Oklahoma in March?

Hey guys, I have a question if you don't mind. I'm going to visit my brother in texas and we're going to drive up to his cabin that he recently bought in southern oklahoma. on the property of the cabins (it's a small, private, rental community) there is a small lake, a few acres, that they say has fish in it. Just this year, I started warmwater fly fishing in my local lakes and had a good time catching bluegill and small bass on poppers. I've been telling my brother (we are both life-long trout snobs) that he will enjoy casting some poppers out on his little lake, and was looking forward to showing him how fun it can be when i'm out there. the problem is that it's going to be late March. the average temps around them are in the mid 60's. my question is, do i have any chance to get some surface activity on the poppers then or is it too early in the year? FYI, the cabin is not far from Beavers Bend State Park, so if anyone can offer some fishing advice for waters around there, it would be appreciated. i know there is a stocked trout stream in the park and also a huge lake (or maybe just a wide river) that looks fairly unfishable without a boat. it would be great if there was another small lake with shore casting room that held some good bass around there or a smallmouth stream that was wadeable. thanks for any help!

Some years it warms up enough in southern Oklahoma that you can catch bass on poppers, so you might be able to catch some at your brother's lake. Beavers Bend below Broken Bow Lake has 12 miles of trout water that offers a lot of variety of water, from small mountain stream type fishing to wide shallow river fishing. Even some of the people from the White River system in northern Arkansas come here for the dry fly action. However, you seem to be set on catching some bass. Above Broken Bow Lake, the Upper Mountain Fork offers some of the best smallmouth action available in the state, and should be pretty good by late March. There are also numerous streams within the Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area that can offer pretty good fishing for bass and bluegills. Just a few miles west of Broken Bow is the Glover River which is arguably the best smallmouth stream in the state, but you will need some good maps to find your way around there, or hire a guide. A good person to check with would be Jesse King at Three Rivers Fly Shop, just outside Beavers Bend State Park. He can be reached at: 3rivers@pine-net.com.

Larry Compton

In cooler weather I think that sliders might be better than poppers that make a lot of commotion. Of course, woolly buggers in sizes 8 and 10 might be better.

Try some black Gill Busters or some Pigboats. They'd both work great in those temps. JGW

Poppers are always good to have on hand. if nothing else its fun to make them pop and hop, makes you feel like you are doing something constructive :)

I'd say bring the kitchen sink. my personal experience in OK farm ponds has been that yellow is a great color, no matter what the pattern. I suppose that chartreuse would work well also.

There are so many beautiful little rivers in SE Oklahoma, Google that up and also check with the Oklahoma Wildlife Department.

There may still be some sand bass in the rivers when you get there, hard to tell this far in advance.

thanks for the info guys. i'll pull some maps and look for those smallmouth rivers. that's one thing i haven't done yet, and really want to...catch a good smallie on a fly rod.