Category: Fishing Reports

Oologah Blue Catfish

Today, we tried everything we could to get the kids on a good blue catfish bite on Oologah Lake in Oklahoma.  We tried shallow, mid-depth, deep river ledges and everything in between.  The fish were extremely scattered and biting very light.  It was a one fish each stop type of day with little to no wind to concentrate the fish.  We had a great time and big fish for the day was 15 pounds.

The biggest surprise for the day was wen I was cleaning fish.  I felt something hard like a mussel shell in the belly of a blue catfish.  I thought the kids would find it fascinating, so I had them come up to watch as I cut the stomach open.  Much to my surprise as I made the cut a head popped out of a turtle shell.  It made every muscle in my body jump and the kids got a really good laugh.  The turtle was not alive, but the pressure made the head shoot out of the shell.  I thought I was going to lose a finger, lol.

Good times with this group, I just wish the bite would have been better today.

 

Keystone Lake Blue Catfish

Today, we had the Nelson crew from Nebraska on Keystone Lake catching blue catfish and a couple of bonus stripers.  We started the day out with a quick fish, but then the bite was stone cold as a big front approached.  We made a last move to a different area and found feeding fish catching a couple quickly, but had to get out of there to avoid the lightning and high winds.

After our forced extended lunch break, we went back to the area we found fish just before the storm and they were there!  We anchored up and it was good steady action the rest of the afternoon.  We only moved one time about a 100 yards.  We had one pole lay out with the drag screaming!!!  Unfortunately, he didn’t get the hook in him good and came off…it can be as big as we want it to be now 😉 lol.

Later in the afternoon, we got a few bonus stripers hitting out rods as well.  The fish really became active with the cloud cover after the big storm passed.  These guys were a blast!!!

 

Blue Catfish Keystone Lake in Oklahoma

It was a windy day on Keystone Lake in Oklahoma catching blue catfish.  A massive front was coming in and we had gusts to almost 40mph today as we had Rex, Kevin, Bill and Phillip on board.  We were going to fish Oologah Lake, but that wasn’t going to happen in this wind.

Our day started out searching shallow, but we only managed a couple decent fish and the gar wouldn’t leave us alone.  After searching and searching as the wind kept getting stronger, we decided to open up the playbook and look at some new water.  What we found were some good fish in a very windy cove at mid-depth.

We got set up and landed several in the teans and a 22 pounder.  The larger fish got hung on some brush and took some crafty work to get it free.  I believe we had 6 in the teans and the 22 pounder plus some eaters.  Not a great day, but not too shabby for the conditions and scattered fish.  After these fronts roll through we should be on a solid shallow water bite.

Spoonbill Paddlefish Fort Gibson

A great group of guys and gals from Texas came to Fort Gibson Lake in Oklahoma to smack spoonbill paddlefish for the first time.  We had a blast with this group, who normally fish for trophy blue catfish.

Between the two boat loads, we landed 35 spoonbill.  Unfortunately, my boat didn’t catch as many as the other boat.  We did manage to land gar, blue catfish, carp, and spoonbill paddlefish…with a bonus tree several time (joking).

The fish were grouped up well for the first hour and then a scattered out until early afternoon.  We stuck it out and I believe we landed 8 spoonbill.  We fought the good find and scratched it out and had a blast doing so!

I can’t say enough about how fun a group they were.

Chase Boat on Grand Lake Bass Master Classic 2016 with KVOO

I had the pleasure of having Kelley Cash from 98.5 KVOO onboard along with some listeners to be a chase boat for the first day of the Bass Master Classic 2016 on Grand Lake.

We started the morning out at the launch site listening to interviews, taking pictures, and enjoying the excitement.  What an amazing even?!?!?!?!

We got to watch Randy Howell, Edwin Evers, and many other elite anglers doing their best work catch Grand Lake bass.  Jerk baits seemed to be a favorite along rocky shorelines in clearer water.  Alton Jones did do some very impressive flipping to put up a nice bag also.

Cabela’s King Kat on Lake Tawakoni in Texas

Dom and I made the adventure down to Lake Tawakoni in Texas for the Cabela’s King Kat  tournament.

Pre-fishing on Friday, we really wanted to establish a pattern that we felt would hold for the day of the tournament.  We started graphing mid-depth water close to channel edges to get an idea of what the bait was doing.  We marked lots of bait, what appeared to be threadfin shad along a 20-30ft flat.  It was very thick with scattered catfish all around.  The bait was not broken up, so they weren’t feeding catfish.  We took note of the situation and moved on.

Next, we wanted to check on some shallow water options that are usually good this time of year.  However, after checking, we didn’t see much shallower than 16ft today.

Next, focus on break lines close to the deep fish and bait we marked looking on the down wind side.  We found some active fish on a break from 30ft of water up to 14ft.  We anchored up and caught a few.  After those bites we left.  Don’t want to wear out an area.

We then decided to head to another area utilizing the same pattern.  After searching for a couple of hours, we never did find anymore feeding fish.  We decided to call it a day, go eat some dinner, go to the captains meeting, and get a good nights sleep.  4am will come early

Up and ready!  Launched and headed to the area we left fish biting the day before.  We marked lots of feeding blue catfish!!!  Anchored up and began the long wait for time to begin fishing…long wait.

Tournament begins and we get the lines out with much anticipation….however, after over an hour of waiting with lots of bites but no takers, we begin talking about our next move.

