Rancher constructs wildlife paradise

He hired a consultant noted for turning small bodies of water into fishing paradises.

By BRENT FRAZEE

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

FLINT HILLS, Kan. — The way Rod Moyer sees it, he owns a little piece of paradise in the Flint Hills area.

Oh, some people might look at his huge chunk of land in Kansas and see nothing but a monotonous stretch of grassland. But Moyer sees one of the most beautiful regions in the country.

He sees a place where emerald hills roll into the horizon. A place where the land has remained untouched by the plow and has to look much the same as when settlers first laid eyes on it. A place where quail, deer and turkey are abundant. A place where cowboys still get together for cattle drives.

And a place where the fishing is about as good as it gets.

“This is my place to get away,” said Moyer, 63, as he sat in a boat on his private lake. “I can get out here and I’m in a different world.

“It’s so beautiful in this area, with the hills all around us. And the fishing — well, it’s just hard to beat.”

Moyer has played a big part in that.

His dream

When he started buying land in the Flint Hills in 1991, he set out to build a cattle and grazing operation. But he had another dream in the back of his mind — to create a paradise for fish and wildlife.

He set out feeders for quail, planted food plots for other wildlife and made sure he left cover for deer and turkeys.

He also had some 50 ponds built and stocked most of them with fish. But he saved most of his efforts for the lake he constructed.

He wanted to create something unusual — all the way from the fish that it contained to the cover. So he hired a consultant, Leonard Jirak, who is noted for turning small bodies of water into fishing paradises, and went to work.

Following Jirak’s blueprints, Moyer has accomplished his goals.

Look at the fish he has stocked. When he and his guests cast into the clear water, they could catch anything from a Mississippi blue catfish to a Georgia hybrid bluegill to a yellow perch — fish not often seen in Kansas farm ponds. He also has largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleyes, wipers and channel catfish in the lake.

Ah, but it gets better. Those fish grow quickly under the steady diet of pellet food provided by five fish feeders in the pond.

“We feed them 120 pounds of food a day,” Moyer said. “They’ll never go hungry.”

The cover and structure in the lake is just as impressive. It has a good mix of shallow flats and deep water (it is 40 feet deep at one point), and includes everything from rock to flooded timber.

But that’s not what makes it stand out. Moyer also has sunk his late father’s old Coupe de Ville in the lake. And a common day finds him fishing what he calls “Machinery Row,” where he has sunk some of his old farm machinery.

“When we put my dad’s Coupe de Ville in there, we drained the oil out of it, left the trunk up and the windows rolled down,” Moyer said. “Some big fish is probably living well on the back seat right now.”

On a recent weekday, Moyer was casting for one of those big fish. And it wasn’t long before he got what he was after.

Quite a catch

He felt a tug, then watched as his line tightened. A big fish swirled the calm surface, then fought to get free. But it wasn’t long before Moyer had a 12-pound blue catfish on the bank.

“That’s a good fish, but we’ve caught them bigger,” he said. “We’ve caught blue cats up to 20 pounds here.”

Later, Moyer and his two guests — Marc Murrell and I — also caught some big largemouths, fish up to 5 pounds.

But that was nothing unusual for Moyer. He is accustomed to seeing big fish caught at his private lake.

Guests have caught largemouth bass up to 8 pounds. And wipers from 12 to 15 pounds also have been taken.

But it’s more than just the big fish. The lake is a place where Moyer knows his guests will always be able to catch something and discover the fun of fishing.

“It’s nice to have a place where you can take guests and know they’re going to catch fish,” he said. “We have a reunion every year of our 1961 state-champion football team from Manhattan High [where Moyer played fullback], and it’s always a good time.

“We fish, have trail rides and just talk about the good old days. It’s great to have a place like this where I can host that.”