Big hybrid caught at Arcadia Lake

Jeff Smith of Edmond landed a hybrid bass Saturday morning at Arcadia Lake that weighed nearly 13 pounds.
It is probably the biggest hybrid caught at the Edmond lake.
“Last fall, we had several exceptional fish (hybrids) caught out there,” said Leon Mixer, maintenance supervisor at Arcadia Lake. “Most were from 6 to 10 pounds.”
Arcadia has been stocked with hybrids, hatchery-raised crosses between striped bass and white bass, off and on for the last several years, Mixer said.
Hybrids feed in schools and often travel long distances following shad, their main staple. The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation stocks hybrids in more than a dozen Oklahoma lakes, including Arcadia, Foss, Sooner, Altus-Lugert, Canton, Fort Cobb, Overholser and Kaw, just to name a few.
However, Waurika Lake has the greatest reputation in the state for outstanding hybrid fishing.
Hybrids can be distinguished from white bass as hybrids have two tongue patches. White bass have one.
Striped bass have two tongue patches but usually have dark, unbroken lines on each side. Hybrids have some broken lines on each side.
Smith caught his hybrid on an H&H spinnerbait in orange, yellow and brown on the east side of the lake, south of the dam.
The digital scale on the boat had a dead battery so Smith borrowed someone’s manual scale at the boat ramp which showed the fish weighing between 12½- and 13 pounds.
Since Smith released the fish and didn’t get it weighed on certified scales, it won’t officially be considered a lake record by the Wildlife Department. The City of Edmond also keeps its own lake records for Arcadia.
Arcadia often gets overlooked by anglers but it has some pretty good crappie, black bass and apparently, hybrid fishing.
Crappie fishing is very popular around the enclosed heated fishing dock at Spring Creek Park off 15th Street in Edmond .
Another fishing dock was recently built on Arcadia at Arrowhead Point, which is in the far southeast corner of Spring Creek Park.
The new dock is not heated but state wildlife officials put some manmade structures and sunk about 40 cedar trees around it for fishing habitat.
Mixer said before the current cold snap there were signs that the crappie were about to spawn. The fish were fluctuating between shallow and deeper water, moving in and out with a few 1½ to 2 pound slabs being caught.
“Crappie are the state’s most finicky fish,” Mixer said. “If you are not there at their time, you are at their mercy.”
Mixer said the black bass fishing has been slow of late at Arcadia, but the lake has produced some 8 and 9 pounders this month.
With a few warm days and sunshine, the crappie fishing should bust loose at Arcadia and other lakes across the state.

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