Caney River in Oklahoma

[catfishcentral]

I really can't believe I haven't started a thread before on the Caney River. The darn things flows right though town and is only a few minutes from my house. The main thing that does stop most people from fishing the Caney is access to the river. This is one of those steep banked rivers, with very little public access. There's not a single boat ramp anywhere the Caney river is located but there's a couple of places you can drag a small jon or canoe and put in and enjoy the river. The main access that most people use is the low water dam located by Johnstone Park. The river above the low water dam is fairly deep in many places and can be navagated for quite a distance.

The Caney River is actually two seperate rivers that join just North of Bartlesville. The Caney River starts fifty miles or so up in Kansas and feeds Hulah Lake. The Little Caney River is a seperate river that feeds Copan Lake and the two rivers merge just North of Dewey, OK. The Caney now runs though Bartlesville and all the way though Washington County and dumps in the Verdigris just below Oolagah.

Now in the spring time when there letting water out of both Hulah and Copan all the fish that live between the low water dam in town migrate to both dams. The amount of flatheads between 20 and 70 pounds that have been caught in the springtime over the years is amazing. Since access to the river is pretty limited the quanity of flatheads and blues also stays pretty abundant thoughout the year. The main problem with the Caney is either there's not much current flowing making the turtles and gar easy pickins for your bait or the river is flowing too hard to take a small boat out there safely.

Anyways in order to conserve fuel I'm will be dragging the Canoe to the Caney and fishing for some big flatheads. Hopefully I'll have some pics of some nice fish to share in the next few months. Here are a few pics on the river today.

[catfishcentral]

Here are a few other pics from today. There's a very nice logjam at one of the railroad bridges just up the river. It's been there forever and I know holds fish. The other picture is kind of neat. When the town of Bartlesville was founded this was one of the first businesses in town. The Bartles mill named after Frank Bartles (owner) and namesake for our town. This is the remains of the old mill that was located on the river. If I can find some old pics of the mill I'll post them also so you can see the now and then.

[catfishcentral]

Oops, My mistake Jacob Bartles not Frank. I need to keep my history correct.

[catfishinfordman]

So the place to put in is out in bartilsville

[TeamPunishment]

yep, it runs a couple of miles from my house, never have found anywhere to fish it except for under bridges but I have never went out and gave it a whirl

[catfishcentral]

I caught this guy at the log jam today. It's been awhile since I harvested a flathead so he will be dinner. :)

[catfishcentral]

[QUOTE=Ultimate Catfishing is there any current this time of year? [/QUOTE]


There's a whopping 2cfs coming out of Copan and 5 cfs coming out of Hulah so there's pretty much 0 current right now. Typically in the spring we have enough rain that both lakes upstream will let out a nice flow of water. The rest of the time is pretty much like it is now very slow. Now the Caney's been known to go over it's banks quite often but you sure don't want to be in any little boat then. Flatheads thrive in these slow muddy rivers here in Oklahoma and Kansas. The Caney with pretty limited access keeps the number of people down and the flatheads in good numbers.

[TeamPunishment]

Nice flatty! I went on the verdigris down below Oologah dam last night from about 9:15 til 12 and didnt catch anything, i was just hoping there was a few flatties still there but IDK if there are. WE NEED SOME RAIN AND WATER FLOW!:crying:

[okiehillbilly]

cool. I fish the caney too

[okiehillbilly]

cool I fish the caney too

[okiehillbilly]

sweetnessa;sliduf

[caatstalker]

never fished it looks good , nice fish . great pix . what about any out of the way places to camp out of a boat on river ?

[catfishcentral]

cc, anyone ever get any decent blues out of the river? guesss they would have to come from the nav. chnl. how deep is the caney ofter it comes together? what did you catch your flathead on? day or night? any other fish? blues, channel cats. looks like a good place for big channels.


