Fishing for Stocked Trout at Liberty Park Pond in Sedalia, Missouri

Last weekend, my youngest son Cody, the middle school fly fishing club that I sponsor, and I headed to Liberty Park Pond in Sedalia, Missouri to fish for stocked rainbow trout.  It was an hour drive for most of my club members but I more than half of the club was able to make the trek.  Now you might be wondering, "Why drive so far to fish for stocked rainbow trout?  There are multiple lakes in the Kansas City area that are stocked with rainbow trout."  The answer lays within the regulations of Liberty Park Pond.  

All of the lakes in the Kansas City area are catch and keep lakes all year long.  That means that once trout are stocked in the lake, anglers can start harvesting them.  Liberty Park Pond is different.  At this lake, all trout must be released until February 1 when anglers can start keeping fish that they catch.  Another important note is that Kansas City area lakes get three stockings over the course of the winter but Liberty Park Pond gets one stocking of trout.  So not only does Liberty Park Pond have more fish than Kansas City lakes, it (should) maintain that population.  That should mean higher catch rates and thus, more fun for both adults and kids.

While it wasn't a perfect day, it was pretty good.  The temperatures weren't tool cold and it wasn't too windy.  What worked against us was the fact that the lake was approximately 80% frozen except where the fountains in the lake were keeping the water moving.  Since our fishing locations were limited, I believe that lowered the number of fish that we caught.  If we could have tried to fish other spots, I believe that we could have caught a few more.  I believe (and I could be wrong) that these fish move around a lot.  I believe that because that's what they do at the hatchery they are raised in and what they instinctually do in their native, wild habitat.  In other words, we fished spots and hoped that the fish came to us, and they did sometimes.  

We probably caught a total of 25 fish over the course of the day.  All fish were caught on 1/80 ounce jigs and midges which were both under strike indicators.  Almost all of the takes were aggressive and hard to miss.  Some fish were caught on short retrieves and some were caught without giving the flies any action.  While it wasn't a day that produced gaudy numbers or any fish that were larger than stocker-size trout, it was still a good day.  It was nice to be outdoors and spending time with other folks that enjoy fishing.  The occasional fish just made the day even better!