Club looking for more members No need to leave state for stripers

This always amazes me as the Striped Bass (or stripers as they are called) have been stocked in Kansas waters since the 60s when Cheney and Wilson received the first stockings.

Stripers are used as a management tool to help maintain the forage base, primarily shad, in these large lakes. If the gizzard shad are left to multiply, the large shad will take over the food supply and not leave enough for the young of the year shad to grow. These young of the year shad are needed to raise walleye, white bass, bass, crappie and all other species which may be in the impoundment.

While the early stockings were not large in numbers, without any fishing pressure the species survived and grew quite large with Cheney and Wilson both producing many stripers in the 30 plus pound range from the late 70s and up until the floods of 1993 which washed many big stripers down the rivers.

The current Kansas state record striper came from Lake Wilson in 1988. Chester Nisly caught the 43 lb, 8 oz fish using a while bass as bait fishing off the bank.

Since the floods of '93, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks has done a great job restocking these reservoirs and has also added the Wiper (Hybrid Striped Bass) to many other lakes and impoundments across the state. Currently Wilson has the highest catch rate on Stripers and Milford the highest on Wipers with both these lakes average sized catch between three and seven pounds.

Stiper club formed in 1984

Back in 1984, a group of us striper fishermen and women got together and formed the Kansas Striper Association, a non-profit club to promote and preserve striper fishing in the state of Kansas. While the club went thru a slack time after the floods when very few stripers were available we are growing again.

We currently hold tournaments on Lake Wilson and Lake Milford, with three of those tournaments being National Striped Bass Association sanctioned events. While the NSBA sanctioned tournaments are for points to compete at the national level, we still hold three tournaments on Lake Wilson that are club tournaments where the competition is at a local level.

Last year my wife Gina and I competed at the National level and won the National Striped Bass Association Lady Angler of the Year award, which is a year long competition on 38 lakes across the USA. We also won the Kansas State Champion award. We finished up the 2004 year fishing the NSBA Striped Bass Classic on Lake Cherokee Tenn. Three boats were won at this event!

So if you are veteran striper fisherman or just want to learn more about this sport, the Kansas Striper Association would love to have you. We share a lot of information between members and also have a yearly fish fry, stripers of course. This year it will be in August on Lake Wilson.

Our membership is very reasonable and includes a subscription to Striped Bass Magazine. Yearly membership for family is $20. A single membership is $15. Plus you don't have to drive to Texoma or Beaver to catch stripers

For more information on the Kansas Striper Association, contact me:
Jack Hoskinson, President
Kansas Striper Association
maddjack@wtciweb.com
785-658-3811

\You may contact the National Striped Bass Association:
Warren Turner
864-848-4417
www.fishnsba.com

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