River catfishermen enjoy a wild couple of days

Catch of the week

So how do you transport big catfish to the bait shop to have them weighed?

Easy, says Jarrod Powell of Independence. You rig up a “hillbilly’s livewell.”

That’s what Powell and his friend Jim Owens did after Powell caught a big flathead catfish on a recent night on the Missouri River.

“We tied a tarp in the bed of my pickup, then filled it with creek water and put the fish in there,” Powell said. “We were going down the road, water splashing and truckers would look down and see that fish and start blowing their air horn.

“It was funny.”

Once the fishermen got to Forty Woods Bait and Tackle near Lake Jacomo, they hoisted the flathead onto the scale and found that it weighed 66 pounds, the biggest Powell has ever caught.

But wait. There’s more to the story. Powell and Owens went back to their fishing spot not far from downtown Kansas City the next day and Powell caught blue catfish weighing 55 and 52 pounds. He also landed a 15-pound flathead and Owens caught several smaller catfish.

Again, they had the big ones weighed at Forty Woods, then they released the trophy fish in Lake Jacomo.

For two days of bank fishing, that’s about as good as it gets.

“I usually take my boat out, but the river was high and rolling, so we fished from the bank,” said Powell, who caught the big catfish on panfish. “I caught that big one almost to the day that I caught a 55-pound blue a few years ago.

“For me, that big flathead was the fish of a lifetime.”

Urban kids to go fishing

Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will be in Kansas City on Saturday to attend the 10th annual Urban Kids Fishing Derby.

The event, sponsored by Urban American Outdoors and the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department, attracts hundreds of children and their parents each year.

The derby will be from 8:30 a.m. to noon at Spring Valley Park, 27th and Woodland, Kansas City.

It is open to children ages 4 to 16, with a limit of 250 entrants. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

There will be a $100 prize awarded to the child who catches the biggest fish. To register, call Candice Price, executive director of the Urban American Outdoors television show, at 913-334-5177 or email uaotv27@yahoo.com.

Olathe kids will be casting, too

Olathe kids also will be casting for the big one Saturday when the city’s annual Kids Fishing Derby is held at Cedar Lake.

The event is open to kids ages 3 to 15 and also seniors ages 60 and above. On-site registration will start at 7:30 a.m. and run until fishing starts at 9 a.m.

Participants will receive a free T-shirt, bait and lunch, while supplies last. Trophies and prizes will be awarded to the participants who catch the largest fish in the various age and gender divisions.

Cedar Lake is located at 15500 Lone Elm Rd., Olathe.

Bowfishing Championship winners

A team of four bowfishermen from Clinton, Mo., found success early in the U.S. Open Bowfishing Championship last weekend in the Ozarks and went on to take top honors and the grand prize of $30,000.

Joe Huff, Brett Fickle, James Walker and John Marshall shot a 60-pound carp in the first 15 minutes of the tournament the night of June 13 in an area they had scouted, and that fish held up as the largest fish weighed-in during the tournament. They went on to register a winning total of 20 fish weighing a whopping 393 pounds.

The tournament took place on Table Rock, Bull Shoals, Pomme de Terre, Stockton and Truman lakes. The Clinton bow fishermen didn’t specify which one they were fishing.

The U.S. Open, now in its third year, attracted 260 teams from 28 states.

This story was originally published June 18, 2015 at 1:31 PM with the headline "River catfishermen enjoy a wild couple of days."