Month: October 2015

Oologah Lake in Oklahoma Fishing for Blue Catfish

The blue catfish were in transition as a cold front moved in today.  We started out fishing a creek channel in 8-12ft of water.  Rods quickly slammed down with a couple of really nice blue catfish that we marked on side image along the channel edges.  Then the bite shut down as the north wind started gusting.  We tried fishing trees, creek channels, river ledges, deep flats, and wind blown areas.  Each pattern would produce a couple of fish and lots of taste testers.  The fish lacked commitment today.  After going back and graphing a couple areas we had been to earlier I realized the situation, the fish were on a major migration and not looking to eat, but in migration mode with the front coming in.  The creeks channels were loaded with fish that were traveling fast when they were barren hours earlier.  I ventured to a couple of areas where I marked blue catfish earlier to find them gone.  All in all we had a decent day, just had to work harder than normal to fill the live well.  I did get to share lots of info with Steve and his wife for their own adventure on their home lakes.  We had lots of fun and look forward to the next trip with these two.

Drifting for Blue Catfish on Grand Lake with Gus and Family

The crisp fall air had the blue catfish excited to eat breakfast this morning!  The girls stuck it to the boys today.  The girls caught the most, biggest, and smallest fish for the sweep of the friendly competition for the day.  This group was a blast to have on the boat.

All fish caught drifting .5-.7mph.  We used fresh cut gizzard shad and they preferred the tails today for some reason.  I don’t normally use the tails but gave it a try today and that was the ticket!!!  The girls figured out how to do a long sweeping hook increasing their hookup ratio today using 8/0 Double Action Hooks from Team Catfish.  When on anchor we usually reel down on the fish, but when drifting a long sweeping hook set has worked better.

Water temp was 70 degrees today.  As the water cools down, the blue catfish bite picks up!  Be sure and find the bait that is broken up with blue cat arches below feeding on them.  If there is too much bait on the screen and they aren’t broken up keep looking.

I’ve got several weekend openings the next couple of months if anyone wants to get in on some good fishing or learn how.

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Oologah Lake Crappie and White Bass 10/15/15

Today, I had the Berlin’s out for a beautiful day crappie fishing on Oologah Lake in Oklahoma.  We got an early start since it was going to get up to the lower 90’s today.  (It is October…right?!?!?!?!)  We started the morning out with slick water and cool temps.  The brush piles were not holding fish like they had been.  We managed a few keepers the first couple of hours and a few crappie too small to go in the ice chest.  We also caught blue catfish, channel catfish, sunfish, and a variety of sizes of largemouth bass.  Not really what we were looking for.  The wind picked up to a light ripple on the water and we decided to look at drifting for blue catfish if the wind cooperated.  Well…it died down as soon as we decided to switch gears.  We hit a couple more piles with only short fish.  We headed back to the brush pile we started the morning at and saw a laying on the bottom.  It had about a dozen marks on it and we caught 9 of them.  On one end of the pile were crappie and the other white bass.  It was a slow beautiful day on Oologah Lake.  The Berlin’s were my middle school teachers and have gone on trips with me the last 3 years and we always have a blast.  Thank you for the good time!

Lake Carl Blackwell Fishing for Crappie and Hybrid Striper with Friends

We met our best friends and neighbors from college at Lake Carl Blackwell for camping and fishing fun!!!  We got there and Kent and Konya already had the steaks on the grill.  Our kids quickly started playing and we had a relaxing evening catching up.

Friday morning brought on a drastic change in temperatures as a cool front came in.  We bundled the kids up for a little fun on the boat.  We managed to get KK his first hybrid striper quickly on a tailspinner on a very windy point and a couple more white bass.  The kids and wives had enough of the cold wind after about an hour and they wanted to go in, so Kent and I went back out to play the rest of the day.  We never really found a good concentration of willing hybrid striper, so we went to a couple of calmer water brush piles to feel the thump of old mister crappie.  First pile had a couple of small crappie and a keeper.  Our next stop was some old wood and it had what we were looking for, nice 11-12 inch crappie.  All caught on orange jigs.  The lake is turning over and has foam all along the shoreline making for stained water.  We had a great time and took our catch proudly back to the cabins to have a fish fry.

