Okieflyfisher53

Dano, Have you looked at the Uni dark brown? It may be close enough. Steve

Bill, I've been a couple of times in the late afternoon after work with not much luck. I have had to work the last two Saturdays and have spent Sundays fishing other waters for crappie and bass. Steve

A photographer friend of ours took this picture of Rusty, one of our 4 Shetland Sheepdogs, at an Agility Trial. The picture took two first place and one second place awards in the Art Show at the Dog Show. Steve

Bill, Call me the next time you are going to be down there. If I can get away, I'll join you. Steve

Phil, Nope, that must have been some other idiot, LOL! I drive a red GMC Sonoma. Steve

I got out for a while after work today and braved the 35mph winds. I didn't get any strikes at all and the bait fishermen that were there weren't catching anything either. I know the fish are there because a buddy went yesterday evening and saw some nice stripers caught by bait fishermen using live 6-7" shad for bait. He said a few of the fish were in the 15-20lb range. I have not had much of a chance to fish because of my work schedule but plan to hit it whenever I can for the next few weeks. Hopefully I will hit it right eventually. Steve

Bill, I was a day and a half late to get into the fish. I decided to take my float tube to Lake Pawhuska and fish for bluegills and redears on Saturday. Caught 1 bluegill, 1 redear, 1 spotted bass, and 2 rainbow trout. I did honey-do's this morning and went to the river around 1:30 this afternoon. I ran into Rodney and Jason as they were leaving. They did well this morning and then someone threw a switch and turned them off. I fished for a little over 2 hours and caught 1 little white bass and 1 gar. There were gar everywhere! The water level was pretty low this afternoon, not sure if that had anything to do with the poor fishing or not. With DST in effect, I will be hitting the river after work in the coming days. Steve

I fished the Zink Dam area Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. I caught a few small stripers, several hybrids and white bass, some of them pretty good sized, and 1 spotted bass. There are a lot of spoonbills moving up the river and I saw several get foul hooked during the day. I may have hooked into one but it got loose. I talked to some folks who had done well in the morning on Saturday, but I had honey-dos to take care of so I didn't get down there that early. I went back this morning and the wind was terrible, 25-35 mph. I fished for a couple of hours, catching a few whites and hybrids and a couple of buffalo, but got tired of dealing with the wind and went home to tie more flies. Steve

I fished the Zink Dam area yesterday afternoon and this afternoon. The water was a little higher than I like for it to be but still managed to catch several fish, mostly whites and hybrids. Yesterday I tried the area downstream from PSO and didn't have much luck down there, only caught 1 white, 1 crappie, and a drum. I moved up to the area just below the dam and got into the whites and hybrids with the occasional buffalo mixed in. Today I waited for the water to get down enough to wade and went back to the area just below the dam on the east side of the river. I found a concentration of whites and hybrids just downstream from the two square concrete pillars. I fished for about 2 hours or so this afternoon and was into fish the whole time. Steve

Wayne, There is a parking lot at 31st Street and Riverside Drive. Park there and walk across to the river (there is a traffic light and crosswalk). There is a boat ramp you can walk down to access the river. If there is no generation you will not have any problems wading. When the water is going to come up they blow a siren and there are flashing lights up on the pedestrian bridge. Steve

Captain, The Illinois below Tenkiller is good for stripers when there is generation from Tenkiller Dam. The stripers come up the Illinois from the Arkansas River, and while some of them do feed on stocker trout, they can be caught on shad also. I have fished with a guide there who uses live shad for bait. There is also a guide down there that uses small trout that he buys from a hatchery for bait. Steve

riverrat, I have never fished for whites on Tenkiller but I know that the Illinois River above Tenkiller gets a good white bass run. Steve

jay bird, I don't even bother looking at SWPA's "projected generation" schedule any more. I have been lied to too many times to trust it. It looks like the water is falling now but I don't know if it will get low enough today or not. Steve

I fished the river for about 4 hours yesterday, trying 4 different locations, and it was extremely slow. I think we need a few more warm, sunny days to get the fish active again.I managed to catch a dozen or so, all whites and small hybrids, and 2 buffalo. The flow rate is at 1710 this morning so I doubt that I'll go today. Steve

Illegal!

Dano, I have not used it for leaders but I do nail knot a short section of it to the end of my fly lines and tie a perfection loop in it for loop to loop connections. I have had too many bad experiences with those braided loops to use them again. Steve

Phil, I don't know of a boat ramp below Zink Dam. There are a couple below Keystone Dam but that doesn't do you any good for fishing the River Parks area. The only time the water is too swift to wade is when they are generating at Keystone Dam. This past weekend the flow rate was below 200 CFS. I have waded it with no problems with the flow as high as 400 CFS. Steve

jay bird, I was down there for a couple of hours. It looked like opening day at Roaring River down there below PSO! I started out in the run next to PSO, caught a few nice hybrids there and then went up below the dam. Caught some more hybrids and whites, 1 small striper, 1 sucker, and the biggest shad that I have ever seen. I got tired of the wind and went in early. Steve

You can also use stiff hackle fibers for the tail. The original did not have cdc as the wing, it had fluff from the base of a hackle. Steve

jay bird, That seems to the pattern lately, but unfortunately it's impossible to guess what SWPA is going to do on any given day. I would suggest watching the flow rate every day and see what happens. I plan on fishing it on Sunday if it is wadeable. You can email me at stevec53@cox.net. If you make it down here on Sunday we'll hook up (pun intended). Steve

I saw them on their "Street Survivors" tour in the late 70's. Great concert! My favorite Skynyrd song is "Things Goin' On", especially the acoustic version from their "Endangered Species" disc. Steve

Dano, Clouser minnows have been working well. I have been tying mine on #1 and #2 saltwater hooks. Gray and white has been working best, followed by olive and white and blue and white. Other flies that I have caught them on are deceivers, blondes, bunkers, and sheep shad. Steve

Michael, Nice pictures! I noticed that the flow rate was around 8000 CFS yesterday. When they shut the water off the fishing should be great. Dan, the section of the river that we were fishing is in town. The buildings that you see in the background are in downtown Tulsa. Steve

jay bird, They were fishing on the west side of the river, near the PSO facility. The flow rate today was at 351 CFS, which seemed to be ideal for fishing that area. Steve

I fished the arkansas river below Zink Dam the last two days. Yesterday I met four guys from Springfield down here for the first time and showed them a couple of spots that I usually fish. Mike, Jason, Rob and Rodney did pretty well after I had to leave yesterday, but they had an outstanding day today. The four of them caught over 150 stripers and hybrids, the biggest being a 10lb striper. I was fishing upstream from them this afternoon, catching only whites and small hybrids and one saugeye. After a while I decided to walk down and see how they were doing, and found out what I had been missing out on! I enjoyed meeting you guys and look forward to fishing with you again when you can make it back this way. Steve