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