I'm in...OKLAHOMA? Seriously?

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
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Yeah…seriously.

Hey everybody - long time no talkie-talkie. Having a second daughter and moving to a hot, dry, flat state will suck the fly-fishing chattiness right out of you.

Now that life has settled down and we’ve managed to dodge the latest set of tornadoes to go through Norman, I want to find where all my fly fishing stuff is packed and get out and do a little fly fishing.

I know there’s some cold water fishing to be had in some tail waters in the far reaches of the state from Nov-Mar, but I want to be able to go out for an afternoon and not a day. Which means I’ll be tossing in warm water.

My question is - I have no experience fishing warm water. I assume there’s bass and bluegill and who knows what in the lakes and ponds in central Oklahoma…what do I toss at them? I’m assuming that all the copper johns and PMDs I’ve tied over the past couple of years will need to be replaced by something else…any ideas?

THANKS in advance…

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Jim,
Good to hear from you! The flies you have will work for bluegill for sure. Heck, I caught an 18" bass last summer on a #12 Adams and a 3wt rod. That was a lot of fun.

Over the winter, I posted a number of flies I use in warm water on my blog (see my sig line for the link).

Poppers work great on warm summer evenings. Woolie buggers and woolie worms work amazingly well for bass, bluegill, crappie, and the occassional catfish. One thing about warm water fishing is it is quite addictive. There’s just something about watching a bass explode on a popper that will get your heart thumping.

Bass and bluegill can be just as picky as any trout when it comes to what they’re keying in on.

Also, any fly that has some flash and resembles a minnow will work.

Jeff

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HEY JEFF!

good to hear from you too! I’ll definitely go out and check out your blog. Good to know I can start with what I have in my flybox before having to set up my bench…there are no basements in Oklahoma so I don’t have a good place to set up my bench.

I’ll be sure to post pics when I get out…hopefully there are some other folks on the board from OK that I can hook up with. Hate to think I’m the only fly fishing fool in Oklahoma.

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Hello Jim,
You’ll be glad to know that your Copper John’s and your PMD’s will work down here too… fish are fish and bugs are bugs. The bream, bass and few trout in our area will also take you up on those. The large poppers are great for Large Mouth bass. Welcome to the warm water and use what you have until you come across a few other fly fishers to see what they have. :smiley:

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jimmadsen, glad to hear Y’all dodged the nasty weather there. As what to use in warm water for bass and bluegills, trout flies will work very well. San Juan worms, wooly worms and buggers work very well also. Foam flies aer sudden death on gills, black, green and yellow seem to be the best colors. Take care and enjoy warm water fishing, John.

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I am basically a cold water fly fisherman but my favorite warm water fly is the Jack GartsideGurgler. I’ve caught lots of sunfish, small-mouth bass and large-mouth bass with it. Go to FAOL Fly Tying Fly of the Week #90. I tie it with yellow foam and sometimes use various colored chenille for the body.

Good luck.
John

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Welcome to Oklahoma. There be flyfishers here. The tailwaters of Broken Bow and Tenkiller (the lower mountain fork and lower Illinois respectively) are open year round for cold water species. Just about any nymph, woolly bugger or popper will catch sunfish.

I do my flyfishing from a kayak on lakes and ponds. Haven’t been out this year due to shoulder surgery, but one of these days.

I am in Edmond - on the other side of OKC from you. Sound’s like Thunderbird (dirtybird to the locals has some tornado damage) You might try the lake at the public hunting area near norman (The lexington wildlife management area). check WWW.wildlifedepartment.com.

Lake Murray - South of you is clear and it has small mouth bass.

I know there are other Oklahomans on here that can give better advice than I can.

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You’ll grow to love warm water fishing. If you don’t have one yet…get a float tube. (I use a FishCat4Delux) I’m not sure what is in your water there but lets assume bluegill and other assorted pan fish and a couple species of bass. …actually I’m taking a look online and you have some pretty cool species to go for. http://www.okiefish.com/OkieFISH1.htm
In flat water (lakes, ponds, oxbows and slow rivers) I have three or four flies I always use. #1 is a damsel fly nymph…I use one of my own (derby winning) patterns but any will do. #2 Woolly Buggers, #3 Muddler Minnow (Marabou or regular) #4 Flash back PT Midge, #5 Puke Fly…and a couple of others but none are as important as that damsel fly nymph. I use that almost 100% of the time. It just plain gets fish. If your looking for big surface action with black bass, then a mouse or any popper type fly will do the trick. Gurglers are great as mentioned previously. You have catfish there…Cat fish are fun on a fly rod (big black flies like woolly buggers and rabbit leaches work well) …as well as carp. Not sure if noodling is legal there but you do have Flathead catfish and that’s the fish you see in this video.

//youtu.be/4UIpOUgQt-g

For those thrill seekers out there…this is a dangerous sport and folks die attempting it. Not something to do alone for sure.

Here are some good Okie fishing sites where you can get some info.
http://www.oklahomafishingguides.com/
http://www.okiefish.com/

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Deb, I’m told that noodling/grabbling/grabbing isn’t dangerous if you do it right. If you do it right, it’s suicidal.
Let’s review, you are in warm water sticking your mitts into underwater holes in hope of grabbling the jaw of a catfish and NOT the jaw of a cottonmouth, beaver, 'gator, snapping turtle, muskrat, regular rat, softshell turtle, otter, gar etc… and that the catfish isn’t big enough to pull you under and hold you.

Ed, whose idea of noodling involves lasagna

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Hey folks - THANK YOU!

Glad to know that in the year hiatus that I took off the board, we’re just as friendly and helpful as ever!

