Shell Creek and Shell Creek Lake 2017

Hey guys, new person here from Sand Springs, OK. Fished Shell Creek this past weekend. Saturday was cold but the largemouth and channel cats were biting up in the shallows on the northern banks among the grass beds, trees, and rock ledges that dropped from the shore on down. Pads with thick debris from all the recent rain made it hard to hit some of our favorite rock cliffs. Swimbaits, rattletraps, plastic jigs on Texas rigs (craws, lizards, brush hogs, and horney toads did OK), and topwater (poppers and spooks) all did well. Also channel cats and panfish were tearing up nightcrawlers on worm hooks. Sunday the weather was much nicer, used everything we did the day before and in addition to the species caught previously we also got onto a school of sand bass that were herding the baitfish up into the shallows. ( rattletraps and medium depth divers colored like white shad and bluegills worked excellent) Hope this helps anyone looking to get out to take advantage of the pressure changes before the storms hit. Happy fishing!

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Thank you for the posts. I haven't been out there in a couple years and have been wondering if the boat ramp was usable.

It is now since we have had all this rain recently, about a month ago though it was so dry that our trailer tires dropped right off the end of it just so we would be in enough water to load and unload the boat. The Creek and 95% of all the coves were dried up, it was just horrible. Water is finally up and if you can get up under the debris pads (those suckers are thick, best to drop right in front of them cause punching through is near impossible) then you may find yourself on some nice fish like we did. There was a man and his son jigging for crappie next to the dam and looked like they were pulling in a decent hull.

Do they still have the little white building their where you purchase a permit?

There is a pay box before the ramp when you first pull in, it's $2/person, it's an honest persons drop box, no forms to fill out or anything.

I do know they sell yearly permits but as of right now I'm not sure where you purchase those at.

There used to be a little block building there years ago, inside the walls were covered with pics from great catches that came out of that little lake some of those picture were decades old. I was fortunate to have one up there myself, must have been back around year 1999 or 2000 it was of a large mount bass that weighed over 6 lb. not sure exactly how much now.

The little building is the house for the "lake keeper" for lack of better term. It's Rusty Pope, he is(used to be?) a Sand Springs police officer. I've never knocked on his door to ask.

LOL I think Rusty Pope pulled me over like literally as I pulled into my Driveway in High school after being out past Curfew (and possibly a little tipsy)... I got off with a warning, so he's ok by me :P

I've been fishing there a lot the last month. The only other time I'd been there was years ago when the water was way way down. I didn't do very good, just one catfish and a few sunfish I think. Since I've been back though I've had a lot of fun out there. Nothing bigger then one 14-15in Saugeye. But I've caught at least 1 saugeye off the boat ramp almost every time I've been, and also usually a couple of small bass and/or crappie and more sunfish too. Enough to make it fun even if nothing was huge... Haven't tried for catfish yet, and haven't caught any sand bass out there yet either :(

The Saugeye are a novelty for me. I've caught a couple walleye in Arkansas trout fishing the Beaver tailwater, but my first Saugeye was at Shell lake a few weeks ago. They've been small but It will be awhile before I get tired of catching a species new to me. Some of the Crappie I caught were right off the boat ramp too, others down the rest of the shore accessible area. No saugeye caught anywhere but near the boat ramp, while everything else I've caught has been all down the shore. Jerkbaits, cranks, beetle spins, and live minnows were what I've been using most lately... Probably lost $50 or more in lures in the last month in the weed line and trees. If you've got a boat there are probably a few free jerkbaits in the overhanging trees you can reach :)

I like that bass pic... Nice to know there are some decent ones in there.

We have lost our fair share of gear out there as well, the debris pads from all of the rain are horrible if your trying to bust through them is nearly impossible, did ok fishing off the edges of them. We catch mainly bass when we go, I've pulled in a 7-8 lb largemouth a few years back, average one's for us are between 2-6 lbs out of Shell Creek. Caught one saugey about 6-7 years ago. Plenty of perch, crappie, I caught two white bass on our last trip and my old man caught 4-5, channel cat, and about 7 years ago I caught an 8 lbs blue cat in some sticks off the main lake using a sapphire blue craw jig. Shell Creek is by far one of our favorites.

