Thread: Oologah Archives

Originally Posted by KCMasterpiece

I don't know how the rest of you are faring out there in the crazy heat, but I am really struggling to get fish to bite (especially fish over 11"). I feel like I've tried everything in my boat to get them to bite. I even trolled a crankbait a little today. I have had no problem finding fish (see attachments). I didn't catch a single fish on either of those piles! I've tried minnows, big jigs, micro jigs, and everything in between. I've cast and dragged and vertical jigged. What's the secret to getting these fish to bite lately? What am I not doing that I should be (other than wait until Fall fishing)? I did catch 45 yesterday (Zeke Anderson helped with the first 15 or so that morning), but they really didn't bite well until 5-7pm. Thoughts? Suggestions?

I saw the same thing on my Lowrance last week at Oologah, turned out to be small crappie, mostly 6-8". Was able to catch them at a few of the piles but in most they weren't biting well. Sometimes I have noticed that there is more than one size of shad around that hang out in different schools and I have been fooled into thinking the bigger shad were crappie before. If you cant catch them, the only way I know of to find out for sure is to throw a cast net. I did that a couple of years ago at Hugo in the river section, cause I HAD to know if it was crappie that I was seeing on standing timber that weren't biting, turned out to be channel cats--knowing stopped the frustration and waste of time trying to catch them.