Verdigris / Navigation Channel

[TDawgNOk]

Do you fish on the Verdigris River or the Navigation Channel? Post information about your expeditions here.

[tkishkape]

I confess... I got some lines wet last weekend. I managed to drown several shad in the process of boating (and releasing) over 100 male channelcat. The females had not yet moved up to the nesting areas, and the males were aggressively protecting their individual nest sites from all comers.

Not one blue showed up in my boat while fishing in the shallows of Dirty Creek on Kerr Lake. Out of frustration, I moved below L&D 16 for some ballooning. While letting my first balloon out, my clicker began screaming as a solid strike began peeling line from my 70-year old Ocean City reel. I already had let out over 200 yards of line, and this fish took all of the rest, clear down to the bare spool.

I'm glad I had that old reel mounted to a good rod. They really built those old reels with a lot of guts. With arthritic shoulders and elbow throbbing from the give and take, the fish suddenly blasted to the surface in a rolling leap. To my eternal dismay and disappointment, it was a gar. All of my hopes and expectations of fame, pictures in the paper and my name in the record book evaporated.

I resisted the temptation to cut the line and continued to drag the belligerent beast to the boat. I didn't risk ruining my landing net on such a toothy critter, so I led his head with the rod and grabbed the fish by the tail with one hand, dropped the rod into the bottom of the boat and wrestled him aboard. Big mistake... he wasn't tired out yet!

He managed to slam himself toward my open tacklebox and turn it over, scattering hooks, sinkers and swivels in all directions underfoot. After that, he flipped my cooler of iced sodas into the river and proceeded to inflict bruises on my shinbones. Enough was enough!

I started looking around for something to use as a club... There was nothing that would work except the aluminum handle of the landing net, and it was too long. All I could do was get rid of the problem before he completely wrecked my boat and broke my legs. I cut the line with my bait knife and grabbed the prehistoric throwback by the tail and unceremoniously wrestled him back over the side into the river with a resounding splash.

That gar had to be over eight feet long and weigh nearly 500 pounds. Well, maybe in reality it was closer to six feet and 100 pounds… who’s to argue the point? It’s my story and I’ll tell it like I want to! The only eyewitnesses were over a quarter mile away.

Since then I’ve made a gar tranquilizer from a short, lead-filled copper pipe for future encounters of the third kind since it’s against the law to carry a loaded gun in the boat.

That brings to mind another story from my youth…

Some few years ago… longer than I care to remember or admit to, my Boy Scout buddies and I decided to drive to Fort Cobb Lake for a week of summer fishing and camping. We had a trio of aluminum canoes and enough enthusiasm to serve twice our number. We had set a trotline and several limb lines up a creek that was decorated with lots of overhanging trees. We were running the lines, removing fish and dropping them in the bottom of the canoe.

I was in the front seat, and my best friend Ricky was in the back seat. Suddenly, a very large water snake dropped from an overhanging limb and landed in the boat between Ricky and me. Being the levelheaded and brave fellow that I was, I gave the boat to the snake, bailing out into the waist deep water.

Ricky, being the fast thinker and fearless fellow he was, picked up his stainless steel .410 Snake Charmer and dispatched the snake… and the canoe sank due to the rather large window opened in it’s bottom. That was a long walk back to camp, dragging that damaged canoe full of live fish through the mud and weeds. Maybe that’s why there’s a law against carrying a gun on a boat.

[TDawgNOk]

Chris,
I was wondering if you have tried the Navigation Channel with Jugs lately. If so, how did you do?

My brother in law and I are thinking about hitting it this weekend. What would you suggest in the way of bait? Shad, bluegill, live, cut, frozen? I think we are going to put in off of ol 66 between catoosa and claremore.

Any help would be appreciated.

[catfishcentral]

Tony,

I haven't been out on the channel in a while. A quick look at inflows report a very nice 8000 cfs coming from Oolagah. I don't know how long that flow has been going but should be very condusive to good fishing. Don't waste your time with frozen shad. Go to the back of the oxbows and you should find shad towards the back flippin at the surface. Some of the oxbows farther up towards Roger's Point are silted in at the oxbow opening. Just trim your motor up while getting in at take it slow till the water gets deeper. The longer you leave the jugs out the better you should do. You should do well with the current flow on the channel. The fishing though will be better with cooling water in the next month. Good Luck and give us a report.

