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Melvern Lake Fishing Report

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

The Osage cedar bank: clear-for-Kansas water with smallmouth on the riprap, crappie in planted forests and walleye off the points.

4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Water temp
~55 F est.
Air / High
74 / 74 F
Wind
S 14 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.

Melvern Lake feels the season turning: shorter days, grouping fish. Today brings a mixed sky, wind S around 14 mph, falling pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 74. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:59 AM-11:59 AM and 10:28 PM-12:28 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 75 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 temp74 F
High / Low74 / 50 F
WindS 14-20 mph
Pressure1017.2 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain57% cloud, 1%
Sunrise / Sunset07:40 / 18:33
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 Melvern Lake this week

Today is the pick of the week on Melvern 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
9:59 AM-11:59 AM and 10:28 PM-12:28 AM
Minor period
4:22 AM-5:22 AM
Sun
07:40 to 18:33
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 15 mph
Rain chance
1%

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

Species guide

The species that matter on Melvern 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 Melvern 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 Melvern 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 9 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 7 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 10 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. Smallmouth 15-inch protective: check KDWP. Brush-pile GPS published.

Access

Coeur d'Alene, Outlet, Arrow Rock, Turkey Point Corps ramps; Eisenhower SP.

About this water

6,900 acres on the Marais des Cygnes, Osage County, KS. The clear smallmouth outlier of eastern Kansas.

Fishing Melvern Lake: the full guide

The clear one

Melvern runs clearer than Kansas habit: less silt, more rock: and its fishery follows: the state's best-known smallmouth program patrols the dam riprap and gravel points, walleye track the wind on the flats, and the crappie fleet works cedar plantations the Corps and KDWP sink by the hundred.

Smallmouth on the rocks

The dam face and Coeur d'Alene-style riprap banks hold bronze year-round: Ned rigs and tubes in spring, topwater at dawn all summer, jerkbaits when it cools. Kansas smallmouth run modest: 2-4 pounds: but Melvern's are real wild-water fish, and the dawn riprap bite embarrasses fancier destinations.

Cedar-tree crappie

KDWP publishes Melvern's brush-pile coordinates: cedar forests at 12-25 ft off every ramp: and the crappie rotation runs all year: spawners in the coves' shallow brush each April, summer schools on the deep piles, winter stacks in the river channel. Jig-and-minnow over marked wood: the milk-run method perfected.

Walleye and the wind

Post-frontal winds pile bait on the flats' edges and Melvern's walleye follow: bottom bouncers along the old river channel, jigs on the windward points at dusk. May and October produce the stringers: the clear water pushes the bite to low light more than neighboring stained lakes: plan the alarm accordingly.

Common questions

Does Kansas really have smallmouth fishing?

Melvern is the proof: the riprap and gravel structure hold the state's flagship population. Dawn topwater in June feels transplanted from the Ozarks.

Where are Melvern's crappie piles?

KDWP publishes coordinates: cedar plantations off every major ramp at 12-25 ft. Idle, mark, drop: the winter channel schools produce the fastest limits.

Is fishing good at Melvern 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

Pomona Lake13 miClinton Lake33 miHillsdale Lake46 miPerry Lake46 miCottonwood River46 miMarion Reservoir74 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 38.5000, -95.7170 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.