Last week I went to Coffey County Reservoir on a fishing trip. Coffey County is a cool-off lake for Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant. This makes a few things interesting. First of all to get on the lake you have to have your boat checked, livewell bleached, sign some papers, answer a few questions, and show identification. This is an effort to protect the power plant. First and foremost to prevent Zebra Mussels' from becoming introduced to the lake which could cost the plant millions in damages. Secondly, since 9/11 there is an awareness of potential attacks on Nuclear Power Plants and the lake wants to be certain of who is allowed to fish there. Secondly, once allowed on the water you must wear a life jacket at all times and are given a beeper that can call you off the lake should you violate the rules or the current becomes too swift. Finally, the water coming off the plant is hot, really hot. We fished the outlet for a moment and were still relatively far away and the water temp was still well into the 90's. As far as the power plant itself. It was far smaller than I expected. You can see a pic in the above left, and it looks more like an Observatory than a Nuclear Station. Despite the fact that the lake has a nuclear powerplant on it. It doesn't serve as a tremendous eye sore like the powerplant on La Cygne in that you cannot see it from most locations on the lake and the rest of the lake may be some of the most beautiful water I have fished in Kansas. 

Coffey County has a reputation as being an excellent fishery year round, due to the high water temps and is also known as Kansas's best Smallmouth destination. I have wanted to fish it for some time and while we didn't do as well as I would have hoped it was still enjoyable, surrounded by surprisingly beautiful terrain, and if nothing else provided a few stories. I had a great time and would love to fish it in November or March to take advantage of the warm water. First time anywhere is spent largely learning the water. For the day we caught three Largemouth, one Wiper, one White Bass, one Smallmouth, and one Drum. We will forget about the drum... also I had two fish break my line. For the time being I am going to running braid on my pole I use for wacky rigging. Here are the pictures: 

3 lb Wiper caught on Sebile Crankbait. 

Several weeks ago I went to La Cygne to fish for the first time. I have to admit its kind of a creepy place at night and the power plant is less than scenic. Went there for flathead but all of our bluegill died en route so we tried for channel catfish with no luck. Being 3 AM I started messing around with a chartreuse spinnerbait and to be honest accidently caught two largemouth. Biggest was 3 1/2 lbs. 

A few days later I took a friend fishing from work who hadn't fished in years. It was an interesting experience he caught one bullfrog and a bluegill. To his credit the wind was very severe and casting was difficult. I caught six largemouth including my biggest yet of the year a touch over 5 lbs caught on a crankbait. Was quite a fight, he was not cooperative coming in.