Catfish on the Salt Plains
Now is the time to go catfishing on the Great Salt Plains Lake in northwest Oklahoma before the fish are gone.
The catfish have really been biting of late and state wildlife officials, worried about a possible fish kill in the near future because of the extreme heat, are encouraging anglers to go catch ‘em now.
The Great Salt Plains Lake has suffered fish kills before. State wildlife officials would rather see catfish in people’s freezers than bloated, dead fish on the shore.
“The lake is real low,” said John Stahl of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. “We haven’t had a drop of water. We are real scared of a fish kill at any time.”
Stahl caught 168 pounds of catfish during the past week on a trot line. Other catfish anglers also have been doing well on trot lines, he said. Grasshoppers have been a popular bait.
The Great Salt Plains Lake is located in the Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in Alfalfa County. It is named for the salt flats in the area and is located on the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River, which is near the communities of Jet and Cherokee.
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Comments
[...] Plains Catfish may be dying Found this as a link on the Daily Disappointment Catfish on the Salt Plains Posted by edgodfrey on June 27, 2011M at 3:06 pm Now is the time to go catfishing on the Great [...]
I am at the sa”t plains lake today and there are thousands of dead fish on the shores. Its horrible!!!
The catfishermen caught channel cat the winter after the fish kill of ’06. Been catching them ever since. That’s some real lake management to be inviting people to fish out a lake isn’t it. We are a long way from another fish kill. What do people do with boat loads of fish anyway….I know some people that end up cleaning out that deep freeze and throwing them away anyway. By the way, the wildlife department doesn’t allow trotlining in their lakes..