Thread: Oologah Archives

Originally Posted by Oologah Ranger

All, brushpile day is always held on the second saturday in September which will be September 11th this year and will be at Blue Creek as mentioned earlier. Usually we start things off around 9:00am and work until 12:30 or 1:00 and then we'll eat lunch, give out some prizes, and for those that wish to go back out and drop some more brush, we can load up and work until3:00-3:30pm. All you need to bring is a lifejacket and a pair of gloves, we will supply everything else. Hope to see everyone there. Jason Person, Park Ranger @ Oologah Lake.

I'd also like to know if they do this on either Ft. Gibson or Eufaula. I've never heard of it on either lake. Would be a good program to start, especially on Gibson!

Ft. Gibson puts in brush piles in January but it is just the Corps, not the public. They also don't mark them in any way, either with a fishing bouy or with GPS coordinates although they say that they may begin to do that.

Eufaula puts brush piles as well as habitats in the lake but they don't mark them either. They do, however, work in conjunction with the ODWC and they said that the fisheries biologist for the Eufaula area had some coordinates and said you could call the ODWC, ask for the biologist in the Eufaula area, and they may be able to provide them for you.

We are blessed up here at Oologah to have such a fine team of guys running the lake! You guys that live and fish around the other Corps lakes need to call the local project offices and tell them you would like to volunteer for a brushpile day similar to Oologah's. I think if they knew there was a demand as well as manpower to help, they would do it.

The Oklahoma Water Atlas site has maps that have any fish attractors that the Oklahoma Water Resources board knows about marked (somewhat, no GPS Coords...).

Pretty much every lake is there and they have higher res maps that can be printed out of each lake.

Its definitely not as detailed as what Oologah has by the Corps, but it may give you an idea of where to head.

Here's the Oologah map it does show where a lot of the brush piles were placed but not all of them by any stretch.

Originally Posted by Oologah Ranger

All, brushpile day is always held on the second saturday in September which will be September 11th this year and will be at Blue Creek as mentioned earlier. Usually we start things off around 9:00am and work until 12:30 or 1:00 and then we'll eat lunch, give out some prizes, and for those that wish to go back out and drop some more brush, we can load up and work until3:00-3:30pm. All you need to bring is a lifejacket and a pair of gloves, we will supply everything else. Hope to see everyone there. Jason Person, Park Ranger @ Oologah Lake.

Welcome to the board Jason! Hope to see you stop by often. What's Shockley doing now that he's retired? Has he dropped in on you guys much out of boredom yet?

When you guys fish these brush piles, do you normally set out an anchor a few feet from them or just hover over them with your trolling motor? It seems it would be tough to hover on a windy day.

Originally Posted by CrappieThug

When you guys fish these brush piles, do you normally set out an anchor a few feet from them or just hover over them with your trolling motor? It seems it would be tough to hover on a windy day.

I'll toss out one fore and aft and at times a third one just to try and keep me in position. Kinda tough to do during the summer months with the recreational boaters and jet skiers. Is why I love fishing at night too.

I don't like to throw out an anchor until I see if there is any active fish of any size. I may only stay 10 minutes if I don't get bit. It seems as soon as I set out the anchor the bite goes away, and yes it is hard to say on top of the spot with a breeze blowing. I use a marker bouy to mark the pile. Catch a fish, unhook the fish, put it in the live well, catch a minnow and put it on the hook and I can be quite a ways from the marker. Someday I might have on of those fancy ones with a built in gps that will stay on spot. If I am fishing with someone my fishing partner has to learn to watch the bouy and be aware of the boat movement or they will be hung up in the brush. Of course when I have a partner we can take turns on the trolling motor to stay on the marker. Maybe someone will clue us in on a better method. Looks like Reaper likes the multiple anchor approach and he has posted pics of success many times.

I haven't been using anchors although my buddy does when he has kids in the boat. I think I will start doing that too, one less thing to worry about. I find the brush with my locator and mark it with a bouy. Then I use my trolling motor to fish all around it. I used to fight the wind when it was windy but now I'm getting to where I just go fish brush out of the wind.

The best way to avoid the crowds is to go at daylight and fish until 10 or 11. The jet ski and tube crowd don't start showing up until then and besides, it's too hot after that anyways. I also go a fair amount in the evenings during the week.