Hey, we can two step across the border from North Texas to Oklahoma anytime! I have been mulling over the idea of kayak fishing the Blue River in recent months, and the only thing I am wondering about is exactly where the report refers to when they talk of smallmouth bass. There are plenty of submerged boulders in the southern stretch, but the actual kayak-able water is minimal. It seems a kayak would be much more deadly on the northern stretch because it would reach a huge area of water that doesn’t get any pressure.

You also have to watch the Oklahoma version of Texoma reports as well. Texoma has, bu all reports, been on for a long time. Wave the smallmouth flag in my face, and you’ve got my full undivided attention. Stripers are pretty hard to chase in a kayak – been there done that, and got the muscle cramps to prove it.

From Oklahoma Wildlife Department -

Texoma: May 5. Elevation 1 ft. above normal, water 69 and murky far north and clear south. Largemouth and smallmouth bass good on crankbaits, spinner baits and plastic worms at 5-15 ft. from Catfish Bay to Little Glasses Creek. Striped and white bass good on live bait, sassy shad and deep diving lures at 15-25 ft. from Alberta Creek to the north. Channel and blue catfish good on worms, live bait and stinkbait at 10-20 ft. from Johnson Creek to the south. Crappie good on minnows and jigs at 5-15 ft. around the fish attractors and underwater brush. Paddlefish fair to good below the dam while generating. Report submitted by Danny Clubb, game warden stationed in Bryan County.

Murray: May 7. Water 71. Largemouth and smallmouth bass good to excellent on various baits. White bass fair on minnows, jigs and trolling in the north end of the lake. Channel catfish good on stinkbait, worms and chicken liver. Crappie fair on minnows and jigs at 4-10 ft. around structure. Report submitted by Jeremy Brothers, game warden stationed in Carter County.

Lower Mt. Fork: May 6. Water mid-60s. Rainbows being caught on march browns in the red zone. Walleye, white bass and rainbows good on rooster tails and grubs near the power house. Report submitted by Mark Hannah, game warden stationed in McCurtain County.

Lower Illinois: May 7. Elevation normal, water 43 and clear. Largemouth bass fair on stinkbait and crankbaits at 1-2 ft. in coves, around docks and creek channels. White bass good on spinnerbaits and jigs at 1-3 ft. all along the river. Striped bass fair on jigs at 1-3 ft. at the mouth of the river. Striped bass hybrids slow on jigs at 1-3 ft. at the mouth of the river. Channel catfish excellent on cut bait on bottom all along the river. Crappie fair on spinnerbaits and jigs at 1-3 ft. all along the river. Trout excellent fly-fishing the surface, on rooster tails at 1-2 ft. and on Power Bait on bottom from Gore Landing to the dam. Report submitted by D. Tracy, Town of Gore.

Arbuckle: May 5. Elevation 1/2 ft. above normal, water clear to stained up creeks. On calm days expect to see algae on surface. Crappie being caught off docks early morning and good on chartreuse 1/16 ounce jigs off brush piles. White bass being caught on small crankbaits and roadrunners in a lot of the bigger coves and along the dam. Bass being caught on topwater early and on crankbaits, drop-shot rigs and shaky heads throughout the rest of the day. Report submitted by Jack Melton.

Blue River: May 7. Elevation normal, water 70 and clear. Channel catfish excellent on stinkbait, minnows and chicken liver in deeper holes around current and structure. Flathead catfish fair on live bait in deeper holes. Smallmouth, spotted and largemouth bass good on soft plastics and spinnerbaits around structure and rocks. Report submitted by Matt Gamble, biologist at the Blue River Public Fishing and Hunting Area.

Broken Bow: May 6. Elevation slightly above normal and dropping. Bass good on pink flukes around structure and shallows. White bass excellent on white and yellow rooster tails and on yellow and white smoke grubs with 1/4-ounce lead heads; they are running in the upper end of the lake, in Panther Creek and up streams. Channel catfish good on juglines and trotlines baited with cut bait and sunfish. Crappie fair to good on pumpkin seed and chartreuse tail grubs at 5-8 ft. in shallows. Report submitted by Dru Polk, game warden stationed in McCurtain County.

Eufaula: May 6. Elevation 1/2 ft. above normal, water clear in the east and murky in the west. Largemouth bass fair on crankbaits and spinnerbaits along rocky areas. White bass good on jigs below the dam when water running. Blue catfish good on shad and shrimp along rocky areas and shallow flats. Crappie fair on minnows and jigs at 4-10 ft. along riprap, bridges and standing timber. Report submitted by Ed Rodebush, game warden stationed in McIntosh County.