Next move, was some shallow water in the area.  We marked some good fish, but not takers.

Next move, timber.  Caught a couple small one’s.

Next move, drag a mid depth flat on a channel.  Caught another small blue catfish.

Next move, drag a deep flat.  Caught another small one.

Next move, switch areas of the lake and looked at a variety of areas and depths.  We didn’t find anything we felt would win a tournament.

Next move, go shallow, really shallow.  We went to the very back of a flooded area and fished the grass.  We managed to put a 15 pounder in the boat and another couple of small fish.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time to get a couple of big fish.  We had a blast seeing old friends and fishing against some of the best catfishermen in the world.  The bite was poor for everyone and has been poor all winter.  We never got the cold snaps we needed to send the fish into winter feeding mode.

We look forward to competing next year!

 

 

White Bass Spring River on Grand Lake

Fishing the Spring River on Grand Lake for white bass with new customers, Adam and Nate.

We got an early start this morning trying to beat the crowd and get an early bite.  We beat the crowd, but the fishing was fairly slow the first couple of hours.  We were catching, just not very quickly.  A little before noon we finally got on a steady pattern and consistently put fish in the boat.  

Slow rolling GoGo Minnows from Fle-Fly on the mud line created from all the boat traffic wakes was the ticket.  The waves crashing against the mud bank creates a mud line about 10-12 feet away from the bank.  The white bass use this for ambushing their prey.  We would work the bank throwing both pearl and chartreuse 2.5″ GoGo Minnows on 1/8 ounce head on a double rig using 8 pound test line.  We would cast it near the bank and begin slow rolling, slow enough the lures were ticking the bottom.

Sometimes they would just nail it…other times, they would hit it several times before your rod would load up.  If they are just lightly hitting it, just keep working it until you feel a steady pull and set the hook.

We didn’t spend much time fishing for crappie, but the ones we did catch were pretty good fish.  We would cast over a brush pile and slow roll it over the top.  Same lures and rig as for white bass, just over brush piles that our graph showed crappie hanging in.

We had a beautiful February day with really great customers.

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Spoonbill Paddlefish and White Bass Grand Lake

Snagging spoonbill paddlefish and catching white bass at Grand Lake in Oklahoma.

Andy and Butch brought Stan out to catch spoonbill paddlefish for his birthday.  It was tough!  With our recent warm weather, the fish had moved from where they were last week.  We covered lots of water, marking very few spoonbill in several miles of where they usually are this time of year.  Our water temps are about 12 degrees higher than last year at this same time.  Crazy!!!

We worked hard and got Stan on his big fish!  It was a great fighter too.

After our trip, we decided to head up to the Spring River above Grand Lakeand check out the white bass.  We have a trip there tomorrow and wanted to get an idea for what was going on.  We found fish a little scattered until about 2 hours before dark.  Then it was fast action using GoGo Minnows in Chartreuse right next to the bank. We would cast it up close and slow roll it down.  Fish on!

Winter Mode Blue Catfish on Grand Lake

Today, was the first day all year that we fished a true winter pattern on Grand Lake this winter for blue catfish.  Grand Lake has finally cleared up north of sailboat bridge causing the shad to drop to the lower third of the water column into the river channels.

We focused our attention on fishing the shad “carpet” looking at our sonar.  At the edges of the shad “carpet” in the river channels we would find blue catfish feeding.  Using our Navionics lake maps and sonar on our Lowrance HDS 12, we would see little yellow blunt arches that we interpret as blue catfish hanging on the edges of the channels gorging on shad.  Blue catfish use the edges of channels to trap their food.  I like to think about it as if we were playing tag in a racquetball court.  The tagger would use the wall as a way to corner the opponent and tag them.  Catfish, well fish in general, use ledges and drop offs much the same way to capture their food.

Our fish were caught in 28-45ft of water using fresh cut bait.  The bite was on fire for the first couple of hours of the trip and got much lighter when the wind shifted from the northeast to the southeast.  We still caught fish, but had trouble seeing the bite.  We’d go to reel in and we’d have several fish on.  They just weren’t hammering the baits like they were earlier in the morning.

We tried to find a shallow bite later in the day, but the fish just weren’t up there.  They were deep on the channel where the bait was hanging out.

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Keystone Lake in Oklahoma Catching Blue Catfish

Catching shallow water blue catfish on Keystone Lake in Oklahoma with Lauren and her father getting blue catfish slime for her science fair project!

Lauren is doing research for her science fair project on the properties of catfish slime.  It has been a myth and proven that the belly slime from a blue catfish will lessen the sting and pain from being stuck by a fin and help heal a cut…so why?!?!?!  That is what Lauren is trying to figure out.

We started out the morning catching bait before our customers arrived.  We got there just before sunrise and bait was easy since it was in the upper third of the water column.  After about 5 throws of the net it was time to graph some areas close to the boat ramp and see what is going on.  We found blue catfish and stripers hanging out on the edge of a channel edge feeding on the shad having their morning breakfast.  We went shallow and marked some nice blue catfish in their also.

After picking up Lauren and her father, we took off to see if the blue catfish were feeding shallow.  As soon as we got into water less than 8 feet deep the graph started showing blue catfish on the Lowrance side image.

We anchored up and it was only a matter of minutes and Lauren and her father had a double on!  We took samples of belly slime from ten blue catfish for research and had a blast doing it!!!

I love this job!!!

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