After a reunion with our family in Lawrence, Kansas the previous evening – we moved deep into America’s heartland to fish Milford Lake near Junction City, Kansas on the day of June 26.  Although the competition is steep, Milford is currently at the top when it comes to Kansas fishing.  Having been born and raised in the heartland of America, I was hoping for a great day on the water with our fishing guide, wildlife biologist, and fellow Kansas State University alumni Chad Richardson.  Chad met us at the boat ramp at 7AM and we were quickly off to try our hand at catching some Kansas walleye.

By 8AM we had netted several nice ghost eyes – not huge but they were our first walleyes of our journey thus far.  That’s about the time it started to get interesting.  A half mile away we got a glimpse of some breaking fish.  WIPERS!  A cross between striped bass and white bass the wipers or “hybrids” to some were feeding on the surface.  If you’ve ever experienced a feeding frenzy you know this is not something you want to miss out on.  We quickly re-rigged our rods for casting surface plugs and moved in as stealthy as possible.  Three casts later and then “WAM” – FISH ON! – the first Wiper of our 50 day journey was on the line.  These fish are fighters – pound for pound as strong as any fish for their size.  We had the pleasure of breaking fish on every side of us for 45 minutes and then they were gone.  All was quiet again – back to the troll.

Diversity is always exciting as the day brought us Drum, White Bass, Walleye, Brim, and Wipers – a pretty good morning on the water.

Finally, Chad launched Kansas to the top of the hospitality scale.  As we were saying our goodbyes Chad brought out a Styrofoam cooler from his truck and said “I heard how North Carolina treated you guys so well and we didn’t want to be out done so this is for you!”  Inside the cooler there were four huge Omaha Steaks and some homemade baked beans – It would be Surf & Turf tonight!  There's No Place Like Home!