Same pattern the next morning wetting jigs on brush in 12-16ft of water.  Water temp 69 degrees.

This is Kent’s first crappie ever!!!

 

 

Hudson Lake teaching trip focusing on patterns for white bass, crappie, spoonbill paddlefish, and blue catfish with Lance’s Guide Service.

Long time customer, Joe, booked a teaching trip on his home lake.  I have never been on Hudson before, but told him we’d see what we can find out.  Joe’s wife had breakfast ready at their cabin when I got there…very nice surprise!  After good food we got in the Procat and went looking around his area of the lake.  It is much like Fort Gibson, river lake that can go from 40ft deep to zero in a hurry with stumps, rocks, ect.

We focused on talking about patterns of blue catfish, white bass, crappie, and spoonbill paddlefish.  We drove and scanned about half of the lake marking brush piles, points, feeding flats, and prime ledges.  We also spent a good amount of time on sonar and mapping 101.

It was a great day to do a teaching trip and get to see another lake I’ve never been on with great people.  We even got to see a bald eagle swoop down and have an afternoon snack.

Fishing Oologah Lake in Oklahoma for Crappie and Blue Catfish with the Madison guys

Today, I had Larry Madison and his two boys for a trip on Oologah Lake.  We started the day catching crappie on new brush in 12-16ft of water.  The keeper crappie preferred minnows today.  They fished minnows and I fished jigs…they caught the good fish and I had a dink fest, lol!!!

After we caught a decent mess of crappie, it was time to switch gears and catch some blue catfish.  We turned the OU football game on, marked some fish in 20-35ft of water and started drifting baits at .5-.7mph.  It didn’t take long for a rod to get slammed and Mr. Blue Catfish to enter the cooler.  The wind never did blow enough for the blues to get stacked up together and the bite was fairly slow, but we did get plenty for them a nice family dinner.  It did get a little quite as the Sooners failed to show up and were defeated by Texas.

All in all it was a great day on the water with good people and beautiful weather!!!

Fishing for Blue Catfish on Grand Lake using fresh gizzard shad drifting flats 12-28ft deep.  I had Doug and Tom Winter plus Tom’s granddaughter Jamie for her first time catching blue catfish.  Tom and Doug joined me last spring for a catfish trip along with Tom’s son, Zach from Alaska.  The bite started out slow when we anchored on some fish on a windblown point.  We caught a couple including a nice six pounder to get Doug on the leader board, but most of our baits stolen from small fish.  We aborted that area and went to a long flat and drifted it.  Actually, we went dragging baits with the trolling motor going .5-.7mph.  The bite wasn’t fast and furious, but we managed a nice mess of fish for them to take back to their family in Alaska.  Tom wanted Jamie to pose for a good old fashion stringer picture!!!

I also had the opportunity to go out this morning for a couple of hours and found crappie on wood 8-14ft deep.  Crappie Kickers and Bubble Gum spray from Fle-Fly was the ticket.  A couple gave the classic thump, but others I would just see the line move a little letting me know a crappie had the lure in his mouth.  Yellow line really makes it easier to see the light bite.

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Fishing for Blue Catfish on Grand Lake in Oklahoma with Larry, Iris, Sasha, and Jake.  We started out drifting a flat between 20-25ft deep and only getting little bites stripping our baits off.  We searched several other areas not marking much, so we went to a shallow flat with the wind blowing in.  We anchored this time and caught a few fish, but missed many with the light bite.  We downsized our bait and started putting a few more fish in the boat.  Today, was a strange day because blue catfish normally hit really hard and prefer larger baits.  We ended the day with a mess of fish, but had to work harder than usual at getting there.  This was Sasha and Jake’s first catfish trip and they were a lot of fun.

Most of the blue catfish were caught in 8-16ft deep on fresh gizzard shad.  Most of the fish wanted the pieces about the size of a quarter today and the bite was really light.  We had to set the hook most of the time instead of the typical reel down on the rod.  So far, the October weather has been really nice!!!

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