Hi foambug,

You're in as much luck as you could possibly be!

There are claims that Oklahoma has more coastline than the Gulf Coast. Not quite true BUT there is a LOT of water in Oklahoma and it's almost all pretty fishy.
In fact, I think Oklahoma is the fishiest (freshwater) state in between the Great Lakes and the Rockies. There's water everywhere, a lot of BIG lakes, and the population density makes most of it pretty uncrowded except near bigger cities (and most of those are still not that bad compared to a lot of other states). There's also some trout fishing year round on the Lower Illinois River about three hours away and the Mountain Fork about three days away (just kidding, but Oklahoma is a big state and that river is pretty far away. It's the coldwater tailwater of arguably one of the prettiest lakes anywhere (Broken Bow Lake)

Also, OK DNR/Fish and Game does a pretty good job with the resources. See links below. Note that the lake links also list bait shops, etc.

Unfortunately, a lot of the moving water in the middle of the state looks like coffee with creamer in it or like liquid terra cotta and isn't fished much except maybe for catfish.
However, the lakes are a different story. I don't have the latest info but Sooner Lake has traditionally had some killer "Hybrid" fishing. It's like 25 miles or so north of Stillwater.

https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/f...rtheast/sooner

It looks pretty daunting for a bank fisherman but...there is (or at least used to be) good fishing with a long jetty near the power plant

Kaw Lake, Lake McMurtry, and and Lake Carl Blackwell are also in the vicinity. And there's "Boomer" Lake in Stillwater itself (not sure if it's fishy or not but I bet the Stillwater city park web page would tell you more. Also, maybe an hour or 75 minutes away near Chandler are two lakes, Bell Cow and Chandler City lakes. If you are there over a weekend and have a float tube or kayak those would be worth a visit. Both used to have some lunkers.

If you want to drive just a bit further, there are a lot more great places to fish. The DNR website www.wildlifedepartment.com has all kinds of great info. Also, Oklahoma Game and Fish Magazine used to have many online articles and likely still does.

Here are more direct links. Some of these are also close to Stillwater (for example, Perry City Lake mentioned in the trout stocking link). Unfortunately, you likely won't find any leftover trout in "winter trout" areas but there's still good fishing for warmwater species in some of these.

When you look at the "Where to fish" page - filter for both "North East" and "Central" I think Stillwater is considered "North East" but there are "Central" waters very nearby.

https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/f...e-home-fishing

https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/f...al-regulations
https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/fishing/wheretofish

https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/f...ea-information

https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/f...hing-locations

https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/f...ations-fishing

https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/f...-fishing-areas

https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/f...ers-tailwaters


I have more info but I think there's more here than you can fish in a lifetime. Again, IF you have some kind of watercraft like a float tube or Kayak you'll have a lot better access to many places. But there's good bank fishing to be found, you may just have to drive to a few places and locations around different lakes to access it.

Good luck!