekly our group shares ideas of spots to try on our Facebook page.

Usually the responses are: Been there! Private Land! Only dinks! But occasionally, there’s a spot that we all collectively go, hmmmm, haven’t tried that, looks carpy, who’s off work, etc.

The spot that we usually try to put work into in the winter is a river in eastern Kansas. This spot was discovered by one of our members, Lowell Fletcher, and has been particularly fruitful for the KCCA as a group. Wintertime commons, mirrors, and the occasional buffalo are caught as well as one of our guys catching a lake sturgeon and making national news!

To put it lightly, we love the spot but unfortunately, it turns into a muddy slip and slide at the slightest hint of moisture and it has pretty much been inaccessible this year. A few months ago, Kevin, one of the KCCA members, started investigating a new location south of Kansas City at a warm water outlet in a larger local creek.

This easy to miss, unassuming spot, has turned out to be a game changer for us in the group. Kevin started putting in some time in the spot this past November and it very quickly started to produce healthier and more active fish than we are generally able to catch this time of year.

When the first big snow of the year hit, I was itching to get out to the bank the moment I could get my van out. Time to get me a Snow Carp! We had 12 inches in total and getting to the creek spot and setting up in the deep snow was “interesting.” I had no guarantees that I would catch but the new spot hadn’t let any of us down. I’m a pack bait guy and love my Jello, panko and corn mix. It being winter I’m cautious to not overfeed the fish and use small pack bait balls.

It took about an hour to land the first fish, but man did it make it worth sitting in the deep snow when that fish was on the mat.

After battling a few large ice chunks that took out our lines, Kevin and I landed a few other fish before the cold got to us and we left to warm up... Even as we left the area, I knew I would be back very soon…

After a couple days and an additional 4 inches of snow fall, my return trip was nothing less than spectacular for January! Within 10 minutes I had already landed 2 fish and there was plenty more to come. Fish were steadily landed every 15-20 minutes for the next few hours, and I was able to land 12 fish in total.

Even producing a spectacular mirror that has been caught 3 times in a matter of weeks, (he needs a break.) The last couple of commons being the best/largest of the trip.

Not being too greedy, I decided to leave and enjoy the fruits of my labor and be thankful for the group members that found the spot. This new location should continue to be a prescription for winter fishing depression for many years.

As spring isn’t too long around the corner, our group wraps up the last year with a big dinner get together and our “Carp of the Year” award. This year the gathering was held in early February and it always brings everybody out of hibernation. The COTY dinner has grown over the years starting with just a few members to around thirty people in attendance.

These annual group meetings are a great time for trip planning, carp talk and catching up. A few new faces were there this year along with the old regulars. Love this community and love this group.

Tight Lines- Loren (#thatfakeoutdoorsman)