Lake Ten Killer 4/19 thru 4/22

[Ham]

Another excellent Spring fishing trip with CajunAngler is in the books. Great food, Great weather, and great fishing. We limited the trip to four days this year. When you fish from just after daylight to dark everyday, four days is enough. Got to bed a little after 11 PM each night and up at 0530 the next day.

The water was cloudy just like Beaver, Bull, Table Rock, and Norfork. Not muddy, but much more stained then last year. It did not hurt the fish a bit. We caught all three bass species. White and Black crappie. White Bass. Drum. channel cats. Green Sunfish, a Pumpkinseed and Bluegill. We had water temps from 63 degrees and as warm as 69 degrees on Friday.

good numbers and great size. I'll spare y'all the gaudy numbers, but it was crazy good. Once again, we stayed at the Cookson Cabins and Store. Clean and comfortable. Centrally located. Nothing fancy at all, but plenty adequate.

fish were particular at times. We had to stay alert to them going deeper or shallower and times when they got picky about lure choices. We caught fish in 100 foot of water and fish in 2 foot of water. The smallies seemed to be mid spawn. largemouth seemed to not have come in yet. Why would this be? Only a couple of top water fish which was disappointing.

A shakey head was by and large a better option than the Ned for size and numbers. There,I said it. I didn't like it, but it was the way it was. Very few spinnerbait fish even when we had some wind blowing. Not as many jerk bait fish as we would have liked. The little guy was better on Friday. We threw it off and on every day, but not near as much as I expected to.

I had a really good afternoon with the grub on Day One. We used some Strike King Rage Tail grubs. The work great, but are fragile. I'd love to buy them with someone else's money. I got these in my BassCat OI swag bag. 

I love this lake. Really nice scenery. And I love the high quality of the multi species fishery. We did have more company this trip. It was cooler last time and it rained everyday last time we were there which might have held down the crowds. We had some rain, but never really BAD weather.  I don't think the extra boats hurt us much.

I had Big Smallie of the trip with a 19 3/4 inch 4 lb 13 oz fish on a shakey head. I don't want to think about the two smallmouth larger than that one that I lost. CajunAngler had a smallmouth almost as large as mine. We both caught some toads. 

The fact that it takes me about 4 hours to get there is the only reason I don't get an annual NR Oklahoma fishing license. I wish it was 2 hours away. I love fishing 10K.

[rps]

37 minutes ago, Ham said:

Another excellent Spring fishing trip with CajunAngler is in the books. Great food, Great weather, and great fishing. We limited the trip to four days this year. When you fish from just after daylight to dark everyday, four days is enough. Got to bed a little after 11 PM each night and up at 0530 the next day.

The water was cloudy just like Beaver, Bull, Table Rock, and Norfork. Not muddy, but much more stained then last year. It did not hurt the fish a bit. We caught all three bass species. White and Black crappie. White Bass. Drum. channel cats. Green Sunfish, a Pumpkinseed and Bluegill. We had water temps from 63 degrees and as warm as 69 degrees on Friday.

good numbers and great size. I'll spare y'all the gaudy numbers, but it was crazy good. Once again, we stayed at the Cookson Cabins and Store. Clean and comfortable. Centrally located. Nothing fancy at all, but plenty adequate.

fish were particular at times. We had to stay alert to them going deeper or shallower and times when they got picky about lure choices. We caught fish in 100 foot of water and fish in 2 foot of water. The smallies seemed to be mid spawn. largemouth seemed to not have come in yet. Why would this be? Only a couple of top water fish which was disappointing.

A shakey head was by and large a better option than the Ned for size and numbers. There,I said it. I didn't like it, but it was the way it was. Very few spinnerbait fish even when we had some wind blowing. Not as many jerk bait fish as we would have liked. The little guy was better on Friday. We threw it off and on every day, but not near as much as I expected to.

I had a really good afternoon with the grub on Day One. We used some Strike King Rage Tail grubs. The work great, but are fragile. I'd love to buy them with someone else's money. I got these in my BassCat OI swag bag. 

I love this lake. Really nice scenery. And I love the high quality of the multi species fishery. We did have more company this trip. It was cooler last time and it rained everyday last time we were there which might have held down the crowds. We had some rain, but never really BAD weather.  I don't think the extra boats hurt us much.

I had Big Smallie of the trip with a 19 3/4 inch 4 lb 13 oz fish on a shakey head. I don't want to think about the two smallmouth larger than that one that I lost. CajunAngler had a smallmouth almost as large as mine. We both caught some toads. 

The fact that it takes me about 4 hours to get there is the only reason I don't get an annual NR Oklahoma fishing license. I wish it was 2 hours away. I love fishing 10K.

When I lived in Tulsa, and even while I was in law school at Norman, Tenkiller was my preferred lake - unless I could make it to Broken Bow. One Spring, Ken Rainbolt and I caught and cleaned a two man limit of crappie out of Sisemore Creek on Saturday and Sunday (37 each in those days) and then fed our entire law school class the following weekend to celebrate passing the bar exam.

On another occasion, I hooked and landed a 16 pound flathead catfish on a Charlie Brewer 4" worm on 6 lb. line.

As I have written somewhere on here before, the very first plastic worm fish I ever caught happened at Tenkiller. I used a Creme pre-made worm with two weedless hooks and the beads an spinner in front. I was maybe 9 or 10 and fishing with my father.

I am pleased it still produces and that you find the Cookson area beautiful. Your post obviously provoked wonderful memories. Thank you.