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Cow Skin is where we launched. Its easy for a south wind. Only drawback is the ramp is pretty shallow and you need to hug the south bank leaving the creek til you get to the marina then head towards the norht or left bank and hug it til you get past the island into the channel. Once in the channel you should be fine...Ranger
Thanks Merle, Ranger. I think I will head out tomorrow.
I launched late from new manniford and fished in 20 to 30 FOW for a few hours. I caught a bunch of dinks, nothing worth keeping. Fish were at all depths, didnt matter what jig except smaller worked better it seemed. Kinda slow biting for the amount of fish I could see on the finder. I threw the cast net to make sure they they were crappie and not sandies, and they were all smallish crappie in the net. So far this year I have not been able to catch any decent fish out of the schools I see on my finder. I have fished kaw twice, kerr three times and keystone twice. Each time I hit the schools I get smaller fish, when I just fish the structure like I would at any other time of the year I catch the bigger fish. Anybody have any thoughts on that?
I hope someone chimes in Fishers!! Same thing with me. When I find a school of keepers there are usually on 6-8 fish in the school and I haven't been able to find the over 12" fish very often!!
I can find schools of 9" fish all the time and even tell you they are to small to keep. Drop a hook znd sure enough!
Ranger, surely you know the answer to Fishers dilemma of small fish? :)
I've been fishing Keystone quite often this winter and the small fish catch has been consistent. See huge numbers on the sonar along with shad. Maybe a keeper out of every 10 fish caught. The lake is dangerously low. I don't recommend anyone fishing by themselves. The possiblities of getting stuck out there are very high.
Attachment 114950Went out Sunday with the family. I hunted around with my locator until I found some fish in the trees. Tied up and dropped a jig and BAM!!! on the first drop I hooked this Striper on my ultralight and 4lb line. It took a while to work him up through the trees from 30 feet down. The next drop BAM!! I thought I had hooked another but it turns out it was a good sized Crappie. The next drop BAM!! This time I wasn't so lucky and couldn't work him up through the trees. My wife also had a nice one hang her up in the trees. Unfortunately she and the kids got cold on me and I wasn't able to capitalize further on the fish biting and had to head in. It was nice just to get out and wet a line.
Sweet fish David, good job!
Really nice pictures David. We need more of your kind. Now go out and buy the family enough warm clothes and hot chocolate to keep em on the water till the bite slows. That was a tragic ending to a good story.
The Crappie Ciller and the Woodworker cruised Keystone today. Dinkmaster George did NOT live up to his name. He only had 1 0r 2 dinks--the rest were 10"+ keepers! We ended with 10 in the live well. Mostly in 14 to 22 fow with slab bandits, lime & chart or something like that and "a perfect jig"that George had. Fished from Washington Irving up to Cowskin; water temp started around 44 and came up to 51 at one point. Launched at Washington Irving--kinda difficult launch an load but with our awesome maritime skills, all went well. Great day and great companionship!
good job Merle and George.
Glad you all got on the water.
Merle, George, Guess you know now its hard to be sitting 70 miles SE of you and try telling you where the junk is. Hope you found atleast a few places that held fish. Like I said we were unable to fish the channel side of the Arkansas Arm due to wind conditions but was sure there was alot of junk on those banks too. I should of said we started like a mile south from the mouth and worked the bank from there for about 2 to 3 miles. The farther south you went the deeper the water got on an average. Anyways I wasn't thinking to straight at the time you called and am glad you 2 had a gr8 day of fishing with some success.....Ranger
Not my proudest moment calling you in sick bay to counsel us but you were way gracious as always. Took us most of the day to find brush but when we finally did it produced good fish in the one pound range. Merle, formerly a minner lover really took to jigs and crushed me on the last hole. A little more gusto setting the hook and I'd have been up later cleaning fish so another plus for the Woodworker. At one point I was missing hits at 12' while Merle put on a bobber and caught 3 in a row at 4'. At the time we were over a pile that was placed just 3 days before. Isolated structure. Thanks for the lessons on that EB and Ranger!
