lower illinois river

[troutfly]

fishing for trout bad bad bad

[JCW355]

They quit stocking in July. Existing trout have either died, been caught and kept or are striper poop now. With the lake conditions, this year has been unlike many, it was wise to stop trout stocking. Checkout the Oklahoma TU chapter 420 page and Fly fish Oklahoma page on facebook. These pages will let you know whats going on at the LIR with other peoples information. You can also watch the stream gauge on the LIR, seeing the numbers wll give you an idea about the water quality. It wont tell you if it's clear or dirty but the temperature and dissolved oxygen numbers say a lot. Fishing reports are available from the wildlife department plus stocking info as well. Trout fishing is no good for now, who knows for how long. Colder weather will help the lake to cool off, we will just have to wait for better conditions for trout. Some guys have reported catching many other species because of all the flowing water up by the dam so a person could fish there.