Jeff,

The majority of the blues that are in the Caney river have come from Copan and Hulah lakes. I personally have never caught a blue over ten pounds out of the Caney. I heard of 40 and 50 pounders caught below the dam but I haven't seen one. I'm sure there maybe but sometime fisherman can tell stories. Now big flatheads yes there in there. My personal best from the caney was 38 pounds on rod and reel below Copan. I've seen them as big as 70 pounds taken below the dam. The river is slow and not condusive for big blues but the flatheads love the slow muddy river.
Blues coming in from the Navagation Channel I'm sure happen every once in a while but the Verdigris becomes shallow just above the Port of Catossa. The shallow riffles in the spring are only a foot deep at best. There needs to be a lot of water being released from Oolagah and Copan/Hulah lakes to get the blues up into the Caney from the Navagation Channel. Also the low water dam in Bartlesville isn't the only low water dam on the Caney. I believe there is one in Ramona and possible another one. Now we do have floods from time to time on the Caney where a few blues might be able to get up the low water dams but not that often. The Caney is a small, steep banked river. The really only public access is via bridges on our highway and roads. The rest is all private land. Now if your lucky enough to own land on the Caney....well it's flathead heaven. The turtles and gar are your biggest problems since the water in the Caney most of the time is Slow.

That flathead was 22 pounds and took a 6 inch crappie taken early morning. I caught four other blues from 1 to 4 pounds. There's channel cats in there also but it sure seems the blues have taken over our waters. When I catfish it seems I catch 9 blues to ever 1 channel. The channel I think are being eaten by the blues our there's just too many dang small 2 to 8 pound blues in our Oklahoma waters.

[catfishcentral]

never fished it looks good , nice fish . great pix . what about any out of the way places to camp out of a boat on river ?


No real places to camp or take any real boat of size in the Caney. Since pretty much all land the comes up to the Caney is private you need to access by any public highway bridge or city park in my case. The river is public but you can cross private land to access without premission.

[center12]

Nice fish Chris, sure gives a fellow the urge to go get some perch and give the river a go!!

[catfishcentral]

Nice fish Chris, sure gives a fellow the urge to go get some perch and give the river a go!!

Thanks,
I ready to hit the Caney again soon. I caught about 30 perch today and hope to hit the Caney tomorrow or Wed. We got quite a bit of rain today and it's still raining. This can only help the fishing.:)

[rivrbunny]

Chris,

You've been catching several nice fish. We went to an artifact show in Pryor last weekend. Passed a fishing tournament in Skiatook Lake. The lake was packed and boats were everywhere. The lake looked pretty low.
Kaw is getting quite a bit of inflow so the fishing should pick up considerably. Maybe we will get some riverflow below the dam and get to catfish soon.

[Tulcat]

Nice fish! I'm jealous now

[catfishcentral]

I fished the Caney last night and it was pretty slow. I ended up catching five blues with the biggest one at 5.5 pounds. I also caught one flathead at only 4 pounds. The rain that we recieved last week did get the current going on the Caney for awhile. This may have pushed them farther up river. I took the canoe about 2 miles upstream last night. I might try later this weekend and see how good a shape I'm in at try five or six miles upstream.

[dobbie]

There used to be a good place to launch a boat where Butler creek runs into the Caney in Oak Park.Its right next to the bridge and I think the state owns it.There is an old metal dock 300 yards up stream from the mouth of the creek.We used to fish from Butler creek all the way to the bridge west of Dewey.Your best bet on the Caney is to find a Friendly land owner who will let you leave a small boat on his land.

[catfishcentral]

Kenny,

I know where that is but I'll have to check it out again. Last time I check out that area it didn't seem to have very good access. I have found a couple other good places to put in but haven't dragged the canoe to them yet. Now where I'm putting in above the low water dam there use to be a little homemade boat ramp. A few years ago it got covered in about 4 feet of mud and I was actually using another spot that was easier. I was very surprised to see the city came and cleared the old boat ramp. I've been using it to back my canoe down to the water but as soon as the ramp hit the water it goes to crap. I would love to put my 17 ft boat in there but I don't think I would get it out. A lightweight jon thought could be backed in and out fairly easy.

