Oologah 12-8-12 Blue Catfish

I took 5 guys fishing saturday in search of catching a trophy and some blues for the dinner table.  We had an east northeast wind 5-12mph, water temp 52ish and air temp mid 40's all day.  It stayed cloudy all day.  Bait was really scattered today, but found some good schools of blues anywhere from 20-58ft deep on channels, ledges and points.  We'd catch a couple at each spot and then we'd have to move on.  Trenton had big fish of the day with a 22 pounder and another in the teens.  Everyone caught fish and had a great time.

Oologah 11/23/12 Blue Catfish

Took my dad out on a windy day on Oologah. Bait was a little more difficult this morning and had more hookers than chunkers than I would have liked. We decided to hit a few areas I had been eying looking at navionics on my phone during a Thanksgiving day coma. Got there and the lake was getting a little dicey. Anchored up, caught a few small ones, and bam the north wind really started gusting taking a few over the bow. Time to head to an area a little more protected. Graphed for about an hour and found what I was looking for...broken up bait with blues around them on the 2d and on both sides with the side scan. Anchored up and for the next 2 hours we flat wore them out. Dad set a banana on my seat for a snack as we were baiting rods and I didn't get to eat it for at least an hour. I was cutting bait, netting fish, hooking bait, netting fish, tossing lines out, netting fish, and even reeled in a few myself. Had a blast with my dad and then brought home a few and enjoyed a nice meal with family.
Water temp 54 degrees with a strong NW wind. All fish caught deeper than 25'. I only took one pic today and should have set the video camera.

Oologah 11/17/12 Blue Catfish

Took guests Joey and Tommy out to Oologah this morning. Bait was easy where the wind was blowing in at about 15ft deep. Water temp was in the mid 50's. Joey had never caught a blue cat before today. We didn't end up with any giants, but did release a 12 pounder. We caught most of our fish anchored up on drop offs at 20-45ft. Some came early on a shallow wind blown point. We caught around 40 and they kept 28 today. 

Oologah 11-3-12 Blue Catfish

Took my brother and father this morning doing a little scouting on some areas that should be holding fish as the water temp drops. It is at 57-60 degrees now. The fish biting well in the 16-24ft range where the north wind was blowing in. We left the fish biting in several areas to go scout others. We kept 15 for a family dinner. Even got a nice flattie on cut shad as a bonus. It was great to get out for a morning with my dad and brother. Good times and nice weather. The blue cat are really starting to group up and put the feed on.
Anybody interested in a blue cat trip give me a call 918-607-7357 or email lancesguideservice@gmail.com

Oologah 9-29-12 Blue Catfish

Fish were scattered at all water levels all over the lake. I caught blues in 2-58ft of water. We could not get away from gar stripping our lines today. I have never seen gar in so many locations and all water depths. We were fishing the river channel getting ready to leave and I decided to throw the net to get a few lively fresh shad. Threw and got 2 gar, 2 drum, 2 blues and about 70 gizzard. We the water temp to drop about 10 degrees and then it will group the fish up better. The cormorants are not in the trees yet, only water turkeys. It was a catch 1 or 2 at each area day, but got enough to make a nice dinner. Come on cool weather. Water temp was around 71 today.

Oologah 7-21-11

Dad and I decided to try out our new green light set up and beat the heat night fishing for crappie. Bite was good right after dark for about 45 minutes and then the wind picked up from the east. Crappie shut off or moved completely and the small blues and sand bass moved in. We were fishing brush on a drop from 17-26 ft deep. The crappie were caught about 7 ft down and the rest were on the edge of the thermocline at 12ish. It was a nice night and it was good to relax catching tonights dinner with my dad.

Copan 7/11,14/12

7/11
I had the pleasure of fishing with my grandpa, who taught me at an early age how to fish, drive a boat, back a trailer, and enjoy the outdoors.  We headed to an area and we have caught bait at since I was young and it provided plenty in a couple throws.  We headed up to a large flat and fished where a creek channel runs through it.  Caught a couple small blues and my grandpa wanted to get in the river channel and fish as we did many moons ago.  We anchored up on a stretch that use to be 12.5ft deep and now was showing 5.7ft from all the Kansas farmland silting in over the years.  Had a couple gar take downs and hooked one, but not what we were after...so we headed to my grandpa's "honey hole" in the bend of the river where it is now only 2.1ft deep.  Lots of sharing the same ol' stories from when I was a kid fishing with grandpa and my friends just enjoying hearing him recollect memories.  A rod slams to the water and we pull in a healthy 4 pound male blue cat.  Bait back up and toss it out when another rod slams down and a feisty 3 pounder finds its way to the cooler.  Toss it back out and we hear a boat rounding a bend.  This river is not wide, but we left room on either side to allow the passing of boats, while allowing us to fish the edges of the river next to the stumps where the fish trap bait this time of year.  Grandpa and I reel up all the rods on one side and I motion to the boat to ease on the cleared side.  He goes the opposite direction and starts cursing at me and explaining he is going on the side with the rods.  I yell back that is fine, just give me a minute and I will get them all in.  I pick up one rod and he guns it waking us, knocking my grandpa to the bottom of the boat(87 years old), and stripping all of the line off of two reels and breaking off two more.  I have never seen or heard my grandpa get upset.  He has always been a kind man without a bad bone in him.  However, he got up, made sure he was okay, and said, "Those guys are stupid idiots".  It ruined a perfect day and he was ready to go.  When we got back to the ramp, we had a note on my car stating that I need to learn how to be more courteous.  My grandpa and I have never ran into someone of this nature up there in the past 17 years and I hope we don't again.

