Kansas River Fishing Guides and Conditions, Kansas

About the Kansas River

The Kansas River, universally called the Kaw, forms where the Republican and Smoky Hill meet at Junction City and runs east across the state to the Missouri River at Kansas City. It is a wide, shallow, sand-bottomed prairie river with shifting bars, wing dikes, rock revetment along the banks and a handful of low dams. It is also one of the longest navigable sand-bed rivers in the country and, since a sustained public-access push, a genuinely usable recreational fishery with a chain of ramps along its length.

Catfish define it. Flathead catfish reach serious size in the log jams and deep outside bends, blue catfish have expanded in the lower river toward Kansas City, and channel catfish are everywhere and easy to catch. Beyond the cats, white bass and wipers run in schools below the dams and at the tributary mouths, walleye and sauger are caught in the tailwaters, and there are smallmouth on the rock revetment in the lower reaches. Guided trips are usually catfish trips, run from jon boats out of Lawrence, Eudora or DeSoto.

The DeSoto gauge is the standard reading for the lower river. Because the Kaw drains a huge basin behind several federal reservoirs, its flow is a mix of natural runoff and reservoir releases, and it can change quickly when the Corps changes an outflow upstream. Moderate readings expose the sand bars and make wading the shallow crossings possible; high water covers the bars, colors the river and pushes fish to the banks and the dike ends, which is when the flatheads feed hardest.

Sand bars shift constantly, so run slowly and read the water. Lawrence, Topeka, DeSoto and Bonner Springs are the bases along the lower half.

Access

DeSoto: ramp at the gauge reach on the lower river.
Eudora and the Wakarusa confluence: lower river access.
Lawrence: Burcham Park and the Bowersock dam tailwater.
Lecompton and Perry: mid-river ramps below Perry Lake.
Topeka: several city ramps and the Shunganunga confluence.
Wamego, St. Marys and Belvue: upper river access above Topeka.
Junction City and Ogden: the headwaters at the Republican and Smoky Hill junction.

Seasons

March and April: white bass and walleye below the dams, high spring water.
May and June: rising water and the best flathead fishing of the year.
July and August: low clear flows, sand bars exposed, channel cats and wading.
September through November: cooling water, blue catfish and a second white bass push.