The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks recently announced June 7 and 8 as the statewide 2025 Free Fishing Days. During those two days anyone can fish by legal means without a Kansas fishing license, all length and creel limits still apply. Most fisherman in Kansas are required to use a fishing pole or a trot line to catch their daily limits, or if they’re brave enough anglers can acquire a special hand fishing permit to target flathead catfish.
The KDWP, on the other hand, has special boats for fisheries management and research purposes that use electricity to fill the livewell.
KDWP was on the water Tuesday in Great Bend conducting the yearly black bass sample at the city’s lakes using an electrofishing boat. Travis Riley, fisheries biologist, was accompanied by Scott Waters, regional fisheries supervisor, and Gunner Helton, KDWP Game Warden for Barton and Rush Counties to collect data on fish populations at Veteran’s Memorial Park Lake and Stone Lake.
Rigged with a generator and electrical cathodes looking like two dangled spider webs off the bow, KDWP staff shock the water to temporarily stun the fish. After being scooped up with a net and placed in a livewell, the fish are measured and weighed before being quickly returned to the water unharmed. Sampling the lakes allows biologists to understand how the population is changing from year to year and implement appropriate management actions to achieve the best opportunities for anglers.
“We’re doing our yearly bass sample,” Riley explained. “We do a pretty good amount of management here.” Vets is stocked with trout in the winter and spring months and channel catfish multiple times throughout the year. KDWP also started stocking saugeye again three years ago after a hiatus and saw good numbers of the sauger-walleye hybrid among the bass they were targeting.
“We were thinking about getting ready to put more bass in, but we’re seeing a good year class of little bass, So they did it on their own,” Riley said.
The first leg of their sample at Vets Park along the east and north side of the lake was a little light in regards to numbers but the fish were healthy, Waters noted. They expected a better sample of fish among the rockier habitat on the west and south side. The lake covers 12 acres inside Veterans Memorial Park, located on McKinley St.
Stone Lake is a 43-acre fishing lake on South Washington St. and Railroad Ave. in Great Bend.
At Stone Lake along with regular channel catfish stockings the department stocked striped bass, commonly known as stripers, in 2020 and again in the fall of 2023. Riley explained the thought behind stocking a traditionally saltwater fish in a sand pit lake. “We started putting them in with the thought of a bigger mouth could eat the bigger shad.” Unsure initially if the fish would thrive, biologists have been pleasantly surprised and anglers are starting to target the species.
Game Warden Helton said he’s had some good reports of people catching the striped bass.
“They’re getting pretty decent size,” added Riley.
After finishing their sampling at Vets Lake, the group continued their day sampling Stone Lake.
KDWP conducts multiple electrofishing samples in Great Bend during the year targeting different species with a second sampling in the fall for multiple species including saugeye, catfish and baitfish.