7/14
My grandpa did not want to go back to the lake today after the incident earlier in the week, but my dad and I decided to go.  Caught bait easily and headed back up to the river.  Caught a nice 4 pounder that went air born giving a shallow blue cat acrobat for us.  Then nothing.....I mean not a bite and the heat with not wind forced us home to do boat maintenance instead.  Had a great time with my dad and after doing a ton of graphing of the lake the past year, I have decided the fish population is poor for blues at Copan.  It was a great fishery back in the 90's, but jugs and trotlines I believe have hurt the little lake.  It is a great lake to catch bait in though and is close to the house.  I think I will stick to Grand and Oologah for the time being.

Grand Lake 6/2/12

I had the pleasure of fishing with Jeff Williams of Outdoor Brandz today and trying out products of the new company, Fle Fly, he purchased.  We started out giving the sand bass, blue cat, channel cat, drum and crappie a workout on the Bendable Minnow.  This lure is amazing!  You can bend this slab to fish all depths of the water column with different action, plus the finish does not crack or peel off.  I have never seen anything like it!  Man, did we wear the fish out and Jeff put on a Lead Free Jig above his Bendable Minnow to catch doubles!  Thanks for the invite Jeff.  It was a blast!

Oologah 3-18-12

3-18-12
Took first time guest Dom and Chase and their fathers. Took us a little longer to catch bait since it scattered to all depths with the recent 12 degree water change to 64. I caught bait in 6-48ft of water. First stop and we nailed good box fish right off the bat in 3-10ft...and then a rod went down and immediately stripped drag. Chase picked it up and it pulled him into the rail. The battle was on! Chase fought it and got it within 15ft of the boat when it came to the top and rolled. Showing us that it was a good 30+ fish....then the hook just came out...heart break and ragging began. Then we looked up and two guys in a 15ft tri hull motored within eyesight and tied up to a tree in the main lake with good rollers going on out there. Next thing we know the boat is gone and one guy standing up in the boat and the other dives in. Time to pull anchor and start a rescue. When we made it over there one guys was clinging to a tree 50 yards from the boat with no life jacket. We tossed him a rope and drug him in the boat. Next up was the guy standing in the sunken boat. He was frantic and on the phone with his wife that had just called lake patrol. Lake patrol was already on their way to Fort Gibson to rescue someone else and would be hours until they made it to Oologah. We threw him a rope with a loop in it and had him put it under his arms. He did not want to get in, but did not have a choice with rollers coming over the back of my boat and getting close to the trees. We drug him across the water and into the boat. We took the two guys to a ramp where paramedics and family were waiting for their safe arrival. The boys on my boat got a lesson on why we wear life vests and don't drink on a boat. I'm glad all ended well, but very scary since it could have been a different outcome for sure. Leaving the ramp I marked some good fish on the side scan on a gentle slope and we anchored up to put some more solid fish in the box. We had one more stop in the mouth of a creek to add more to the box and ended up with around 30 fish for the day all caught on fresh shad with Dead Red Blood Spray.

Oologah 3-10-12

Met first time customers Larry and Jessica at Oologah today for a teaching and catching trip for blue catfish.  Water temp was 52 degrees with a 10-20 south wind.  Shad was fairly easy this morning and my family and I had caught some perch the night before so I brought those also.  Shad were hugging the bottom at 24-27ft in holes of a creek channel.  We started off graphing a few mid lake points, but nothing was there.  Next we headed to some other mid lake drop offs and marked a ton of shad and what may have been crappie around them, but not blues.  Next, we decided to head to a point where a channel comes close too and marked some good suspended fish in the channel and a few on the shallow point.  Anchored up on them and after 20 minutes we did not have a bite.  On to our next area in 2 ft of water and only saw one huge boil after a bait as I brought it in.  No bites after 20 minutes.  Next we decided to try some timber in a little deeper water.  As I was graphing through the timber we came to a school of nice blues, anchored up, and the fun began.  About time we found active fish.  The bite was non-stop until the wind died down.  We ended up with 21 nice sized blues with two in the ten pound range.  It was a blast fishing with Larry and his daughter today and I look forward to future adventures.
Jessica 10 pounder
 
Larry 10+ pounder

Double

Dinner

Oologah 1-7-12

Jacob, John, and Ben joined me on Oologah today.  John and Jacob were running late, so Ben and I went to catch bait.  The fourth throw was the ticket and we had about 100 large gizzards ready for catching some cats.  The air temp was in the low 30's warming up to the high 40's for the day.  Wind was gusty to 25mph from the NE-NW and water temp was 41-43.
We picked John and Jacob up at 8:30 and headed to where we had caught them last weekend since the wind was and temps were the same.  The graph lit up, but the fish were suspended and not feeding.  We tried for a little bit and caught a few eater sized fish.  Graphed a few more areas, but decided to go try an area I have been meaning to look at the last few trips.  Graphed some good fish and caught a handful of eaters before heading to another area.  The next area was a dropoff near the channel and that was the ticket.  We stayed there catching good fish until time to leave.  Nothing huge today, but some really good fish and lots of fun.  I forgot to get pics today.

Oologah 1-2-12

Scott was in town from PNG and wanted to catch a trophy catfish while he was in town.  We got to the lake around 8:15 and it took a while to get bait.  Air temp was in the lower 30's and got to the high 40's for the day.  Water temp was 41-44. 
Graphed a few areas and tried an area that drops from 4ft to 22ft, but only caught a few small eaters.  Took off to graph the channel and marked a ton of fish, but only caught a couple there, so we headed to a wind blown point and that was the ticket for more and larger feeding fish.  Ben with his new personal best.

And then Scott not to be outdone by his brother broke his personal best and had big fish for the day.

It was a great day on the water with good friends and my father.  We had two other good fish on, but they both found their way in a tree and could not be freed.