Oklahoma stripers and more!

Found this interesting article on Dan Blanton's forum: http://www.danblanton.com/bulletin.php


Oklahoma stripers and more!

Posted by Randy Richter on 2019-08-30 17:01:31

The Lower Illinois has become one of my favorite places on earth. It's a small tailwater in Oklahoma, and is mostly known as trout fishery. But it feeds into the Arkansas River, a huge river that is full of naturally reproducing stipers, and every year, usually sometime in late May, the stripers push up the Lower Illinois, using it as cold water refuge, and feeding on trout and shad. These stripers can be BIG, I was fortunate enough last year to land a thirty plus pound fish, however most of them run in the 3-10 pound range. This summer, severe flooding kept the river running to high to wade, and I just love to wade and fish, so I stayed away. But with my window closing (the stripers usually head out in Aug/Sept), and the water dropping I gave it another try.

Day one, I had the alarm set so I could be on the water in the dark and the first thing I heard was thunder. Of course, a storm immediately dumped 5 inches of rain in two hours. The road to section of river I wanted to fish was impassable. Instead I headed far up river, figuring, obviously that the areas near the dam would be the least affected by the rain. This was true, but there didn't appear to be many fish there either. Dropped one good fish and landed a 3 pound schoolie.

The next day, I slept in, thinking that they weren't going to generate. Drove down to a remote, favorite spot on the river, and in the first few minutes, landed a nice 28 inch fish, and another schoolie. Then the water immediately rose and chased me out. I was never able to get low water levels downriver, but I found good water up by the dam. First, I spent some time targeting a new species for me, smallmouth buffalo. They were tailing by the dozens in a riffle, and after half an hour of painstakingly drifting small beadheads, got a take from one and landed it. Next target was another fish I've never landed, a skipjack herring. This is a predatory shad, and if you've ever fished salt, they will remind you a lot of a ladyfish. I fished a small, flashy streamer, and the first fish was a surprise blue catfish, and then landed a skipjack, and three small schoolie stripers. Not quite what I was hoping when I drove 650 miles, but an interesting day.

Day three. Woke up to a calm, rainless day. Drove to the remote section I referenced. Rigged up, and it the water just as it was light enough to see. Within the first few casts, hooked up and landed a nice 27 inch fish, and it was literally like that the rest of the day. I would start out throwing a large 7-8 inch 4/0 EP fly, in chartreuse and green, and would usually pull a couple fish out of each hole, then I would switch to a smaller fly, in a more muted color, and usually catch a couple more on the way back through. In one of my favorite spots, a deep slot next to a high bank that runs about a hundred long, I hooked up around two dozen stripers, landed 15. Also got some surprise freshwater drum, stripping large streamers, which was a first for me. Water finally came up at 4 p.m., by then I had landed 33 stripers, the biggest 32 inches and 12-13 pounds, and at least ten others in the solid 24-30 inch range, dropped a few good fish as well. It was just a wonderful, wonderful day, and even getting a speeding ticket on the way through town couldn't wipe the smile off my face.

Go to Dan's Forum to see some good photos at the bottom of this post:

http://www.danblanton.com/viewmessage.php?id=213547