Great Plains
Fly fishing in Kansas
Short answer
Kansas has no wild trout. What it has is a winter stocking programme: from 1 December to 31 March the state stocks trout into designated waters across the state, and a trout permit is required to fish them. The rest of the year the fly rod is for smallmouth, wipers and bluegill. A licence is required from age 16.
What makes Kansas different
Kansas is honest about what it is. There is no cold water here capable of holding trout through a plains summer, so the state does not pretend: it stocks trout into designated waters from the first of December to the end of March, lets people catch them through the cold months, and stops. Some of those waters are city lakes and some are river stretches below dams, and the programme turns a state with no trout habitat into one where you can reasonably fish for trout in January. The rest of the year is the real fishing, and it is better than its reputation — the Flint Hills streams hold smallmouth in clear rocky water, the reservoirs hold wipers that will chase a streamer hard enough to break your wrist, and nobody is competing with you for any of it.
What trout and other fish are in Kansas?
- Rainbow trout
- Stocked into designated waters from December to March. The bulk of the trout programme.
- Brown trout
- Stocked in smaller numbers at a few sites, and occasionally holding over.
- Smallmouth bass
- Flint Hills streams and the clear reservoirs. The best fly fishing in the state.
- Wiper
- A white bass and striped bass hybrid. Stocked in reservoirs and savage on a streamer.
- Bluegill and channel catfish
- Everywhere, and what most Kansas fly rods actually do.
Where to fly fish in Kansas
- Mined Land Wildlife Area
- Old strip-mine pits in the south-east, stocked with trout in winter and deep enough to hold them.
- Lake Shawnee
- Topeka. A city lake on the winter trout list, and easy to reach.
- Sand Creek
- Newton. One of the designated stream sites for the winter programme.
- Cedar Bluff tailwater
- Below the reservoir, stocked in winter and cold enough to hold fish a while.
- Flint Hills streams
- Not trout. Clear limestone-bed creeks full of smallmouth and worth the drive.
- Milford and Wilson Reservoirs
- Wipers and white bass on streamers, chasing shad in open water.
When to fly fish in Kansas
| When | What is happening |
|---|---|
| December – March | The trout season. Stocking runs through the winter at designated Type 1 and Type 2 waters. |
| April – May | Trout fishing ends and the warmwater season starts. Smallmouth and wipers coming shallow. |
| June – August | Bluegill on poppers at dusk, catfish on big flies, and smallmouth in the Flint Hills creeks. |
| September – October | The best warmwater weeks of the year as the reservoirs cool and the bait moves. |
| November | The quiet month between the two seasons. Stocking begins again on 1 December. |
Do you need a license to fly fish in Kansas?
Yes. Licenses are issued by Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.
| License | Price |
|---|---|
| Resident, annual | $42.50 |
| Non-resident, annual | $92.50 |
The totals are the one-year fishing licence plus the $17.50 adult trout permit — $25 for residents and $75 for non-residents. Both the licence and the permit run 365 days from purchase. Third-party sites widely quote $27.50 resident, $52.50 non-resident and a $14.50 or $20 trout permit; none of those match the department's own fee table, which is where these figures come from.
Rules worth knowing before you go
- A fishing licence is required from age 16, and a trout permit is required in addition to fish designated trout waters in season.
- On Type 1 waters, every angler must hold a trout permit between 1 December and 31 March, whether they are fishing for trout or not.
- On Type 2 waters, only anglers fishing for or keeping trout need the permit.
- Licences run 365 days from purchase rather than to a fixed date.
- The stocked-water list is published by the department each season and changes from year to year.
Regulations change every year and vary water by water. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks rule book is the only authority — this page is a starting point, not a legal reference.
Flies that matter in Kansas
Each of these is a card in the deck, and each has a full page in Our Fly-brary.
Keep reading
- Do I need a fishing license? — how licensing works across states
- How to read water — where trout hold, anywhere
- Best time of day to fly fish — the seasonal logic behind the table above
- Our Fly-brary — every fly in the deck, explained
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The deck
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