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Home › Waters › Kansas › Walnut River
River · South-central Kansas, from El Dorado south through Augusta and Winfield to the Arkansas River confluence at Arkansas City · Kansas

Walnut River Fishing Guides

A big south-central Kansas catfish river with nearly two thousand square miles of drainage behind it.

A dark forest stream running fast over stone
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Walnut River

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About the Walnut River

By the time the Walnut reaches Winfield it is draining close to nineteen hundred square miles, which makes it a substantial river by Kansas standards and one of the better catfish waters in the southern half of the state. It runs from El Dorado Reservoir south through Augusta, Douglass and Winfield, and joins the Arkansas at Arkansas City. The character is prairie river throughout – muddy water, timbered banks, long pools and plenty of woody structure.

Flathead catfish are the headline fish and the river has a real reputation for them locally. The deep holes and log jams through the Winfield and Arkansas City reaches produce fish well into the thirties, and the traditional approach is live bait fished on the bottom against structure through the summer nights. Channel cats are numerous and will take almost anything, blue cats turn up in the lower river closer to the Arkansas, and white bass push up out of the confluence in spring. Largemouth, drum and gar round out the list.

Access is a mix of town parks, bridge crossings and county road ends. Winfield and Arkansas City both have river access within the city limits, and the reach between them is the most consistently fishable. El Dorado’s tailwater at the top of the system is a separate and often excellent fishery in its own right. Much of the intervening bank is private farmland, so the towns and public crossings carry most of the traffic.

There is very little organised guiding, but there is an active local catfishing culture and the boat ramps see steady use in warm weather. Flows respond quickly to storms in the Flint Hills headwaters, and the day or two of falling water after a rise is the window everybody waits for.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Walnut River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

El Dorado tailwater - the top of the system below El Dorado Reservoir.
Augusta - city river access on the upper middle river.
Douglass - bridge crossing and county road access.
Winfield - city park access at the gauge and the most popular reach.
Island Park, Winfield - easy bank fishing and a small boat launch.
Arkansas City - lower river access near the Arkansas confluence.
Arkansas River confluence - the bottom of the river and a blue cat area.

Seasons

Spring: rising water, white bass from the confluence and strong catfish feeding.
Summer: the main flathead season, fished at night against wood and deep holes.
Fall: cooling water concentrates channel and blue cats in the deeper reaches.
Winter: quiet, with a modest channel cat fishery during warm stretches.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Walnut River?

As of Sep 17, 6:00 am, the USGS gauge WALNUT R AT WINFIELD, KS reads 64 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Walnut River?

Anglers target Blue Catfish, Channel Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Freshwater Drum, Largemouth Bass, Longnose Gar, White Bass on the Walnut River in Kansas.

Where can you access the Walnut River?

El Dorado tailwater - the top of the system below El Dorado Reservoir. Augusta - city river access on the upper middle river. Douglass - bridge crossing and county road access. Winfield - city park access at the gauge and the most popular reach. Island Park, Winfield - easy bank fishing and a small boat launch. Arkansas City - lower river access near the Arkansas confluence. Arkansas River confluence - the bottom of the river and a blue cat area.

When is the best time to fish the Walnut River?

Spring: rising water, white bass from the confluence and strong catfish feeding. Summer: the main flathead season, fished at night against wood and deep holes. Fall: cooling water concentrates channel and blue cats in the deeper reaches. Winter: quiet, with a modest channel cat fishery during warm stretches.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Walnut River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Kansas agency site: https://ksoutdoors.com/Fishing/Fishing-Regulations