However, as reservoirs age, other problems crop up and aren't necessarily good for bass. "It's mostly habitat decline associated with terrestrial vegetation and water levels," Nygren said. "We've lost some good bass fishing as water levels have dropped and haven't recharged."

Biologists with the KDWP are trying to make bass fishing better in some reservoirs. Nygren points to one of the problems currently being addressed. "It has to do with the conditions during reproduction and recruitment," he said. "One of the things we're looking at is the timing of young-of-the-year bass and the gizzard shad availability as forage.

"When the young bass switch from invertebrates to wanting to eat fish, the gizzard shad are already too big to fit in the mouths of the young bass. As a result, we don't get the growth we need to get them through their first year."

Research projects are being considered to determine ways to better that situation. "We may look to see if we can improve that by stocking largemouth bass about two or three weeks ahead of when Mother Nature would have produced them naturally to see if the stocked fish can get a competitive advantage," Nygren said.

Although biologists can alter what Mother Nature does in some regards, they're helpless in others. Drought is beyond their control, and has taken its toll on some smaller popular bass fishing hotspots in recent years. "We've lost a lot of the lakes in the western half of the state in the program that have gone dry, and even some of the ones in the east are getting pretty low right now," Nygren said, referring to the Fishing Impoundments and Stream Habitats program, which leases private waters for public access. "But once we get normal rainfall we can get those things stocked back up and get them open again."

Despite the drought, there still are plenty of areas for anglers to enjoy. Nygren points to those in northeastern and north-central Kansas as good bets.

"There are some that have high densities of largemouth bass, and you can catch a lot of them, but they are fairly small," he said. "And in those situations we're actively trying to get people to get out and harvest some of those fish to help improve the quality of the populations."

Bass fishing enthusiasts have even more opportunities at other small and government-owned bodies of water, thanks to a new program started in 2005. The Community Fisheries Assistance Program is a cooperative project between the KDWP and city, county or community lake organizations.

Many of these lakes once charged an admission fee both for fishing and for using a boat on the lake. In some cases it was a daily or yearly fee that was substantial, especially for fishermen outside of that county or community. In an effort to reduce the costs and to provide more opportunity for anglers closer to home, the KDWP now makes a yearly lease payment to various cities, counties or communities to allow public access.