Middle Oklahoma

[foambug65]

Gonna be near Stillwater Oklahoma here next month? any good warm water fly fishing around there ,? Fly shops?, taking all good recommendations? thank you in advance

[jdfog2]

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!

[jdfog2]

Oh, I forgot.
There's a Bass Pro Shop and a Cabela's in the OKC area (Bass Pro is near the I-35/I-40 interchange in the Historic Brickyard section of OKC (a nice place to visit on it's own accord)
Cabela's is in the Edmond/NW OKC area. Both have the typical large selection of fly fishing gear and flies, etc. Bass Pro also usually has pretty good info posted in the fly fishing area and has had good people there to talk to about where fishing is good - every time I've been there at least.

There's also a Bass Pro in Tulsa- both Tulsa and OKC are not that far from Stillwater.

I am not aware of any other fly shops. There is an "Orvis Authorized retailer in Tulsa but I haven't been to it. Not sure if there's anything Fly Shop specific in OKC.
JD

[jdfog2]

Bell Cow Lake - 38 minutes from Stillwater according to Google Maps.
https://www.chandlerok.com/parks-and...on/pages/lakes
https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/f.../bell-cow-lake

A large pond near Edmond (if you make a trip to Cabelas this should be in the vicinity)
https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/f...am-rudkin-park

Boomer Lake - near Stillwater in town
https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/f...st/boomer-lake

https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/f...entral/arcadia