[okiehillbilly]

My brothers and I put a troline in the caney and we got a 20 pound blue, there is a ton of little blues, along with a good number of 5-8 pound channels and some flatheads. We fish about 1 mile north of Ramona on private land.

[TeamPunishment]

I found a few people I know who own land backing up to the Caney around collinsville, Now I just need to go talk to them, load up and stick to the flathead

[catfishcentral]

My brothers and I put a troline in the caney and we got a 20 pound blue, there is a ton of little blues, along with a good number of 5-8 pound channels and some flatheads. We fish about 1 mile north of Ramona on private land.


Have you been fishing it during the last couple of weeks? Copan and Hulah are way up after all this rain and both are letting quite a bit of water out of the lakes. The Caney is running over 4000 cfs and will for probably another couple of weeks until lake levels are down. 4000 cfs is a lot for that small of river and I don't want to get in the river in my canoe. Now if I had a small jon boat with a decent motor I'd probably been there every day fishing. Copan and Hulah dams should be starting to produce some good fishing with all the current flowing right now.

[bartmccollum]

I kayaked the Caney a few years ago to find a good access point. THERE IS NO ACCESS from Collinsville(169 bridge) to the Verdigris. There is also another small dam a half mile below the 169 bridge....out in the middle of nowhere...This lower part of the river is a flathead area but several riffles do hold big blues. I believe the big fish winter way south in the Verdigris but migrate North during the first floods all the way to Bartlesville.

[I_try]

Used to live in Bartlesville from 3rd thru 6th grade, cool to see people on here from there. I never fished the caney when i lived there, just the verdigris and grand lake is all i really remember. Anybody there know a guy named Sig Vigisa (spelling?) he took my father and i on a few fishing trips and this guy knew how to hunt and fish. accordin to my father probably the best sportsman he ever knew.

[catfishcentral]

Hummm...it's been a while since I posted on the Caney River. I fished the Caney Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday Morning. The cooler weather sure is nice and water surface temps have been in the high 60's to low 70's, no current on the river and the gars are in full force. My biggest fish of the weekend was a gar that went probably twenty five pounds. Other than that lots of channels around 23 channels from 3 to 10 pounds and two flatheads. The were both the same weight 15.6 pounds a piece both caught at the same riverbend, just on different days. I didn't bring any perch for the big boys just shad for this weekend.


I was talking with another follow BOC member about this tree the other day that's in the river. We both have idea's on how it got to be like this. It's pretty darn impressive the three main branches that come off the trunk you couldn't put your arms around. That's a LOT of weight to be pushed up. My theory is tree was going down the river in the spring, hit a boulder and as the river rose, it pushed the tree like it is now. We get spring rains sometimes that can put the river 15 feet above normal. I was so impressed I had to take a picture. Also a pic of one of the flatheads I caught. One's for dinner the other will be waiting for me next time.

[catfishcentral]

The boy and I canoed the caney this weekend. I put a small trolling motor on the back and a couple of rod holders and we planned on trolling for some sandies. The river here in town is just a little too narrow with too much debris compared to the upper end of the caney above Hulah. We caught 8 sandies and caught about 100 trees and branches while trolling. We ended up losing all our lures and ending up doing a little catfishing and caught to two blues and one channel on frozen shad. I traveled farther up the caney here in town than I ever been just rowing....that little trolling motor pushed us for 7 hours up and down the river. My back doesn't like me much right now...need some kind of backrest for that canoe.:lol:

[Larry Collier]

I think everyone would benefit from using a canoe or similar sized boat on occassion. It forces you to slow down and think instead of automatically repeating the same things you've done in the past. When I had my plastic 2 man boat I learned more in a few hours about a stretch of bank than I ever would have with a bigger fishing rig. And to have that experience with your son, well, it don't git no bettern that!

