Kansas Visitor's Guide 2007/2008 - (Page 34) THE GREAT OUTDOORS IN THE SCARCE COVER provided by the Kansas prairie, pheasant, turkeys and quail are, well, sitting ducks for hunters. Right? Anyone who stalks these elusive birds can tell you otherwise. Pastures of prairie grasses, fields of corn stubble, tree lines and windbreaks provide a maze of hiding places. Fortunately, though, when you hunt in Kansas, the odds are in your favor. Year in and year out, Kansas ranks among the top states in both pheasant population and the number of pheasant that hunters harvest; you’ll find some of the best hunting in western Kansas. Southeastern and central Kansas offer prime bobwhite quail hunting. Ducks and geese gather by the tens of thousands at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge and Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area near Great Bend. On the 4,000-acre Kuhrt Ranch in northwestern Kansas (20 miles northeast of Goodland), Brent Flanders and his wife, Diana, welcome turkey, deer and pheasant hunters and other guests to their bedand-breakfast inn. Brent leads the hunts, and he’s all business. “I thought about this during the night, and here’s what we’re going to do,” he tells a gathering of turkey hunters as the eastern horizon begins to glow. As dawn approaches, turkeys roosting in trees flap to the ground. Hunters limber up their turkey calls, hoping to lure a tom. If you prefer to stalk birds and other game on your own, more than 1 million acres of ranch and farmland are open to hunters via the state’s Walk-In Hunting program. White-tailed deer roam the entire state, although they’re most numerous in the east. You can hunt mule deer on the high plains of western Kansas. Anglers have plenty of public water they can cast their lines into. From largemouth bass and saugers to trout, crappie and panfish, Kansas waters are unsurpassed for fishing variety. In addition to the big reservoirs, try your luck at 40 state fishing lakes from 50 to 300 acres. Kansas also has a program for fishing similar to the one for walk-in hunting: the Fish Impoundments and Stream Habitats (F.I.S.H.) program. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks leases private water from landowners to be used for public fishing. Milford Lake is one of the state’s top fishing reservoirs. The 16,000-acre prairie lake boasts a big population of smallmouth bass, plus walleye, largemouth bass, crappie and catfish. There’s a family fishing area in the pond below the dam. “Fishing piers go right out into the lake,” park manager Mike Harris says. “It has good bluegill and crappie fishing.” The state’s record flathead catfish was a 123-pounder landed in 1998 at Elk City Reservoir near Independence in southeastern Kansas. Not far away, the Neosho River near Chetopa is famed for its flathead catfish and giant paddlefish. PHOTOGRAPHS, BACKGROUND: PER BREIEHAGEN. INSETS, FROM LEFT: JOHN NOLTNER, MITCH KEZAR (Clockwise, from above) An angler lands a catfish at Cheney Reservoir west of Wichita. A flock of sandhill cranes flies over Quivira National Wildlife Refuge; Quivira and nearby Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area offer wildlife watching and hunting. Hunters relax after a successful turkey hunt at Kuhrt Ranch. 34 Official Kansas Visitors Guide
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