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Clinton Lake Fishing Report, Kansas

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Lawrence's walleye-and-crappie standby with a healthy dose of wiper.

4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Lake level
876.76 ft 1.26 vs pool
Air / High
75 / 75 F
Wind
S 9 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 06891478, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

4/5Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Clinton Lake feels the season turning: shorter days, grouping fish. The gauge reads 876.76 ft, 1.26 ft above pool, easing 0.08 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind S around 9 mph, falling pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 75. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:58 AM-11:58 AM and 10:27 PM-12:27 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

WalleyeExcellent

Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Northern pikeExcellent

The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

White bassGood

The spring run happens in this band: tributaries, shoals and the upper ends of reservoirs as the water reaches about 55Β°F.

CrappieGood

Pre-spawn fish move toward shallow coves, and Iowa DNR points to wading as an effective way to reach them in spring; minnows or small jigs under a float.

Tomorrow: Similar at 76 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Kansas requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $27.50 for residents. What a Kansas licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing walleye here? Check the size and bag limits with KDWP before you keep anything. The season dates for Kansas, read off the agency, are on the Kansas seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from CLINTON LK NR LAWRENCE, KS.

Water level, last 30 days

USGS gauge 06891478. Conservation pool is 875.5 ft.

875.74876.18876.62pool 875.5876.76 ft09/2310/0310/1310/23

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp75 F
High / Low75 / 52 F
WindS 9-17 mph
Pressure1017.3 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain2% cloud, 1%
Sunrise / Sunset07:39 / 18:31
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~55 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Clinton Lake this week

Today is the pick of the week on Clinton Lake, at 4 out of 5.

Best day this week: today, Oct 23 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Good

Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Solunar majors
9:58 AM-11:58 AM and 10:27 PM-12:27 AM
Minor period
4:21 AM-5:21 AM
Sun
07:39 to 18:31
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 10 mph
Rain chance
1%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Clinton Lake: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Walleye illustration

Walleye

Best: spring and late fall, around dawn, dusk and night

A cool-water perch of large lakes, reservoirs and rivers whose reflective eyes are built for low light, so it feeds most at night and in murky water. The Missouri Department of Conservation ranks it among the continent's most important freshwater game fish. Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

White bass illustration

White bass

Best: the spring run up the tributaries, then summer surface schools

A silvery temperate bass of rivers and large reservoirs, also called sand bass, that schools in open water after shad and runs up tributaries to spawn in early spring. The spring run happens in this band: tributaries, shoals and the upper ends of reservoirs as the water reaches about 55Β°F.

Northern pike illustration

Northern pike

Best: cool water, from ice-out through spring, in fall and under the ice

A long, duck-billed predator of weedy lakes, slow rivers and backwaters that ambushes fish from vegetation. Wisconsin DNR points out that, unlike most of the state's common game fish, pike do their best feeding in cool water. The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Pre-spawn fish move toward shallow coves, and Iowa DNR points to wading as an effective way to reach them in spring; minnows or small jigs under a float.

When to come: the Clinton Lake calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Walleye
White bass
Northern pike
Crappie
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Clinton Lake today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 74 F, wind to 7 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 74 F, wind to 5 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 69 F, wind to 8 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Kansas requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Walleye 18-inch/5; wiper 2 over 21; crappie 20. Confirm with KDWP.

Access

State park and Corps ramps (Bloomington, Hickory); heated dock in winter.

About this water

7,000 acres on the Wakarusa, Douglas County, KS: Lawrence's home water.

Fishing Clinton Lake: the full guide

Kaw valley reliable

Clinton serves northeast Kansas steadily: walleye on the riprap and points each spring, crappie in the timbered arms, wipers chasing shad all summer. It is not flashy: it is twenty minutes from town and always worth the evening.

The Kansas program

Clinton runs the standard-but-solid Kansas playbook: walleye stocked and structure-faithful (dam face in April, humps in June), wipers roaming with the shad, crappie stacked in the timbered arms of Rock and Deer creeks. Blue cats grow surprisingly large below the busy months.

Wind and water color

Prairie wind sets the day: chocolate banks on the blow side often out-fish the calm: activated bait, activated everything. Post-front clarity moves fish deeper: our pressure-trend panel is your Clinton tell.

The power-plant advantage

Clinton's cooling-lake DNA keeps its water warmer than every natural lake around it: the bite starts weeks earlier in spring and holds deep into fall. Late-winter crappie stack the flooded timber off the discharge arm while neighboring lakes still wear ice, and the hybrid stripers chase shad on the dam flats through Thanksgiving. Fishing a warm January afternoon here while the rest of Illinois augers holes is the local cheat code.

Common questions

When is Clinton's walleye window?

Mid-April on the riprap at dusk: the spawn stage: then June's bottom-bouncer flats. The dam face at 52F is the calendar's starting gun.

Is the power plant still running at Clinton?

Yes: the nuclear station's discharge keeps the north arm warm year-round. The thermal influence is strongest within a mile of the outflow: winter fish and winter anglers both concentrate there.

Is fishing good at Clinton Lake right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Nearby waters

Perry Lake15 miPomona Lake20 miHillsdale Lake31 miMelvern Lake33 miSmithville Lake56 miCottonwood River72 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 06891478 β€” CLINTON LK NR LAWRENCE, KS
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 19:30 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 38.8976, -95.3883 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.