[catfishcentral]

Lot's of rain last night here and lots right now. I guess a ton has fallen up above my Hulah lake. I don't think I want to be on the river right now. I don't think I've ever seen this much flow coming down the caney above Hulah since the flood of 86. 42,000cfs coming down the caney:ooooh: talk about debris.


http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/webdata/gagedata/HULO2.current.html

[catfishcentral]

The lake rose 10 ft in less than a day.:ooooh: It's not rising too much now but they got about 5 inches of rain above Hulah yesterday in a pretty short time. Hulah is about 3800 acres at normal pool level. Suppose to be more rain for far Northern Oklahoma and Southern Kansas tomorrow. Should get the blues turned on pretty good and get them moving upstream.

[catfishcentral]

Fished the upper Caney all day yesterday with the boy and girl. I'm glad we were on the river instead of some lake, the wind was pretty bad. This section of river has just tons of big channel cats in there. We caught a total of 26 catfish on Saturday mostly channels only four blues and one flathead. The 21channels we caught only two were under two pounds the rest were between 4 and 9 pounds with most averaging around 6+ pounds each. The river is still high and was able to get farther up the river than I ever been. There is some shallow riffles about 1/2 mile from the Kansas border but we made it into Kansas with the high water. We didn't make it too far into Kansas but kind of cool being able to get there by boat. I wanted to catch some big flatheads and took 50 perch to set up some limblines. We baited 15 limblines with perch the size of my palm and just caught these monster channel cats. The only flathead I caught was off my pole in the afternoon. We took nine channels off the limblines and one blue. The rest were caught on poles in a half dozen spots.

Bradley's 13 pounder
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t278/CatfishCentral/Bradleys13pounder.jpg

Sydney's 7 pound channel
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t278/CatfishCentral/scouts2007039.jpg


My monster flattie of the day

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t278/CatfishCentral/scouts2007043.jpg



:lol: :lol: :lol: I just love this picture! You might be a redneck if you. Took this while taking a back way to my river. :tounge_out:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t278/CatfishCentral/scouts2007044.jpg

[dobbie]

Sounds like you had a nice trip.How high is the lake?

[catfishcentral]

Hey Kenny,

The lake still four feet above normal...it was well over 10 feet last week. Rocky Ford ramp was pretty much trashed. There was only 2 feet of ramp above water, too much mud and logs to use the ramp. Since the lake was up enough it was no problem launching from the lake to get up into the river channel. I only had two other boats on the river with me yesterday.:smile2:

[osageCo_flathead]

Did you hit the Bollingers Landing area? It's a decent little primitive camp grounds to hit in the late spring. Nice place to spend a weekend and set lines. I live in Barnsdall but would fish Johstone with my uncle as a kid and we caught some nice ones there. I'll be fishing there some time soon when I go over to B'ville and visit my dad.

[catfishcentral]

I camped up at Bollingers this past winter while deer hunting for the first time...plan on camping up there sometime this summer again. We fished just a little downstream of the landing last time there where that submered island is and caught quite a few cats drifting slip floats around that area. I wish there were more blues in the river but there's plenty of big channels and flatheads.

[osageCo_flathead]

I have done well above the landing catching blues the last time we went. We did not catch a blue over 20 but we did catch some. I was using cut shad and perch.

[mack5522]

hey Chris , IM glad to hear IM not the only one that catfish's out of a canoe my wife and i have been doin it for years they are great for gettin into little water all over the place . we have even taken ours out on a few lakes with good luck , we would really like to come fish the caney with you some time . were is the park located in bartlesville wear you put in at ?