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Originally Posted by KMSJones

We have lost our fair share of gear out there as well, the debris pads from all of the rain are horrible if your trying to bust through them is nearly impossible, did ok fishing off the edges of them. We catch mainly bass when we go, I've pulled in a 7-8 lb largemouth a few years back, average one's for us are between 2-6 lbs out of Shell Creek. Caught one saugey about 6-7 years ago. Plenty of perch, crappie, I caught two white bass on our last trip and my old man caught 4-5, channel cat, and about 7 years ago I caught an 8 lbs blue cat in some sticks off the main lake using a sapphire blue craw jig. Shell Creek is by far one of our favorites.

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I'm surprised to hear you've only caught 1 saugeye? How big was it? ...I've asked several people who were fishing the shore or loading/unloading boats and It seemed catching a saugeye was also rare for them. I know they're kinda nocturnal like walleye but I assumed more would be caught accidently especially in the mornings or evenings then I'm getting a sense for so far. If my count is accurate: I think I've actually caught more Saugeye then bass or crappie.. maybe even sunfish, but I try to avoid those unless I'm getting desperate.

I've been there like 8-10 times this year, and all but twice caught at least 1 small saugeye, usually 2, and 3 twice (which is the most I've managed). But it's always been at the boat ramp, early in the morning or at Dusk/ just after Dark. Honestly I've pushed it a bit and not left till last light was gone and stars were shining... and been the last guy off the lake about every night I've been there. Since it was just me and I wasn't being loud they didn't seem to mind, but now that my fishing fever has been somewhat satisfied some after 3 years of not fishing... I'll be packing up at last light, and not pushing my luck so much.

Really wish it was ok to night fish there though, because I'd be happy to sit there and catch small crappie and saugeye off the boat ramp all night if they'd let me. The last saugeye was finally big enough to keep and I ate it because I'd never had any and hear they and walleye are supposed to be pretty much the best, even better then crappie... but I've only really ever liked salmon and trout to eat enough to be highly motivated to keep some usually... So while the saugeye was ok, it's not enough to my taste to warrant keeping more. So catch and release on them now like everything else I catch (except rainbow trout. I let the browns, brooks, and cutts go) :)

Are you catching many keeper size crappie? ...All mine from shore have been dinks. I don't wanna eat them, but would be nice to know larger ones are out there :)

P.S. I'm looking to meet local fishing buddies :)

Dinks only as far as crappie go but I have seen decent ones pulled from there. The saugey was about 4.5 lbs and it was close to evening time right before we left near the rocks on the north shore of the first bend towards the creek from the ramp.

Cool... That was a nice Saugeye. I hope I run into one that size ;) ...I need to get my 1 man pontoon re registered or my Kaboat finally registered so I'm not shore bound anymore.

I've honestly never shore fished shell creek.

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Originally Posted by KMSJones

I've honestly never shore fished shell creek.

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If I had my boats in order I wouldn't bother, but I've done ok considering the pressure that shoreline probably gets.

If you ever decide to try, and/or someone else want to fish from shore...
I found a little concrete walkway that leads to a couple ok spots to fish from then I think dead ends. But if you walk up the hill and continue to walk down the mowed area that's on the hill above the lake there are I think 3 (at least 2) more trails that go down. The first assuming I didn't imagine it while sitting here trying to remember is a little rough and is basically bushwhacking it down to the water. The second seems to lead to the the best spot but you have to kinda jump down this small rocky gorge area that's kinda a pain to get back up and if you don't stop yourself as you go down and trip/slip you could end up in the water... But further on down there is a 3rd trail leading to the water that has got another series of concrete steps that leads to another spot to fish, and you can walk through a little brush from there and get back to where that second trail led you, or if you took the second trail in the first place you can bush wack a little to where that 3rd trail takes you and then use those better stairs to climb out instead of that rocky gorge area.

The shore fishing area seems to end after you discover the first walk way leading to a couple spots. I think that's about where the old telephone pole sticks up from the shore, and I think because of that most people never walk up the hill and further down the mowed area and find the other trails that lead back down to the shore further down that arm of the lake. It might be there that the telephone pole at the water's edge signals the end of the trail, but if I'm remember right its just the signal that the end of the first trail that everyone probably sees ends. So to go further you have to back track a little and climb the hill, walk down that mowed area and find the other trails I mentioned... I don't know, but If someone explores a little all those areas are pretty easy to find. If you hit the fence then you've gone to far. My assumption was beyond the fence might be trespassing if there is even another trail down to the water.

