Thread: Oologah Archives

Dang Whisperer, warms my heart to see you post again tho I thought if you stayed away much longer maybe I could claim your cool user name! Anytime I can feel the thump 100 times in one day, even from dinks, I count that as a good day. If I was able to talk my wife onto the boat then it upgrades to a great day. Thanks for sharing- I haven't forgotten about Kansas either........

Got off early early last week and with the light winds thought I would venture north of Wiganon into the standing timber on the east side of the lake. Since the dinks seem to have taken over all my normal haunts, that treacherous field of trees had me dreaming of actually boating some fish to replenish the freezer. From the channel over at the western bank, one quickly leaves the comfort of the channel whilst venturing towards the direction of the morning sun into a vast 10-11' deep flat land with no variations what so ever. You see a bird off in the distance standing on a submerged stump out in the middle of the lake. It's enough to make a wise Captain very cautious and tone it down to a low wake ride for the mile + trek across what I consider "No mans land" on the mighty Oologah.
After awhile, I could make out the forest of timber that lay ahead. Enough to entice me to give the tiller handle just a tinge of a turn towards more power. 10-11' constant depth now for about a mile and a half as I came closer to Valhalla on steroids (in my mind).
OK, I'm there, nothing but trees, stumps and submerged boat rockers for a good quarter mile to the east and as far as I could see to the North. I'm dipping a 16oz jig with a Crazy Angler bait attached. First tree, nada, second tree BAM! Hauled in one in the 11" range. I'm smiling and looking at all this untouched wood on a day with a very light breeze coming across the bow.
I figured I'd be able to limit out in about 100 dips. I hit maybe another 10 trees and caught one in the 7" range and a sandy about the same size. Somewhere around tree 50 I hooked another in the 12" range. All the trees I had fished so far were still in 10' of water. I thought about how slow it was and figured I'd move towards the shallower venue. Another 1/8 mile to the east of dipping and couldn't get bit. I was still a quarter mile from the shore.

I had enough. I spent a good 3.5 hours in the area and had 2 worth keeping to show for it. I pulled the trolling motor in, fired up the 60 and headed back towards open waters praying I didn't high center on a submerged stump. It was one cheek puckering experience getting out of there. I only bumped one with the motor and had passed at least 10 right beside the boat that only a spotter up front would have seen. You know the ones, those stumps that make you think...Holy crap, that was close. After exiting the visible trees, I just pointed to bow towards the west bank and kept it slow for the just in case moment.
I made it back without any issues and have planned my next trip up that way. I remember about ten years ago going up that way and finding 26' deep water around trees. I figure if any decent fish are up that way, they'll be fairly close to the deeper water just in case. The water I fished was just too consistently the same. I need stumps that have a bit of depth variance and I might have a better chance of actually entering Valhalla.

Glad to go Reaper!!

just shout when you need a spotter and i'll head that way

I think if we can get some good summer days the trees will get better in the next couple of weeks.

At some time of the year surely that huge orchard is full of slabs ready to harvest. Those stumps with Tracker blue paint on them have already been fished by me- move on.

Fished the river way up above the lake finally. I have been wanting to fish it for years but it always seems to be blown out when I have had an opportunity to go. I put in at big creek ramp and fished for 8 miles upriver and 3 miles downiver. I wanted to get a good sample of its depth and water clarity. Also fished Big creek from the ramp to the river. I ended up boating way more than fishing because I got there at noon and the thunderstorms came in at 6 pm. Water clarity in the tributary creeks is 4-8 inches. In the river, it was 15 inches at the uppermost point I went to, 20 inches at the farthest point downstream. The river has a massive biomass of shad. It has tons of lay-downs, some very large (70+plus feet, 4 foot diameter trunks). I found a good amount of standing timber from the bank out to 25 FOW. Most of the river near the launch area is an average of 22 feet deep. At the uppermost point I went to, the average was 11', the the farthest point downstream it was 24'. I ran across 3 different places where it was over 30' deep. It has cliff banks, sloping banks, rock banks, mud banks, car size boulder banks and banks that are nearly solid laydowns for a hundred yards. It is perfect crappie habitat. It looks like upper Gibson except with way more lay-downs and no crappie fishermen that I could find (saw 3 boats for catfish). Its a big river, 200-300 feet across. I didnt fish it hard and only caught one dink , I should have slowed down and given it a chance. In the last half hour before I left, I netted some shad and used them around a big lay-down. I promptly caught 5 big sand bass and the dink. It may be that it gets such heavy flows that it isn't a good fishery for crappie or it may be that I fished it wrong or hit it on a bad day. If anybody has any experience with it, I hope you chime in.

Your reminding me of Lewis & Clark!! Sounds fishyyy! Glad you got out and on the water!!