[catfishcentral]

Chris,

Where I put in at is above the low water dam at Johnstone park. Highway 123 bridge and Cherokee St. When you cross the bridge at highway 123 going North you take the first left or right just over the bridge, both roads come together under the bridge and the road goes just a little North above the low water dam. There is a little hommade boat ramp. That's pretty much the only place on the Caney with some sort of public access. Everything else is private land that you need permission or fish the Caney above Hulah lake where you can take a full size boat. I haven't fished it in a while too much flood water. We have gotten so much rain that both the lakes Copan and Hulah have been letting out too much water for the last three months to use a canoe. In fact the caney just went over it's banks again today and is flooding several parts of the town. Johnstone park is under water and 123 bridge is closed, highway 75 at coon creek is under water also right now. It's going to be a while before this section of river can be canoed.

[mack5522]

I saw that on the news , we really needed some rain this year but I am getting tired of it , its really messen up my fishin this year . I really appreciate your tellin us about this river I am looking forward to trying it out

[catfishcentral]

Fished the Caney above Hulah this past labor day weekend. Met up with Ken Dobbs (Dobbie) and we ran lines most of the weekend. The river is like it's to be expected this time of year..... hot, no current and gars and turtles in full force. The shad were in abundance to say the least. They were making their way back down the river from spawning and the shad in the 1 to 2 1/2 inch range were in the millions. While standing above the river it just looked like oil slicks going downsteam. When night fishing they seemed to be even more plentiful. It's amazing that our bait is found in that sea of baitfish. Anyway fishing was decent biggest flathead was 28 pounds couple others around 20 and a few in the teens. The channel cats were plentiful and many caught between 4 and 9 pounds. The fishing was decent and the company was great. Thanks for everything there Kenny. The perch traps will be put to good use.

[dobbie]

Chris I had a blast.I still can't believe we didn't catch any blue cats.It was a nice quite weekend with good company.I also enjoyed the trip way up the river looking for different spots to fish.Give me a holler and we'll go again. Dobbie

[Midwest Drifter]

Sounds like a good weekend. I bet it was hot on the river.Was you using cutshad for bait? Or live bait?

[catfishcentral]

Live perch mainly, targeting big flatheads, but the channels in that river are big also and will take a pretty large live bluegill.

[tatooed11]

hi we have been going all over the OKC area looking for a good spot to fish for monster cat and we will travel if we have to can you help with a good spot

[catfishcentral]

hi we have been going all over the OKC area looking for a good spot to fish for monster cat and we will travel if we have to can you help with a good spot

Welcome to the BOC there Kevin. The best thing to do is start your own thread on this question. You will get better responses when people know where in Oklahoma you live to better direct you. Also whether you will be fishing by bank or boat makes a difference where folks will suggest where to fish.

[KATTERMAN]

thanks for sharing all the pics love to see pics of the river.it sure looks good i been fishing lower washita in s.e. okla caught a few my pb 26 lb flat.thanks again on pics

[catfishcentral]

I should have been fishing instead of hunting this morning. I ran up the river to bow hunt this morning and clear a few more lanes. The river is up a few feet with all that rain on Wed night. There was lot's of debris and current in the river and it sure seemed to have the fish going crazy. I was walking up to my stand while it was still dark and tons of big fish rolling and spashing at the surface. My stand is only 30 yards from the river and they were rolling at the surface hard for the next two hours. I should have at least brought a couple of rods and set them off the back of the boat while I was hunting. Oh well....didn't take a shot today but saw several good deer just not in range. Smokepole starts in a week.....love to bow hunt but hankering for some meat.:smile2:

[KATTERMAN]

i love to fish but deer hunting is my passion blackpowder staarts on a few days.i wish i had a place to fish for big flats and deer hunt to would'nt that be something,good luck this weekend

[Dadoftwo]

That log jam looks inviting. Nice flat you hung.

[catfishcentral]

i love to fish but deer hunting is my passion blackpowder staarts on a few days.i wish i had a place to fish for big flats and deer hunt to would'nt that be something,good luck this weekend

I caught a few gills out of my pond tonight and going to put a couple of poles off the back of the boat while we blackpowder this weekend on Hulah. I got a couple of buddies coming up and hope to have a boat load of deer and a few fish on the way back to the ramp.

