Weather is usually a factor in angler comfort, but Miller has seen that these shallow-water fish are susceptible to cold fronts or heavy rains. "That's the most frustrating thing we deal with in the spring in Kansas," he acknowledged. "If the water temperature rises 3 or 4 degrees, it can really turn the fish on and they readily bite. But if you get a cold front that drops that water temperature 6 or 8 degrees it really hurts fishing, especially in ponds."

Miller's choice of bass baits doesn't vary much, and he admits only focusing on a couple -- but those are usually all he needs. "I like a 3/8- to 1/2-ounce double-bladed silver and gold, white, or white and chartreuse spinnerbait with a trailer," he said. "And then my other bait will be a jig-and-pig and something I can flip up into the heavy structure. I'll cover water with the spinnerbait and then fish slower with the jig-and-pig near the shoreline structure."

A baitcasting enthusiast, Miller chooses to mount those types of reels on a 6 1/2- to 7-foot medium-heavy rod. And when it comes to line choice, Miller doesn't waver much from his personal preference. "I'm not a heavy-line person," he said. "I rarely use over 17-pound-test, and it's usually 14."

Kansas' farm ponds are notorious for having too much vegetation, even to the point of being unfishable, according to some anglers. But Miller doesn't mind a bit. "I think that's good, and I like that because that holds a lot of fish," he said. "And then I'll go with a fluke or some type of unweighted plastic bait like a soft jerkbait that won't immediately sink down into the weeds."

The Kansas state-record bass was hauled from a Jefferson County pond in 1977 by Topeka's Kenneth Bingham. Caught on a minnow, it was 25 inches long and weighed 11 pounds, 12 ounces. Nygren believes that this mark, one of the oldest fish records in the state, might fall sometime in the near future.

"We're contemplating developing triploid Florida hybrids," the KDWP's Nygren said. "We would take Florida hybrids and prevent them from being able to reproduce and put them in some of our hot-water lakes, like La Cygne or Coffey County, where they would have the potential to grow and reach trophy size."

The desirability of developing these triploid fish arises from the necessity of accommodating Kansas' neighbor to the east, which doesn't want Florida genes getting into its fish populations. "By having sterile fish we can be a good neighbor to Missouri and respect their wishes for not having any fertile Florida hybrid genetics that could potentially harm their native largemouth bass," Nygren said.

Miller wonders at the longevity of the state's bass record. "I'm surprised it hasn't been broken," he concluded. "It's one of those that's been around an awful long time. But with all the ponds we've got, and some of the reservoirs that came on through the '90s, I'm surprised we haven't seen a bigger fish."