More on the former glory days of Purcell City Lake
Jon Matlock of Oklahoma City with the new lake record largemouth bass from the Purcell City Lake
Last Sunday’s column about the bass fishing at Purcell City Lake brought back some memories for Kenneth Harris of Wayne.
Harris called to let me know that the Purcell City Lake once was rated the No. 1 small lake in the state for bass fishing.
So I checked The Oklahoman archives and sure enough, in 1989, Purcell topped the list of best small bass lakes based on the state Wildlife Department’s electrofishing surveys.
“It was a super little hot hole,” Harris said.
Harris concurred with Gene Gilliland, fisheries biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, who said the bass fishing was ruined at the lake when the city added thousands of grass carp to control the thick vegetation.
“Where there’s grass, there’s bass,” said Harris, repeating a famous bass fisherman’s adage.
Harris said he used to take a half-ounce Rat-L-Trap and rip through that moss, fishing for bass.
The city put more grass carp than what state wildlife officials recommended, then when they did not see immediate success, added a bunch more, Gilliland said.
All the vegetation eventually was destroyed. State wildlife officials have been trying to grow aquatic plants in the lake in an attempt to bring back the bass fishing.
“At one time it was a great lake,” Harris said. “When they came in and killed all of that grass, it just ruined that.”
Years ago, Harris used to fish with the Heart of Oklahoma Bass Club at Purcell, and recalled the time a fellow angler lost an 8-pound bass in a tournament when the fish opened the hook on a metal stringer.
“I’ve had three on the scales well over 5 pounds (from Purcell),” he said.
Harris said he was shocked when he saw the photo in Sunday’s newspaper of Jon Matlock’s 6-pound, 14-ounce largemouth caught in April at the Purcell City Lake.
Now, he is thinking about giving the bass fishing at Purcell another try.
“It excited me to see that article,” he said.
If Harris does go bass fishing at Purcell, I hope he catches some.
If not, he may never read another one of my columns.
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Comments
I almost fell out of my seat after reading the story on he big bass caught at Purcell lake. Back in 1996 I took the day off from my job at W.H. STEWART . I fished purcell lake a lot during that time. On this perticular day;Oct.24, around seven that morning, I was fishing the first fishing landing just across from the golf course And low and behold I hooked this bass on the south side of the landing just off the bank while throwing a buzz bait ,No skirt just a blue salted crawfish when this monster fish latched on I knewt was a good fish and when I landed him I loaded all my gear headed straight for some scales . I stopped at the grocery store in purcell but they would not let me put the fish on the scale. I proceeded on back toward nornan and passed propane dealer ,who had a set of scale ,the kind where the weight hung above a rolling table scale. The guy commented that the fish might weigh 5 pound or so ,but I knew better having caught more than my share of fish larger that five pound . I proceed down to Denver Corner and placed the fish in the live well until they could go to the house and get the scales. After weighing the the fish , it tip the scale at 11 pounds. Mind you that the fish had now been transported from Purcell to Lake Thunderbird. After taking pictures I released the fish Into the Lake. It swam away but I don’t know if it survived. Little did I know that this was probably a lake record fish. I have the pictures to prove it.
After the grass carp ate all the grass, fisherman finished it off by taking all the good bass out of the lake. It was easy pickens as the bass went to any cover they could find after the milfoil was all gone, that was in 1995. I went there one day and some idiot had caught several 4′s and 5′s and just left them laying dead in the gravel parking lot.
I personally caught and released an 8# 8 oz fish in that year.
There was an annual mini boat tournament on the lake that I heard drew up to 50 teams. I never fished the tournament, but they say it was just a big carousel of mini boats going round and round the lake. If ya did not have fish by 9 am, there was no shot.
Fishing the outside edges of the milfoil with Sluggos was great. And there were ditches and creek channels where the milfoil grew on the flats and they made great edge cover with deep water near.
It was a great little lake in its day and was not a long drive from the metro. And there were no permits necessary. No over priced fees to pay.