[catfishcentral]

Well I did fish the navagtion channel a little this weekend. It was opening day for bow but I can't resist throwing some jugs out so I don't come home without anything. We threw out 60 jugs Friday evening. We didn't check on them until about 2:00 on Saturday between hunts. We took our limit on blues nothing big eight pounds was the biggest but those three pounders always taste great. The fall bite is starting to pick up some but should only get better as winter approaches.

[okie_kat]

How far down did you fish Chris ?

[catfishcentral]

Rick,

We put in at the usual spot, 33 landing on Lock and Dam 18. Went upstream to dog creek and dropped jugs and chased them all down exept one down to rocky point the next day.

[TDawgNOk]

Unfortunately my boat is out of commision right now. I don't know when we will get the chance to get out on the Navigation channel right now.

[catfishcentral]

I was out on the Navagation Channel this past weekend. I was bowhunting not fishing but still caught a fish. I needed a break from sitting in the treestand and ate some lunch on the boat and drove upstream a little ways. I saw a jug of mine but it's been well over a month since I was on the river. I went to pick it up and it had a 6 pound blue cat on it!!! He looked like he had just been caught and showed no signs of wear from being on a jug for that long. I think he just bit a bare hook on a lost jug. We try to find all of our jugs but sometimes they do get lost. Most of these lost jugs are picked up by other fisherman but sometimes we will find a old one of ours. This is just the first time finding one with a fish on after that long.

[TDawgNOk]

Chris, let me know when the Blues start hittin good. May just have to swipe my brother in laws boat since he can't use it right now, and go get me some blues.
Gotta at least be able to say I caught 1 cat this year.

[okie_kat]

Tony what is wrong with your boat?

[TDawgNOk]

I need to do a good tune up, and take it out on the lake and test it out.

Since my Brother-in-law got hurt, haven't really had anyone to guide me and go with me to test it

Also need to get the trolling motor installed, and a depth finder. I'd like to know what depth the water is before I throw out my jugs. LOL

[Gentleben]

Tdawg,if ya use some drifting jugs you won't need to know how deep it is plus you'll probably catch more fish ;) i only use about 3-4 ft of line on my drifters!!They are easy to put out and easy to pick up, plus you fish a greater area and catch more catfish. :cool:

[bigbenok]

The navigation channel sucks You can't fish it unless you have a boat and on top of all that the fish there aren't all that big go below Keystone Dam and thats where the big ones are Look at my profile and You'll see a couple of small ones that came from below the dam...

[capt theory]

man theres world record class cats all over the navigation channel. the further down you go the bigger they get. ive gotten as big as 50 pounds out of there. and theres been as big as 90 pound class fish off of jugs there to. try using a slip bobber to fish the top of the water column because they follow the schools of shad that are suspended. also you might hop over to a shallower river such as the arkansas and the neosho. the fish are easier to locate. on the arkansas ive pulled as big as 55 pounds from 8 foot of water and ive been straight wooped at least 3 times on that river. way to big for my gear to handle. anyways keep trying different things and something will work out.

[capt theory]

i just realized what i wrote. obviously you have something working because of the proof in the photo. but what are the bigger fish youve seen from there? any bigger than the 30 pound to 40 pound class? i personally havent had much luck below that dam except for stripers. the low water dam in tulsa blocks a majority of the big fish from getting to keystone dam except for the resident fish that stay in that stretch of river, and most of those have been overfished. anyways post your success stories.