Hit Keystone yesterday, went thru 1/4 pound of small minnows on a thousand dinks, strippers and sandies. Fished mostly under the bridge on salt creek but also went up salt creek and fished cove channels, ended the day on the oil rig. Under the bridge the fish were everywhere all depths and biting. If you wanted sandies, fish shallower than 12' deep, strippers were at 40'+ deep and the crappies were everywhere but mostly around 20'. It was a fish zoo out there. The only redeemable thing about the day was learning a lot about the using the finder to catch fish that you could see. I messed around with the settings and using the SI, down imaging and switchfire to locate, target and catch different schools of fish and singles. It was a lot of good practice because everything was biting. It wasnt just under the bridge tho, everywhere I tried I caught a bunch of dinks and no big ones at all. Where have the big crappie gone???? When I say dinks I mean 4-5 inches, have you been keeping all the bigger ones Merle?
Fishers, you are too funny !! No, it's not me keeping the big ones--probably that varmithunter guy from Sapulpa. Maybe the big ones are up the Arkansas arm? I have never caught any slabs by the oil derrick; has anyone else?
I have in the summer. BTW just got back from the mid south fishing show. I caught Todd Huckabees seminar, he made a comment about big fish being solitary creatures. He said like people, crappie get cranky when they get older. Well I certainly have not caught any big crappie this year near the schools I have found. Every big fish I have caught has been away from the schools.Quote:
Originally Posted by Woodworker42
Fishers,
I was out there this weekend as well and fished under the Salt Creek bridge. I witnessed the same thing. Huge balls of shad and fish on the monitors. Eventually I had to turn off my fish alarm. It got too annoying to listen to. I probably caught every fish on the Oklahoma Fish Chart. LOL. Out of 50 dinks, I only had 5 keepers (crappie). I have a gray SeaArk with a Suzuki motor.
@Crappie Hog, were you using shiners, crank or what? I have fished under the bridge in the summer but not during the winter. Were you drifting or anchored?
To those who have been fishing Keystone. Have you been catching any black crappie on the lake like I use to way back when? Mostly in the salt creek arm of the lake. Just wondering if they are as plentiful as they use to be.
CJ- I have only caught 3 blacks out of Keystone in the last year-and they were in the Salt creek arm. But then, I usually fish north of the 412 bridge.
I was drift fishing. Using bobby garland baby shad jigs with 1/4 oz heads. The crappie were very deep right off the bottom. I noticed that the crappie had an odd yellowish tint to them. Kinda disturbed me. Not sure what the deal was with that.
@ crappie hog, thanks for the report. I dont know about yellow crappie. Hope it's nothing serious.
I agree with Hog. I hit the Navigation Channel early and struck out so went to Keystone and fished a half day, putting in at Salt Creek. Tried brush and the bridge but finally found a few in 35 fow, hitting black and red Slab Bandits anywhere from 20' to the bottom. Put 20 in the boat but threw 18 of those right back in. This is a new lake for me and it was lonely out there without the Woodworker showing me the ropes. I burned a lot of gas exploring and oddly enough fished the clearest water I have seen for many months. Saw several other guys. Nobody doing much good.
But George, you had the waypoints on you locator, didnt you? Man, I wish I had been with you, but I had a woodworking project I had to be done outdoors and it was overdue, so I was a good boy and did what I needed to do. I guess maybe the water temp is a little too cool but should be warmer in a short time. I now have some of the red and black slab bandits and cant wait to try them out. A friend went bass fishing for a short time on Keystone today and only got one small bass. Seems to be pretty slow for now all over.
Im new to fishing lakes i usally trot line and bank fish creeks for flats and afew good ponds for crappie whe. They're spawning i got a boat any bodu wamna fish skiatook keystone or oolagah with me
I'm always willing if schedule permits.
Let me know when you can
Friday afternoons and Sundays are best. An occasional Saturday when the wife permits.
Im goin this sunday gotta take the wife to texas next weekend other than that im usally free
Where you goin Sunday?
Skiatook try some coves in the standing timber
Keithj you have a PM before we hijack this thread anymore.