Hugo: May 6. Elevation normal. Crappie fair to good on minnows along the river channel and along drop-offs. Largemouth bass good on spinnerbaits and lizards around brush along creek channels. Blue catfish good on cut shad below the dam. Report submitted by Jay Harvey, game warden stationed in Choctaw and Bryan counties.

Rain is coming down this morning, and it’s a pale shade of grey outside our new windows here in Denton.

TO DO LIST

If you were thinking about hitting Lake Fork For the Bass Fly Fishing World Championships, you never know – it could be a bright sunny day at kickoff tomorrow morning. Last year, we were pummeled by severe thunder,lightning and rain the night before we paddled out to do battle with largemouth bass, and found our quarry had retreated to locations unknown to us. Defeat was ours. Read all about it at “Lake Fork: The Devil You Don’t”,“The Devil You Know vs. The Devil You Don’t'”, and this year’s release on the tournament – “Bass Fly World Championships Lake Fork”.

When the weather goes this way, it really is a grand time for exploration and rediscovery. I’ve had ideas about Lewisville Lake, found launch points, and watched intently as the lake level seems to be remaining pretty constantly at conservation level. Looking out the window, I don’t think there was enough rain to alter that assessment, but who knows how much it rained elsewhere. The idea that interests me most, is

revisiting the cut in the old dam on Lewisville Lake

, a place where I caught plenty of largemouth bass, an occasional palmetto (wiper in northern-speak), crappie and sand bass (this spot is where I set waterbody record for small, but largest, hybrid). The levels were so low that it was easy to walk to and across the cut. Not any more. Factor in the snakes, in walking across the top of the dam, and it’s a kayak reach with huge benefits of speed and access. And that’s just one idea I have for Lewisville.

Lake Ray Roberts is a known entity, and the northern reaches have been on my list since the end of last season. The vegetation and structure and clarity is the best on the entire lake – up north, way, way up north.

Oklahoma is calling my name these days, and a glowing report on smallmouth and largemouth activity on the enigmatic Blue River has me working to complete my weekend projects in order to get there first. I have a complete report from Oklahoma Wildlife coming out Sunday.

THE WELCOME MAT

I know there are some new locals reading, and welcome to you – from Montana to Texas is a heck of an adjustment. To help you in you assimilation, you must start with what goes in, in this case what goes in your ears. Strangely enough, while you are here, my stepkid is in Bozeman, Montana, taking in the scene there, and according to him, “getting tattoos and watching movies.” I am still trying to forgive him for not knowing Bozeman is fly fishing mecca. He’s a Boulder, Coloradan, and we all know there’s no reason to know any other geography besides where Lyons and upper Boulder Creek are located.

Also, to you new locals, enjoy this weather because it really isn’t like this anymore. We had extraordinary heat that succumbed to this rain respite. North Texas is no place to be in a Texas summer, and now that Austin and the Hill Country, the capital of Texas fly fishing, are getting some precipitation, it won’t be long to pack the tent and head south. If you want accompaniment (flies, rods and knowledge) in going to the salt, I am good for that too – just not certified to guide on salt.

THE SENSES

For newcomers and those relocated to Texas and looking for fly fishing cultural integration, we should probably start with a direct connection to the brain – the ears. Tonight in Denton, Texas, you can get a sense of what the genre “Texas Music” really is, when Joe Ely takes the stage at Dan’s Silver Leaf in the vital and growing (but still quaint) scene that lies on the east side of Downtown Denton, Texas. Joe Ely is top shelf talent in the “Texas Music” scene, and the ambience, a no smoking show, all combine to make Dan’s the place to be tonight.

With sound comes taste, and Denton, Texas, has a couple of newer places to contend for your buds. Mellow Mushroom has fantastic Italian fare, and a huge beer selection that most likely even contains Moose Drool! There’s a new (food-less) beer garden that is located on the site, and inside an historic house formerly known as the the Shipley Manor – the Oak Street Draft House could, after a couple, make you think you are in Boulder, Colorado, before the Californication. For a quieter time with wine and small selection of cigars, as well as a smoking room, stop at the Cellar 22, which gets its name from license plate number 22 from … Teton County Wyoming. Full circle, almost.

CHORES

We all have our respective weekend lists. Thankfully, my lists run all week long, and I have the job that gives me a chance to; plow, fertilize, purchase and plant in the garden / remember Mother’s Day / stock the bar / and a paltry few other things.

The other “chores” are to install the kayak saddles on the roof rack so my kayak doesn’t go sliding all across those cheap and virtually worthless nylon covered insulation foam kayak pads – like the one’s sold at Mariner Sails (today’s DO NOT BUY) -

Do not purchase this style of pad from Mariner Sails, or anywhere, unless your kayak has a flat bottom.