[catfishcentral]

I wouldn't waste my time with the navagtion channel. I've never caught anything worth while out of there. :rolleyes:

[bigbenok]

yes ive caught way bigger ones then whats in my pics my biggest in fact is a 72lb flathead on a 12ft rod and 17lb test in december so yeah i guess that their is really big fish below keystone and yes if their wasent a dam at 31st and riverside their may be a increase in fish but that is mainly striper not so much cats the trick is knowing where to find them their there just getting to them is a pain in the a#* but i would be more than happy to fish with any peson that is interested in catching a trophy fish ive cought dozens 50+lb u just gotta know how they bite and they mostly bite in the winter between oct1-to the end of feb gotta go now tired of typin not the computer type


your friend

big ben

[capt theory]

man you shoulda had that certified. you just miss the state record by 8 ounces. actually with the line you used you had the state record. how bout some pics of that beast? cause i know if i came within ounces of the state record id have more photos than i could count. and when did you catch that cat. if it was over a year ago you broke it. did tiny get any photos of it? :D

[Cutshad]

I have quite a story about fishing at Keystone Dam. First, I don't want anybody reading this to be offended, unless you do the same thing, then I probably don't care what you think. Second, this site has some of the greatest bunch of men and women who share the same passions for fishing and getting together with like minded folks that I do. Now, here's the story:

About three months ago, I took my oldest daughter to Keystone Dam to catch some of the Blues. I have been there a few other times and enjoyed the trips. I have been lucky enough to meet some great folks and even meet a few of the people on this site and others. I was fishing with my daughter. It started to get dark and I lit a lantern. There was a group of people between myself and the dam. I noticed they started looking around when it got dark.(my law enforcement side) They were casting toward the dam and against the side wall. Then one of the guys would pull like he had a strike. They repeated this several times. One of the gentlemen came to me and asked if I could turn my lantern down or place it so there wasn't a lot of light on them. I asked why he would want that (knowing he was snagging at this point and I was armed) and acted dumb abou the entire situation. He said he was catching flatheads on perch and the light cast on the water by the lantern was disturbing them. I told him OK and did what he asked. I then told my daughter to go to the truck and get my cell phone. I contcated the authorities and asked if they had a unit available. They did not have anyone close and asked if I could get information on what they are driving and such. My little poachers/snaggers were busy. They cast for about thirty more minutes until one of them snagged a nice flathead. They pulled it in and were looking at when I approached. I asked them what they caught it on. There was three males and two females. They said it was caught on a perch. I asked to see their bait. They said they catch it as they go. They had huge treble hooks on the lines and there was no bait to be seen. I told them I was a police officer in Oklahoma City. They stopped being friendly and started packing their belongings. I asked them if they were going to take the fish. The older guy said they were and became a little more unfriendly. I followed them to their car and got the tag # to give to Fish and Game. I received the parting "flip offs" and the usual beer bottle thrown from the car as they left.

When I returned to my daughter and fishing spot, I passed a young man who was fishing against the rail about thirty feet from us. He said he saw what they were doing and has seen them do it before. He said he wouldn't say anything because he was concerned about being below the dam with nobody else around. I agreed with his concern. I asked him why he hasn't reported them to the authorities anonymously. Same concern. I hope all of us will enjoy our many areas we have to fish. But, with some folks they are trying to do things that effect all of us in some way. I have caught several nice catfish over thirty pounds below Keystone dam. I am sure there are bigger cats there, but with ignorant morons like these running decent fisherman off because they are scary or cause concern, we have problems.

I apologize for getting off the subject and "letting it all out" in this particular forum, but it made me angry. Because there are people out there trying to do good things and follow the rules, take kids fishing, families, or just shoot the "sh#t" with the fisherman. I hope to meet all you guys (and gals) on the lake or river someday and thank you for who you are. Just remember I am armed !!! God Bless all of you.

[Cutshad]

If the navigation channel sucks why are there so many big cats taken from the Nav Channel. I look forward to fishing the channel and every river up there, and lakes, and any other hole I find!

[capt theory]

true that man.. ive run into shady folk doing stupid stuff below every dam ive fished. ive seen groups of people snagging for spoons at keystone and they were doing nothing but ticking me off and making noise. if i had a cell at the time i woulda been on the phone to the warden. alot of the poorer rougher folk fish below the dams down south and get hammered drunk on hard liquor and start doing moron stuff. if they dont care about anything then what do they have to lose if their drunk? almost got the four wheeler stolen out of my truck at kerr by some drunks that were just hanging out there. a concerned citizen came down to where i was netting shad and gave me a heads up. theres some great holes in muskogee but i wont fish them because theres always different crazy locals who come down there to mess with fishermen and their cars. hell theres been at least 3 bodies dumped there since i found the holes, can you imagine fishing in the dark down a trail and here comes someone dragging a body. i dont think your wellfare is their top priority. the moral of the story is do your part by assisting the law when possible and use common sense when you know the area is a rough area.