I've yet to walk down the Dam and try off of it or that little structure that's attached to it. I heard somewhere online a lot of small crappy could be caught there. May check that out next time since I've lost most of my jerk and crank baits that were catching the bass and saugeye. Plenty of crappie jigs left I could dangle off there though. Plus since all the saugeye I've caught were between the tree just to the right of the boat ramp, and the care takers fence line to the left of the boat ramp... Maybe some saugeye are lurking around the dam.

On a side note...
I actually caught a crappy or 2 of the 3-4 inch jerk baits I was using... That's happened to me a few other places, and I think the only walleyes I ever caught were off of them while trying for brown trout. I love those baits, they'll basically catch anything, and so many ways you can fish them to entice a strike if they aren't biting good. I even fish the floating ones at the surface popping and twitching as makeshift topwater lures.

I may actually head over there at daybreak (Wend). I tend to sleep days so I'll likely be up at sunrise. If I miss that window I may go that evening. If anyone is there and sees a silver mitsubishi outlander SUV and a guy fishing alone that's probably me (Dave) :)

Thanks for the tips, we took the boat out all day Saturday and caught literally almost nothing. I finally caved and started throwing out some nightcrawlers and a bobber for panfish, caught plenty of perch and one baby spotted bass. No crappie, no white bass, no catfish, nothing on any of our lures. Had a few bass go after our plastics (lizards and craws are our usual lures and normally slaughter them) that either got off before the boat or just got the back tail end of our lures. A very frustrating day indeed.

Bummer, sorry about the bad luck. That makes me feel bad about my sunday fishing trip...

So I went to Shell about 6am, and made a few casts at the boat ramp hoping to pick up a saugeye or 2 like usual from that spot, but no bites. So I decided to stop being lazy and finally for the fist time ever walk down the road and fish off the dam.

The Sand bass were stacked up in front of the spillway. I caught around 20 ranging from about 8-12 inches and probably lost another 10 and had a bunch of short strikes. There were also a couple schools of bluegill feeding near the surface. I caught 3 or 4 of those while trying a small tube jig for crappie. Also caught 3 or 4 crappie (all dinks). So I think there was a school of crappie down there too, but I didn't really try for them till the Sand bass bite started slowing down between 10-11am.

And icing on the cake was I also picked up 3 small black bass and 2 small saugeye from the spillway area. About the only thing I didn't catch was a catfish (Didn't try) and whatever rough fish are in there. I did see 3 gar swimming together in such a way I'd assume they were mating. My guess is there were probably some catfish lurking below the spillway too.

One of the reasons I decided to try the dam that day was the wind was out of the NE (according to weather.com), so I figured the bait fish may be blown that direction. But water going over the spillway creating a current drawing in food for everything lurking in front of it was probably the best reason for my good day.

Nothing big, but there were some moments where I was literally catching a fish every cast. I think in one set of 3 casts I caught a sandy, a saugeye, and a black bass. Sunday was my best day there for numbers of fish, and variety. My biggest fish ever there is one 2-3 lb catfish years ago, and that recent 14-15 inch saugeye.

I wasted a good hour (maybe more) working my way down the length of the dam, and fishing off the walkway to that little building in the water. I might have picked up a few sand bass past the spillway but pretty much everything I caught was in the area close to the spillway. If I would have stayed there I'm confident I could have picked off at least another 10 sand bass and maybe a few other odds and ends.

I fished various colors of jerkbaits, deep diving crankbaits, tube jigs, small little rubber minnow jigs, a larger holographic curly tailed minnow jig, and a weighted streamer fly similar to a large olive wooly bugger with some iridescent hackles or whatever on it. At least one of the sandies was caught on a crawdad color deep diving bomber crankbait. I pretty much got strikes on everything I tried, I was just getting more hookups with the cranks and jerkbaits though. Fish would hit the jigs about every cast but they weren't taking them aggressively enough and I wasn't quick enough to catch their one quick tug, but did get multiple tugs if I picked the bait up and let it swing through the water again to a stop.

As the sun came up the fish got more reluctant to come up to the surface where I could see whether or not I was getting follows or short strikes. A lot of people showed up to the lake that day and I had left a couple tackle boxes by the concrete picnic table so with the bite slowing down and my feet getting wore out; I walked back over to the ramp and checked on my stuff and probably fished that length of shoreline for another 45 minutes with no bites.