Nice that I won’t be starting from scratch, either, and I’m thankful that I will be able to deploy my float tube - hard to use in the fast flowing knee deep water that I’m used to fishing. Good to know that the $$$ I paid for it all those years ago will finally feel like they weren’t wasted.

SOLOMAN - Thanks for the tips on cold water fishing - that’s where my heart is but at this point I’ll take any fishing over no fishing. And besides, I grew up fly fishing for bluegill way back when so it will be good to get a few slabs on the line because when they get sideways in the water they feel like a 20 inch brown heading for the gravel.

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP and as soon as I get out on the water I’ll be sure to post pics.

GREAT TO BE POSTING AGAIN!

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Hi Jim,

For a great set of articles and flies for warm water, read the FAOL archives of panfish and warm water fishing on this site. Rick Z. has lists of his favorite bluegill flies and his favorite crappie flies on the panfish archives, and if you have a set of those you will be in good shape, but if you are like the rest of us will probably want to add your own.

I am primarily a panfish fly fisherman, so my selection of flies is in mostly small sizes, and is aimed at bluegills and crappies primarily. Flies I like are some of the same ones listed above.

Some favorite flies I like and fish quite a bit inclued: foam bluegill spiders ( #10 & 12, yellow, chartreuse, and peach), gray hackle peacocks, pheasant tails, small hackleless buggers (like olive body and orange tail with small bead head), small poppers, #10 and #12 olive damsel fly nymphs, and hot flash minnows.

You will see mayfly hatches, and for those I try to match the hatch, but don’t carry enough drys. I do carry gray Wulffs, cream Wulffs, and a few other patterns, but should carry more colors. Sizes #12 to #18 will get you by most of the time. You will probably encounter midge hatches, I do, and Rick lists a pattern or two. I carry a few midge drys, and also the griffiths gnat in small sizes, and in addition Rick lists a midge pattern or two. At times you may encounter a hex hatch, and if that is going on a large yellow dry is hard to beat.

Ants and beetles are effective at times, often in relatively small sizes, as are scuds. I’ve had times when I couldn’t buy a strike on a top water fly of any kind, and then had them pound the heck out of a woolly worm.

I don’t fish for bass very often but have done well on them with marabou streamers, bucktail streamers, and the krazydad (crazydad?).

Regards,

Gandolf

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Here is a link to a video of warmwater flyfishing in Wichita Mtns NWR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TVUUnXN8hM

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I just wanted to add that Dave Whitlock moved to Oklahoma by choice so the fishing can’t be that bad.
http://www.davewhitlock.com/
http://www.davewhitlock.com/about.htm

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You’ve got all you need to start catching warm water species right off the bat. If you need a cold water fix you aren’t that far from our Missouri Ozarks, but I’d stay out of the parks, too crowded and rude. Lots of good wild trout areas here.

Vic

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You can catch fish on a fly rod out of just about any water in Oklahoma. If you want some awesome carp fishing, PM me, there’s a little lake about 45 minutes from you that’s full of carp.

Find any little creek and look for a deep hole and you’ll find longnose gar.

The main thing, though, is definitely bass fishing. Probably every lake and pond in Oklahoma has bass in it, and they’ll eat pretty much anything. From late April on you can catch them on poppers, and you can catch them on streamers year-round.

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WOW - thanks for all the info and most importantly - ENCOURAGEMENT!

I just gotta get past being hung up on only being happy trout fishing and rediscovering the fun that first brought me to fly fishing…making a very small bug seem natural in the water and presenting it to a picky fish (any fish!) and enticing them to try and eat it.

THANK YOU EVERYONE for all the info - I’ve been going through it all and definitely am in the right frame of mind to take on bass, bluegill, crappie and yes, even carp!

Thankfully I have my tube to give me easy access to the waters beyond the bank - I’ll be sure to post pictures soon!

TAKE CARE AND TIGHT LINES!

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Jim,
Can’t wait to see the photos.

I went out for an hour or so this evening and brought in several fat healthy bluegill in the 7" - 10" ragne on a woolie worm.

Jeff

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Okay - it’s been over a month - but I finally had a chance to go out and try my hand at warm water fly fishing.

There is a pond in the neighborhood where I live. And today instead of hitting golf balls into it (it sits smack dab en between the #6 tee box and #6 green) I decided to break out my fly rod and give it a go.

Tried a couple of copper johns and brassies under a strike indicator to keep it from sinking too far into the weeds. Pulled out some great bluegill in the 5-7’ range - but was surprised how many times they would go after my strike indicator.

SOOOO…I looked through my fly box and found a popper and voila - instant adrenalin with them hitting it on just about every case coming up out of the weeds. Even had a 12 or 14 inch bass on before he got loose by burying down in the weeds.

net-net…I’m hooked and am feeling much better about my fly fishing prospects…even in OKLAHOMA!

Next time I’ll take a camera and take pics.

THANKS EVERYONE for all the great advice and encouragement!

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Howdy Jimmadsen
I Highly recommend if you get a chance…to go Broken Bow Oklahoma and give it a whirl…The lake is gorgous and has 3 spillway # 1 is ok #2 is even better and Barbless hooks ONLY and #3 is the best…Its all a Designated Trophy Trout Stream…in my oppinion the National record for the German Brown will come out of Re-Regulation Dam which is spillway #3…in 1996 I missed the state record by only 4ounces which wieghed 7lbs 8 ozs and now I think the record is somewhere around 19 lbs if I am not mistaken…
Lots of Canoe rentals and resonable Shuttle services if you have your own private water crafts
Tight lines Sir and enjoy yourself

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Dave and Emily Whitlock moved from the White River system of Arkansas to Oklahoma. I don’t know the geography and how far you are from where they are but they say the fly fishing is fantastic. Check it out.

http://davewhitlock.com/about.htm