Otter Creek

Located within the Fall River Wildlife Area, Otter Creek offers paddlers a quiet and scenic day trip. I would say relaxing as well, but Curtis and I are both stubborn and coursed 8 1/2 miles with the water low and ended up portaging about 20 times. Haha!

After passing the narrows, the creek joins Fall river and really opened up for us. We made pretty good time after that.

I was happy to spot a beaver about 30 minutes into the trip and there were several areas that would make for some good fishing with the water a bit higher.

The Upper Access Point road was muddy and rutted, so we decided to push off at the Old Bridge Access Point and shuttle our kayaks from the Climax Boat Ramp at Ladd Bridge.

The creek is abundant with wildlife and several times along the way I couldn't help but feel like I was in a Kansas jungle with all the sounds I was hearing. It was quite amazing!

Streamflow:
Gage height: 2.5'
Discharge: 25 CFS (recommended 50-85)


This was our course (8.5 miles)


Old Bridge Access Point


Enjoying the scenery


Trout guarding our boats!


Curtis looking at the strainers up ahead

The Evening Sky Map - 6/09

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Winfield City Lake

Had a great time camping out at Winfield lake this weekend. It was a quiet evening. The weather ended up being nice and calm. No luck catching any catfish, but like we always say, "Just being out is enough"...


Click Here for park information


The next morning we snapped some nice photos of the wildlife out there...

Centipede (Scolopendra polymorpha)

Juvenile Eastern Yellow-Bellied Racer (Coluber constrictor flaviventris)


Jumping Spider (Phidippus apacheanus)

Ringneck Snake (Diadophis punctatus)

Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)

Great Plains Rat Snake (Pantherophis emoryi)

Caught this one in a throw net!

A nice little Sauger we caught with the throw net
in this pool (below) at Prather Creek beneath the dam
at Chase County lake. We released it but kept the
green sunfish we netted for bait.

Cottonwood Falls

The dam at Cottonwood Falls is a really great fishing spot.
The water is about at normal levels here though it can
go much higher.

A lot of huge flatheads have been caught here,
which is what these gentlemen were fishing for.

No luck this day.