Largemouth bass fishing at Lake Shawnee near Topeka should be fair this year, according to Richard Sanders, Wildlife and Parks district fish biologist.

Electrofishing also showed, Sanders reported, that the Lake Shawnee bass were in poorer condition than they were in 2001.

Lake Shawnee’s prize fish in 2002 could be the wiper, Sanders said.

“According to netting data, the wiper population is poised to provide an excellent trophy fishery in the future.” Sanders said, “if mortality rates do not increase significantly.”

Sanders also projected bluegill fishing at the lake to be fair.

“From 1996 through 2000, the bluegill fishery was good, with many fish in the six- to eight-inch range,” Sanders said. “However, the number of large bluegill sampled was down considerably in 2001.”

Sanders was a little more optimistic about channel catfish, putting the species in the fair to good category.

Shawnee County takes channel catfish fingerlings supplied by Wildlife and Parks and stocks them into grow-out ponds. These small catfish grow rapidly on a diet of commercial catfish chow.

Each fall county personnel harvest the ponds and stock intermediate-sized channel catfish into Lake Shawnee to maintain the population.

Few crappie have been sampled at Lake Shawnee since the drought in late ’80s and early ’90s. Tests showed an underabundance of crappie, but size will be good for a small impoundment, Sanders said.

Walleye also fall into the fair category.

The number of fish longer than 15 inches quadrupled, but this number is still low. Most fish are still small. Body condition was poor for larger fish and good for smaller ones.