Alligators in Kansas...Watch where you swim!

During the winter time in Kansas we have a couple options if we still want to catch fish.

1. Make a 3 hour drive to Lake of the Ozarks and fish a jerkbait with 5 minute pauses.  You can catch some nice fish but it's very cold and it's a very, very, very boring way to fish.

2. Drive to LaCygne...the coal power plant on the edge of the lake discharges hot water so the water temperature usually stays around 57-58 degrees.  I was there a week and a half ago and caught fish by flipping flooded bushes that had icicles hanging off of them.

3. Drive a little bit further to Coffey County Lake, just outside of Burlington, Kansas...the nuclear power plant on the edge of this lake also discharges hot water and there's a dynamite smallmouth population.  But...because it's a nuclear power plant, the government realizes it could be a potential target for terrorist attacks and if there's a heightened state of security, they shut the lake down without notice.  It's a gamble to drive all the way down there.  

A few friends of mine fished Coffey County a couple weeks ago and uh, yeah...they found an alligator on the edge of the water.  From a distance they saw something laying up on a log and couldn't quite make out what it was.  So...being the adventurous types that they are, they put the trolling motor down and got close enough to touch it...and the adventurous part didn't stop there.  Figuring that a freakin' alligator in the middle of Kansas would probably be of interest to the Wildlife Department, they decided they needed to take it with them.  Now these guys are expert alligator wranglers, and you should never try this at home, but lucky for them it had been dead for a day or two so the wrangling wasn't all that much of a challenge.  Not wanting to put it in the boat (and if you own a boat I'm sure you can sympathize) they fastened the gator to the side of Casey's rig with a couple loops of 20lb fluorocarbon.  Not wanting to head in quite yet, they actually fished for another 4 hours or so with a dead gator tied to the side of the Bass Cat!  As they trolled along, the movement of the boat made the gator's tail move and it almost looked alive.  At one point, they passed another boat and Ronnie yelled out, "Hey man, what's the length limit on gators on this lake?"  The guy in the front thought they were from another planet.  The guy in the back saw the moving tail, thought it was alive, and flipped out...totally understandable for someone in Kansas, not at the zoo, who just saw a gator.  Not gonna lie...I'd probably flip out too.

From what the game warden told Casey and Ronnie this thing had apparently been spotted a couple times over the last 2 years.  More than likely, someone woke up one day, said, "Why the hell do I have a pet allilgator," and decided to release it into the lake thinking the warm temperatures of the power plant's discharge would keep it alive.  Surprisingly, they were right for a little while but the harshest winter we've had in years finally dealt this prehistoric beast it's final blow.

Coffey County Lake is just a few minutes Southeast of Emporia, Kansas.  For a full map just click on the highlighted link above.