Doug Piper had a stringer of channel catfish to show for a half-day of
fishing at Lake Jacomo, not far from downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
Big-City Cats
Story and Photos by Brent Frazee
Channel catfish abound in metro lakes in Kansas City, Missouri.
Doug Piper kicked back in his boat and took in his surroundings as he drifted for channel catfish. The wooded hillsides, occasional bluffs, weedy shallows and (for the day at least) uncrowded water belied the lake’s location.
No, he wasn’t fishing some remote gem out in the middle of nowhere. He was chasing big channel catfish on Lake Jacomo only a few miles from the hustle and bustle of big-city life in the suburbs of Kansas City, Missouri.
“I’m only nine miles from my home,” said Piper, 72, who lives in Independence, Missouri. “Hard to believe that I have a beautiful lake like this so close to where I live. I don’t have to drive for hours to find good channel cat fishing. I’ve got it right here in my backyard.”
Piper was interrupted by one of his rods clanging in its holder. He lifted the pole and felt the tug of a heavy catfish. Moments later, he guided the struggling channel cat into a waiting landing net.
“That’s what we were looking for,” Piper said as he tossed the fish into the livewell that already contained two other good-sized channel cats. “Jacomo has a lot of fish this size.”
Jacomo, a 970-acre reservoir that opened in 1959, isn’t a national destination. But along with two other lakes—Blue Springs and Longview—administered by Jackson County Parks and Recreation, it certainly brings big-time catfishing opportunities to the Kansas City metro area.
Blue Springs, a 720-acre reservoir that opened in 1978, has a good population of channel cats and a rapidly improving population of flathead catfish, according to Hunter Meese, manager of Forty Woods Bait and Tackle near the lake.
“We’ve weighed a surprising number flatheads in the 40-pound range this year,” Meese said.
Longview, a 930-acre body of water that opened in 1986, also has good population of channel cats and an opportunity to catch a big flathead.
Taken together, they provide metro anglers with consistent catfishing not far from the drone of traffic on Interstate 70.
“We stock all three lakes with 8- to 12-inch channel catfish each year to keep up with demand in an urban area,” said Caleb Pemberton, a fisheries biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. “But they hold up nicely.”
Jacomo produced the Missouri state record, a 34-pound, 10-ounce fish caught by Gerald Siebenmorgen in October of 1976. That mark still stands.
But fisheries biologists still talk about the day they sampled and released a channel cat even bigger than that at Blue Springs Lake years ago.
The Jackson County lakes get plenty of fishing pressure these days. But they continue to justify their reputation as catfish hotspots.
A Day on Jacomo
Piper is a multi-species angler. He like to hitch up his Gambler bass boat and travel to Lake of the Ozarks and Truman to fish for bass and crappie and to Lake Taneycomo for trout. But when he wants to chase big channel cats, he stays home and fishes out of his 13-foot, 3-inch-long Boston Whaler, which he deems ideal for small-lake fishing.
Jacomo has a 25-horsepower limit in effect, and that’s what Piper has on the back of his boat. It allows him to go quickly from one end of the lake to the other and still maneuver to where the channel cats typically hold.
On this unseasonably cool late-August day, he headed for the south end of Jacomo and started drifting one of the long flats.
“They’ll be out roaming these flats, chasing shad,” Piper said as he watched the rods in the boat’s holders. “There are so many channels in here, you’ll usually run across fish if you drift far enough.”
Piper uses 7-foot-long spinning and casting rods and reels spooled with 20-pound-test Trilene Big Game monofilament. He uses 3/8-th ounce sinkers and Gamakatsu circle hooks.
Fresh cut shad is the best bait, but if Piper isn’t able to get any with his throw net, he comes prepared. This day, he used chunks of chicken breast marinated with cherry Kool-Aid and seasoned with garlic. He also baited some hooks with pieces of cheap hot dogs.
The grocery baits attracted the channel cats. Piper caught the whiskered fish in a variety of sizes up to just under 10 pounds before calling it a day.
“The nice thing about this type of fishing is that anyone with a boat can do it,” he said. “They can buy a cheap rod and reel, a few circle hooks and weights, and they’re ready to go.”
(Brent Frazee is an award-winning writer and photographer who lives in a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. He has won more than 65 national and regional awards for his work, most of them coming during his 36 years as outdoors editor of The Kansas City Star. He retired in 2016 but continues to freelance for websites, magazines and newspapers.)
What You Need to Know
- Anglers at Jacomo, Blue Springs and Longview are required by Jackson County Parks and Recreation to have a boat and motor permit. Go to com for prices. Permits can be purchased at marinas on all three lakes.
- Marinas offer rentals for pontoon boats and a few fishing boats.
- Blue Springs and Longview are co-managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Jackson County Parks and Recreation.
- Jacomo and Blue Springs are located in Fleming Park, which also offers hiking trails, campgrounds, picnic areas and sailing.
- Fun fact: Wondering how officials came up with the name Jacomo? It’s an abbreviation for Jackson County, Missouri.
