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Home › Waters › Kansas › Neosho River
River · Southeast Kansas · Kansas

Neosho River Fishing Guides

Southeast Kansas catfish water, running from the Flint Hills down past Iola, Chanute and Parsons toward Oklahoma, with rock riffles, deep bends and very large flatheads.

A braided prairie river running past a raw cut bank
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Neosho River

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About the Neosho River

The Neosho rises in the Flint Hills and runs southeast across the corner of Kansas through Council Grove, Emporia, Iola, Chanute and Parsons before crossing into Oklahoma and eventually reaching Grand Lake. Through the Kansas reaches it alternates between limestone riffles and long, deep, timbered bends, and the combination of hard rock ledges and heavy woody cover is what makes it such a productive catfish river.

Flathead catfish are the trophy fish and southeast Kansas is one of the better places in the country to hunt a very large one, whether on rod and reel from a jon boat or, in the reaches and seasons where it is permitted, by hand. Blue catfish are increasingly common in the lower river, channel catfish are abundant throughout, and the riffle water holds white bass in the spring runs. Crappie stack in the deeper bends and around laydowns, and largemouth and spotted bass use the slower pools and the mouths of the tributaries.

The Parsons gauge is the reference for the lower Kansas reach. This is a flashy prairie river: a good storm in the upper basin brings it up hard and dirty within a day, and that rise is exactly when the flathead bite turns on along the banks and at the mouths of the feeder creeks. As it falls and clears, fish pull back into the holes and the log jams, and the fishing gets more technical. Extended dry spells drop the river to a chain of pools connected by trickles.

Access is a mix of city parks, county bridges and state fishing areas, and much of the bank is private, so use the public points. Iola, Chanute, Erie and Parsons are the towns along the corridor.

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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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Posting to Neosho 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.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Neosho River cfs

Now: 3,550 cfs, read 3:30 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 07183500, NEOSHO R NR PARSONS, KS).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Parsons and Neosho County access points: lower river near the gauge.
Erie and Stark: county bridge and state fishing access on the middle river.
Chanute: Santa Fe Park and city river access.
Iola: Riverside Park and the Elm Creek confluence.
Humboldt: town access and a long timbered reach below.
Emporia and the Cottonwood confluence: upper river.
Council Grove: the headwaters and the reservoir tailwater.

Seasons

March and April: white bass run and rising, muddy water.
May and June: peak flathead season on the rises, warm nights and heavy cover.
July and August: low water concentrates fish in the deep bends; channel cats all day.
September and October: falling clear water, crappie in the timber and good bass fishing.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Neosho River?

As of Oct 19, 3:30 am, the USGS gauge NEOSHO R NR PARSONS, KS reads 3,550 cfs, the 84th percentile for this date. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Neosho River?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Blue Catfish, Channel Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Spotted Bass, White Bass, White Crappie on the Neosho River in Kansas.

Where can you access the Neosho River?

Parsons and Neosho County access points: lower river near the gauge. Erie and Stark: county bridge and state fishing access on the middle river. Chanute: Santa Fe Park and city river access. Iola: Riverside Park and the Elm Creek confluence. Humboldt: town access and a long timbered reach below. Emporia and the Cottonwood confluence: upper river. Council Grove: the headwaters and the reservoir tailwater.

When is the best time to fish the Neosho River?

March and April: white bass run and rising, muddy water. May and June: peak flathead season on the rises, warm nights and heavy cover. July and August: low water concentrates fish in the deep bends; channel cats all day. September and October: falling clear water, crappie in the timber and good bass fishing.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Neosho River?

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