[catfishcentral]

My buddies came up and I put them in both of my spots last weekend and they both killed deer. I took my climber into a new area and only saw two does being chased by some hunters on the ground. There was lots of people hunting up there for the opener of muzzleloader. I didn't blackpower up there last year but did during rifle including opening day and only saw two other people. I'm going up there again on Saturday before I have to hit the road for the week, hopefully there will be a deer this weekend for me.


Kenny, The place I was hunting last weekend was a funnel between the river, woods and wheat field. There was a section in the far corner of that wheat field that held a few dozen ducks on Sat morning. I'm sure you got several places lined up already but if your camping at 99 at all it's pretty close by.

[dobbie]

Thanks Chris.I'll either be at Hulah or Copan.I wont be in a boat,but will try and make it up there to see you.

[ronlyn239]

I also live in Bartlesville and am strongly considering buying a fishing kayak soon for just such fishing opportunities as this. I am also thinking that the kayak would be ideal for launching up around Cotton Creek at the bridge north of Copan for both catfishing and crappie fishing the upper Copan Lake.
Great to know there is a another guy that thinks that the Caney is a great unexploited opportunity to go where few have gone before.

[catfishcentral]

Welcome to the BOC there Ron. Good to have another local around. Cotton creek would be good but might be a chore to take it down that steep of a hill. There's some super places on Sand Creek that hold lots of large flatheads and smaller blues and channels. It's pretty easy to put in there above the low water dam at the park and travel far up the caney, and if your arms are stong enough they can take you almost all the way to the dams. Be careful if you do take a canoe on Copan outside of the river channel. The waves can get pretty bad in a small craft.

[South Grand Laker]

hey chris, i was just curious for some reason i can remember when i was younger that they had a a canoe race or kayak race of some sort around the early 90's when i lived in b'ville, on the caney maybe not for sure thought, just wanted to see if you remember that??

[catfishcentral]

Matt,

I've never heard of a canoe race here in town but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. I was in college in the early 90's and moved back to Okla in 2001. Maybe happend between times I lived here.

[catfishcentral]

Typical late summer on the Caney this weekend. Meet up with Dobbs above the Caney and set some lines. Shad were making there way downsteam from the spring spawns. Shad soup in the river at night, they were practically jumping into the boat. Gar were in full force and between them and the over abundance of shad fishing was tough. The Caney above Hulah still got to be one of the best places to catch some monster channels. We caught lots of 7 and 8 pound channels. I only caught two flatheads a 8 and a 18 pounder. Dobbie and his buddies caught a 30 and 10 pounder I believe. Fishing was kind of slow and tough but had great company and it sure beats staying at the house when the inlaws make a last minute plan to come up and see us. Thanks for everthing there Kenny...will hit my little lake for some monster flats soon.:big_smile:

[catfishcentral]

The boy and I hit the Caney above Hulah for a few hours on Saturday. We went to put in at Rocky Ford to find a huge tree and tons of other debris blocking the ramp. Since the lake was up enough we went to the main lake at put in there and headed upstream. Shad were tough to find we finally caught about 15 and few spiny shad also.:wink: We fished in a few spots marked a ton of fish on the graph but fishing was slow. We caught four channels from a 1/2 pound to 2 pounds. The weather was pretty darn nice a heck of a lot better than today. We also tried for some sand bass didn't catch a single one today...water was muddy but not too muddy should have a least caught a few.

[Mr. Foster]

I live in SE Kansas i fished the Caney as a teen in Cedar Vale Kansas caught alot of channels and flats. I put my little crawdad boat in once there and if i knew what i know now about catfishing i probably would of got some nice ones. so this year one of my plans is to get back down there and launch my crawdad and fish some log jams.:wink: