Fishing Oklahoma
The recent rains and swollen rivers are causing major movement of all three species of catfish (channel, blues and flathead). Anglers have been reporting some outstanding catches in the tailwaters of major reservoirs using live sunfish starting at dusk…
Anglers looking for big bass should not overlook the small Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservationlakes. Electrofishing surveys turned up some real brutes in the act of spawning two weeks ago at Lakes Elmer and Watonga, said John Stahl, northwest Oklahoma fisheries supervisor for the state Wildlife Department. The spawn should be winding down soon and these bass should be on the feed…
I was at Lake Eufaula Monday and had a blast catching surfacing sand bass early in the morning. The fishing was hot around Porum Landing and Bixby Creek as the sandies were in shallow around boat docks…
Most of the lakes are full again and that bodes well for future bass fishing. Vegetation that had grown up on exposed lake bottoms are now underwater and will provide good nursery cover from predators for little bass.
It will be a good recruitment year for largemouth bass if the water stays high enough through the summer to provide cover, said Gene Gilliland, fisheries biologist for the state Wildlife Department.
“It can make a huge impact on the fish population two or three years from now.’’ he said.
Although the high water is good for shoreline-oriented species like bass and sunfish, the huge water releases during the flooding was not good for open-water species like striped bass hybrids and walleyes, he said.
“There are going to be a lot of adult fish flushed downstream (during flooding),’’ Gilliland said. “The downstream lakes may benefit in some respects.’’
Even small crappie will get flushed out of lakes because of the swift currents, he said.
Ed Godfrey
Outdoors Writer
Sand bass
Head now to Lake Tenkiller for some hot sand bass action.
Large schools of sand bass were surfacing this past weekend and anglers were having a great time catching big sandies on top-water.
“It was like Texoma of old,” said Gene Gilliland of Norman, who was fishing a black bass tourney on Tenkiller, located north of Gore in northeastern Oklahoma.
Anglers were catching sand bass weighing 2 and 3 pounds along shallow humps and points. Hordes of threadfish shad were spawning on the lake and the sandies were chasing.
Now is the time for threadfin shad to spawn, and other likes such as Broken Bow could see the same kind of white bass action in the near future.