Strangely enough none of the boats came and fished near the spillway, and I'm pretty sure a lot of them saw me actually catching a fish as they drove by me on the dam. Some lady and her kids fished off the dam by me for a little bit and she caught a bluegill, but the kids got bored pretty quickly and they all went off somewhere else. I told them what I'd caught, and some guy at the boat ramp launching a nice wood canoe he made himself I think, but other then that I was quiet.

So ya was a pretty good day for me. I let everything go, so it should all still be there for the next person. I know now it is definitely worth the walk to check out the dam especially if water is going over the spillway and the wind is blowing that direction too. So after a few casts at the boat ramp that's probably where I'll head every time unless it's crowded with people.

Sadly I left my phone in the car so didn't take any pics, but here is a pic of the largest saugeye I've caught so far at Shell...
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4197/3...b5f4080f_c.jpg

Well I went back Tuesday morning (5/23), about 10am since I was out running an errand anyways. I fished hard from then till dark, but fishing wasn't as good today for me as it was the other day when I got into that mess of sand bass...

I caught a small saugeye at the boat ramp then fished off the dam at the spillway. Water was still going over the spillway but not as much as the other day. No sign of the sand bass for quite awhile then I finally caught 1 and I hoped that they were about to start biting... they were not. I caught at least 1 more small saugeye, maybe a 3rd but I forget.

No largemouth today, except for a 3-4 inch fish that looked like one (the split second I had to evaluate it) as It came off my crappie jig in mid air after I pulled it out of the water. So I worked my way down the dam: between that building that jets out in the water and the dam I had what I think was a sand bass (from the looks of it) take a swipe at my lure when I pitched it under the overhang of the dam, but missed him. Caught I think 4 or 5 bluegill and 3 or 4 crappie in that area too (dinks).

So overall the day was about average compared to my other days there, but I actually haven't caught many sand bass so even after the good day catching them recently, only 1 today is still a fun novelty for me. Still enjoying the saugeye. I forgot my phone in the car the other day, and forgot it was in my pocket today so I didn't get any pics, then I left it in the car and am to lazy to get it just to post a pic of a 4 inch crappie and a sunset... Maybe I'll upload those later.

I did see one largemouth about 2lbs trying to choke down a Bluegill at the surface about 10-15ft out from the dam somewhere between that building in the water and the spillway. It looked like a 4+ inch Bluegill and maybe a little to big for that bass. He took several shots at it at the surface, and seemed to be wrestling with it; so I threw my lure over there in the hopes he'd go for an easier target, but he seemed to give up shortly after that or I spooked him. I saw the very dazed bluegill seemingly escape and lethargically swim under the dam overhang. I'd like to be able to claim I'm so nice I was just trying to save the bluegill... but no, I wanted that bass. ;)

I threw a few jerk baits and deep diving crankbaits, crappie tubes and minnow jigs, and a couple of rooster tails. A red/orange and yellow rooster tail caught one of the saugeye and the sand bass if I remember correctly. The first saugeye at the boatramp was caught on a small 2 inch firetiger colored floating rapala. I've fished a variety of colors of lures in the trips there, but shad colored and firetiger or similar color schemes with orange, red, and yellow in them seemed to have done best for me
(including crawdad colored cranks and jerkbaits). But really with the variety I've thrown and sporadic bite most days, I can't pin down any kinda color or style of retrieve that seems to produce consistently. 1 fish will hit a bait reeled straight in, the next hits a jerk... jerk jerk retrieve, etc..etc.. The only thing I can say is that using or switching to smaller lures when things are slow seems to catch me slightly more fish most days.

Got pretty sunburned today and am broke, so probably be off the water for a few days.

Well I made one more trip to Shell thursday (5/25). Fishing was slow... Caught nothing at the boatramp, or that length of shoreline, so went over to the dam again... Nothing at the spillway, so moved down to the brick building that sits in the water in front of dam (What is that thing? I don't know what to call it) ...I started getting discouraged so I switched to crappie jigs and finally caught of all things a 15 inch catfish. I had some of that garlic/crawfish sticky attractant that comes in a tube on the jig, so I think that might have lured him in. I also caught a handful of blue gill, and 2 small saugeye from the walkway between the dam and that building. I missed something that thumped my crappie jig pretty hard... before I caught that catfish, so maybe that was his first try at it.

I talked to a guy that was there in a small boat and he reported that he caught a handful of bass, I think off rock bluffs. He said his big fish was about 2.5 Lbs.

