Seasonal Approach to catching North East Oklahoma Hybrids, Striper, and Blue Catfish
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Spring Fishing - March-June- Water temps are key on locating fish this time of the year. In March the water will be cold, upper 30's and by June the water temps should be in the upper 70's. This time period Hybrids transition from deep water to shallow water then back down to deep water. Why, you ask?? When the water warms Hybrids will rise from the depths and search for warm water and food. The bait fish will already be shallow and the Predator fish will follow. As the water warms into the 70's the fish will move back to deeper water to avoid the sunlight and warm water to stay comfortable. I have developed different methods this time of the year to catch fish. We will be casting shallow water with live bait, casting weighted live bait in deep water, to using down lines for controlled depth fishing. This is my favorite time of the year to fish. The fish are very active and some what predictable.
Summer Fishing - June-September- By mid June the lakes surface temps will be in the 70's pushing the fish deeper. Every lake is different, but usually some sort of stratification has occurred or a thermocline has developed. Usually the shallow stained lakes heat faster and stratify quicker. Deep clear lakes may not develop a thermocline until mid July. Early summer the fish will be hanging around mid lake humps, ledges, channels or some sort of structure waiting to ambush bait fish. Generally depths fished are 15-40ft during this time period. The fish maybe scattered along a 25ft flat or suspended in 35ft of water off a main lake point. Generally controlled depth fishing is used or down lines with live shad. My favorite way to fish is by casting weighted lines baited with a 4-8 inch gizzard shad. There are tricks to this to be successful. Those will be shared on the trip!! This is a very exciting time of the year to catch Hybrid-Striped bass or Pure Stripers.. They pull hard and are voracious feeders!!
The Photo below is a sonar shot of feeding Stripers on Keystone Lake in mid June. We caught over 40 stripers from the school of fish. All fish ranged from 7-14lbs.
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