Because of the dynamic shapes of the hulls of my boats, I decided to go with the Yakima Mako Saddles, and have a pair of these to install today -

Accurately measure the distance between your crossbars, and then measure the distance between the saddles while your kayak is upside down on the ground if you want to get close on the first try of positioning these. The great thing about these, besides the fact they aren’t Mariner Sails worthless pads, is they keep your kayak forward aligned – pointed straight into the wind.

The next chore is tying flies. I was distressed to open my fly box while fishing with this undisclosed person on an undisclosed lake (pictured below), and find that I was out of my increasingly famous and seasonally deadly double bunnies – and we’re not talking Playboy here. The one double bunny I had left was shriveled, lifeless and limp until moisture was added … undisclosed lake water that is. The double bunny comes to life once it gets soaked, and I will put it up, head-to-head, against a plastic worm anywhere, anytime.

Have a great weekend!

Publisher’s Note – Reminder that anywhere I am invited to fish, is on the record, unless we agreed to keep dirty little secrets in advance. That’s how this site started, and that’s how it will always be. I have kept your spots quiet a few times, but mostly because they would never have been hit anyway. The only exception comes when being formally guided, and I will defer to a guide’s preferences every time. I trust that those of you scheduled to go out with me will do the same.

This is directly from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, and is about the Lower Illinois River trout fishery. I have yet to fish it, but have heard a lot of good things about this location.

Trout stockings resume at Lower Illinois River as Wildlife Department seeks fix for water shortages

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has resumed trout stockings at the Lower Illinois River due to water levels improving in Tenkiller Lake, and officials with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation say they continue to seek a lasting solution to water shortage issues at the river.

The stockings resume after a temporary discontinuation had been in effect because of water shortages that caused two significant fish kills at the Lower Illinois this year. Recent rainfalls have improved water levels, but officials say the biggest water shortage concerns at the fishery have not been resolved.

At its November meeting, held Nov. 7 in Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission heard a presentation from Fisheries Chief Barry Bolton that addressed why water shortages pose an ongoing problem to the fishery at the Lower Illinois River. At the top of the list of concerns is a need for reallocation of water from Tenkiller Reservoir for the fishery, since currently all of the water storage in the lake is allocated to other users. The fishery had for years been fed by leakage in the dam that provided as much as 75 cubic feet of water per second. The leak has been repaired, leaving the Wildlife Department with access to only two hours of water or less per day for managing 7.75 miles of trout fishery. Any other water comes from sporadic releases from water storage holders.

“There are anglers who count on the river for good fishing, and there are businesses in the region that count on anglers going to the Lower Illinois River to fish,” Bolton said. “Water shortages combined with insufficient flow reduces oxygen levels to a point where trout and native species cannot survive, which means anglers don’t have fish to catch. And that means fewer customers for local businesses.”

Though water levels at the river are up now, Bolton said the fishery will likely face similar shortages again if water is not reallocated to support the fishery. Until then, he said possible short-term resolutions include more frequent releases of oxygenated water through hydropower generation, and taking steps to ensure water releases meet state water quality standards. Agreements also could be pursued that would create a temporary seasonal pool plan that provides minimum releases to maintain the fishery. Additionally, the Wildlife Department can temporarily “borrow” some water allocated to Sequoyah Fuels, who holds small percentage of storage in the lake, but that water will not always be available for fishery use.

Though there are short-term fixes, Bolton said it is a long-term solution that is needed most, such as congressional legislation to reallocate water storage for the fishery at no cost to the state. A similar problem at the Lower Mountain Fork River trout fishery below Broken Bow Lake was resolved through federal action that resulted in the allocation of water to the fishery.

Established in 1965 as mitigation for the construction of Tenkiller Dam, the Illinois River trout fishery has become a recreational and economic staple for the region. While finding a solution to water shortages in the river poses unique challenges, Bolton said the Wildlife Department is committed to the survival of the fishery and will continue to work tirelessly to ensure quality fishing for those who depend on the fishery for recreation and business.

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I will be placing a call to Scott Hood of the Oklahoma Chapter of Trout Unlimited (89er Chapter of TU), as I have it on good authority that Scott holds a special place in his heart for the Lower Illinois.

NOTE – For those readers from Oklahoma, let me take a moment to introduce the new Oklahoma Fly Report website. It was created for Oklahoma fly fishers to discuss topics just like this one, and I am confident you will find it easy to use, and add content – whether it be 2-cents-worth, or an entire dollar’s worth. The new board is at www.oklahomaflyreport.com. Feel free to talk and enjoy the free information and camaraderie Oklahoma!