2.5 lbs is about what we have been catching as are as largemouth here lately, between 2-4 lbs. Good job on the sand bass, we haven't been out lately but I have some in my freezer that need some friends to make an amount worth frying up. We have been seeing a ton of gar there and never can remember ever seeing them there before.

I'll take 2Lb fish any day... all mine have been dinks so far. I went out for a few hours before the storm saturday. I had hoped the front would stir them up, but I only managed to catch a couple blue gill and 3 small crappie off the building by the dam. The lightning was getting close and ran me off a little before dark. I considered going Sunday morning in case there had been enough rain to get water flowing over the spillway again, and maybe draw in the sand bass but didn't make it.

Hopefully I'll get my car sold soon, and have the money to get my Kaboat registered, or my 1 man pontoon reregistered (or both!)... and will finally get into some bigger fish out there. I think I'm gonna get one of those castable fish finders too, like the fishhunter 3d to help me find them.

I talked to Rusty Pope out there that evening and asked him if they'd stocked the lake with anything recently but all he mentioned was the saugeye several years ago. I was kinda suprised... With all the dink saugeye I've caught; I figured they had stocked recently. I've read they can spawn, but that it's a low percentage that typically do... So I'm not sure if I'm catching stunted fish or all the babies.

It would be nice if the hatcheries would grow up some big fish to stock in these lakes with stunted fish populations. Drop 500 10lb bass and saugeye in there every couple years :)

My guess is flooding has pushed some gar through the creeks into the lake in recent years. They've probably been working their way towards shell, stuck in some creek and now finally enough rain has come to push em into the lake? Or maybe they've been there but the population was low and they just weren't seen much till now. Twice I've seen smaller gar swarming around 1 larger one, and I assume that's spawning behavior. I've also seen 1 or 2 cruising the shallows alone, and something broke me off immediately after I set the hook and I think it was a fish, maybe a bad knot but maybe it had teeth... a gar or saugeye. If I had to guess I think I've made 8 trips to shell so far this year, and I've seen gar on 3-4 separate trips. Hell I wouldn't mind catching one... I don't think I ever have, and I like variety. Salmon and trout are about the only fish I like enough to bother taking home regularly, so I catch and release usually...

Those sand bass I caught are still in there for you or someone else to find and fry up!!! :)

Thanks for the sand bass. You might be onto something in regards to the gar. I forgot to mention that the rock bluffs the guy mentioned to you are an excellent spot to get black and white bass, channel cat, and panfish. I imagine crappie like to hide out by them as well but have honestly never tried there and yes you have to have a boat to get to them.

I'll definitely check those out. It was years ago when I was out there in my boat that one timeand the water was so low basically the whole arm of the lake to the right of the boat ramp was dry, but I'm guessing bluffs should be easy to find?

Yes, to the right of the ramp on the north side of the creek arm and I promise it's not dried up now.

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Originally Posted by KMSJones

Yes, to the right of the ramp on the north side of the creek arm and I promise it's not dried up now.

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Thanks! ...Ya I'm glad this lake is full now. That it was so low and seemed like it would be for a long time years ago when I was there is why I pretty much just forgot about it. Was it just this year that it filled back up? ...I think it was around 2013 when I was there.

Any more spots that aren't secret worth checking out? (Anyone willing to PM me with secret spots... FEEL FREE!) ;)

It was dry earlier this year, we put the boat in back in March and had to drop the trailer tires off the edge of the ramp just to get in and out. All the shore line, rock cliffs, and coves found in the creek part to the right of the ramp all the way back is good. We never do much good in the main body of the lake.

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Originally Posted by KMSJones

It was dry earlier this year, we put the boat in back in March and had to drop the trailer tires off the edge of the ramp just to get in and out. All the shore line, rock cliffs, and coves found in the creek part to the right of the ramp all the way back is good. We never do much good in the main body of the lake.

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Cool,I'll definitely hit up that area first then. :)

We usually fish the north bank all the way back to the creek the fish the rocks on the south side of the creek mouth and both sides of the creek before going back out the same way we came in.

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Originally Posted by KMSJones

We usually fish the north bank all the way back to the creek the fish the rocks on the south side of the creek mouth and both sides of the creek before going back out the same way we came in.

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Cool... Do you know where the caves are that have some old indian paintings in them? I'd like to check those out.

I don't know exactly but I could find out easily.

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Originally Posted by KMSJones

I don't know exactly but I could find out easily.

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If you do, it would be much appreciated! ...but no rush: it will be awhile before I get my car sold and boat registered probably.

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