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Hillsdale Lake Fishing Report

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

Kansas City's crappie campus: a timber-rich Corps lake where brush-pile culture, walleye stockings and metro convenience meet.

4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Water temp
~55 F est.
Air / High
72 / 79 F
Wind
SSE 10 mph

Sources: 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.

Hillsdale Lake rewards those who follow the bait as the water cools. Today brings clear skies, wind SSE around 10 mph, falling pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 79. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:56 AM-11:56 AM and 10:24 PM-12:24 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 79 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.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp72 F
High / Low79 / 51 F
WindSSE 10-18 mph
Pressure1020.2 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain1% cloud, 1%
Sunrise / Sunset07:36 / 18:30
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 Hillsdale Lake this week

Today is the pick of the week on Hillsdale 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
9:56 AM-11:56 AM and 10:24 PM-12:24 AM
Minor period
4:18 AM-5:18 AM
Sun
07:36 to 18:30
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 13 mph
Rain chance
1%

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

Species guide

The species that matter on Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale 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 76 F, wind to 7 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Walleye led the card at excellent. 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 68 F, wind to 7 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

Kansas license. Crappie 20/day, walleye 15-inch/5 typical: check KDWP.

Access

Hillsdale SP ramps, Russell Crites area, Marysville ramp: Corps and state access.

About this water

4,580 acres on Big Bull Creek, Miami County, KS. Kansas City's habitat-rich crappie lake.

Fishing Hillsdale Lake: the full guide

The metro Corps lake

Hillsdale sits 30 minutes from the Kansas City sprawl: the metro's youngest Corps lake and its most habitat-managed: hundreds of marked brush piles, standing timber in every arm, and a stocking program (walleye, wipers) layered over the crappie-and-bass base. Suburban convenience with genuine fishing depth.

Brush-pile literacy

The crappie program runs on published structure: KDWP's brush-pile coordinates (and the lake's visible timber) organize a year-round milk run: spawners in the buck brush each April, summer schools at 15-25 ft on the piles, winter stacks in the creek channels. Jig-and-minnow over marked wood: the lake teaches electronics fishing kindly.

Walleye and wiper layers

Stocked walleye patrol the flats and rocky points (jigs at ice-out on the riprap, harnesses over 12-18 ft in June): wipers chase shad across the main lake all summer: watch for surface sprays off the dam at dawn. Both programs produce keepers steadily if not headlines: metro protein fisheries done right.

Working the suburbs' water

Big Bull and Little Bull creeks shape the arms: stained upper water for spring bass flipping, clearer main-lake points for the finesse crowd. The 10-mph-in-coves rule keeps arms calm; ramps at the state park and Corps areas spread traffic. Weekday mornings fish like the country: weekends like the city came along.

Common questions

Where are Hillsdale's brush piles?

KDWP publishes GPS coordinates for hundreds: download before launching. The piles at 15-25 ft near channel swings hold crappie most of the year.

Is Hillsdale good for bank fishing?

Better than most Corps lakes: the state park's fishing piers sit over brushed water and the riprap points hold spring walleye and wipers within casting reach.

Is fishing good at Hillsdale 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

Clinton Lake31 miPomona Lake37 miPerry Lake42 miMelvern Lake46 miSmithville Lake54 miTruman Lake78 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 38.6600, -94.8900 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.