Fishing Report For El Dorado Lake, KS

By Rick Seaman

May 27, 2025

Popular Fish Species Reports
El Dorado Lake Fishing Video
Available Fish Species
Today's Weather & Forecast
Fishing Boat Rentals
Boat Launch Ramps
Fishing License
Map
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Fishing Report El Dorado Lake, KS

Fishing Reports

Popular Fish Species El Dorado Lake, KS

White Crappie

Uncle Buck's Panfish Creatures Curly Tail Minnow Rigged

Current Report: Good To Very Good
Outlook: Good To Very Good

Crappie fishing reports indicate plenty of nice crappie, 12 to 14 inch, being caught around some spawning areas. However, the bulk of them have moved to deeper water, 10 to 15 feet or deeper. Docks, brush piles, bridge pilings, wood and deep vegetation are a good place to cast small crappie jigs or live minnows. Light tackle with 4 lb to 8 lb line is ideal. Some anglers are reporting success using fish finders, and forward facing sonar, to locate schools of crappie around cover.

Walleye

Current Report: Fair To Good
Outlook: Fair To Good

Spring and Fall are the best season for catching walleye. Now that the shallows are warming into the low 70's, anglers are finding walleye in the shallows, especially rocky areas. They spawn in early Spring, and are now moving to flats, shoals and ledges off shore. Throughout Summer, early in the morning and from dusk to long after dark are the best times to catch walleye, as they move shallow to feed. They primarily feed on gizzard shad and other small fish, close to the bottom. Jigs, swimbaits and spoons are popular lure choices for casting. Jigs, spoons, deep-diving crankbaits, and worm harness spinners are catching walleye while trolling.

Blue Catfish

Current Report: Good To Very Good
Outlook: Very Good To Excellent

El Dorado Lake is heavily populated with nice blue catfish. So many in fact, that the Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks is encouraging anglers to keep up to 10 blues, in the 18 to 26 inch range, per day. Fishing for blue catfish is often productive around any kind of structure, especially when water is flowing. Road beds, creek channels and rocky points are all good places to begin. Boats give ideal access to these river channels, but anglers fishing from the bank are still catching them. Cut bait, using slip sinkers, 3-way rigs, or Carolina rigs are all working to keep the bait close to the bottom.

Fishing Video

Fish species to fish for...

Guide to fishing for largemouth bass, channel catfish, blue catfish, white crappie, walleye, white bass, white perch and hybrid striped bass at El Dorado Lake in Kansas.

El Dorado Lake is an 8,000-acre lake with almost 100 miles of shoreline. Anglers enjoy fishing for bass, catfish, walleye, white bass, hybrid stripers, crappie, perch and sunfish. There is plenty of shoreline accessible for fishing from the bank.

Primary fish species to catch

Click images for fishing tips and details about each species.

Today's Weather & Forecast

Fishing Boat Rentals

Click here for fishing boat rentals available at this lake.

Public Boat Launch Ramps & Landings

Click here for boat ramps available at this lake.

Fishing License

Click here for a Kansas Fishing License.

Map - Fishing & Access

Rick Seaman is a fishing enthusiast with over five decades of fishing experience, a retired tournament fisherman, author of numerous published articles on fishing, and co-author of the book "Bass Fishing - It's not WHAT you throw, It's WHERE you throw it".