[Cutshad]

I totally agree with you. Where's the holes at Muskogee? :rolleyes: We are gonna have to get together and do some fishin. I just made up twenty five jugs and a trotline for the winter months. I ahven't figured out the non-weighted jugs yet. I think they are too simple and I don't think I would find them. :confused:

[capt theory]

right where highway 16 goes across the arkansas is a nice hole just west of the railroad bridges. also where 69 crosses is a sandplant that has great holes too. keep in mind the holes change constantly because of river silt and where the sand dredgers have been working. my best luck has come when the rivers down and the holes become very pronounced. but like i said be protected cause theres some crazy folk running around there. all this talk about winter cattin is hurting me cause im in the middle of several big projects with moving being one of them. moving sucks. moving in the cold sucks more. but look for an afternoon that at least breaks 45 degrees and then its on... you can catch cats when its freezing but below freezing is to much for me. i spend those days collecting winterkill shad for when it warms up a notch.

[bigbenok]

but only if u have a boat is it good fishing cutshad dont go getting upset any way i know u like the dam becous ive cought fish right along side ya remember the big a#$ centapeeds that tryed to eat us lol but any way the big blues are bitting good look at my profile these fish are less than two weeks old their given it hell right now so get down here im living here now with my g pa so email me and ill give u my number ive lost urs




your friend

ben clark


p.s. ive still got ur wife's coffee cup lol.

[bigbenok]

this is my pic of a couple of small ones

[okie_kat]

Ben you didn't keep those little ones did you? :) That is bait here on Eufaula. ;)

[jholl949]

When Eufala has water, that is. Heard it was about 8' down. Is that true, Rick?

[okie_kat]

Mike it is almost 7 feet low but there is sooo much bank showing that it looks lower

[capt theory]

fished christmas eve morning and christmas morning and did all right. biggest was only 18 pounds but im not complaining. all on surf rods from the bank a couple miles south of 33 landing. hope you all are catching to. i tell you it was nice christmas morning. noone in sight, the whole river was mine and then bam surf rod over. :D

[TDawgNOk]

Great news!!!!

Glad you had a good Christmas, fishin!!!

[catfishcentral]

Hey a 18 pounder is a good present!!! Next year ask for a bigger one. :p I been wanting to hit the channel but all this lack of water on the river doesn't help the fishing. We need rain and need current flowing on the channel to really get the bite going. I read this has been the driest six months since 1921 I believe. We are over 12 inches of rain short for the year.

[okiecop]

every time i drive over the channel i can't help but look at it. I am just wondering if there are anyplace a guy can fish it from the bank down towards tulsa or muskogee? I don't have a boat or know anyone from the areas. I just want to know.

[capt theory]

one spot that comes to mind is the boat ramp at 33 landing. from the ramp cast downstream towards the middle of the channel as far as you can. theres a nice hole there. get a good map and look for any roads that go close to the river and go investigate those areas. also get on the corp of engineers website and find the maps that show corp land or wildlife management areas and you can generally get to the river on their land. they also have a killer topo map that they did for studies of widening the channel. thatll tell you where every little hole nook and cranny is. it took a lot of investigation to find spots that i could get to the river and be in front of a hole.

[catfishcentral]

I wish the Corps still had the funds that they use to have. Did you know there was a walking trail from the Port of Catossa to the Mississippi River? The Jean Pierre National Walking Trail winded it's way along the channel all 440 miles. They had small steel bridges that crossed the oxbows and creeks and they would hog brush the whole trail every year. Most of the bridges have been torn or fallen down over the years but there a few that are still up and you still can see the trail as it travels it way downstream. There also several good places just on L @ D 18 that have been closed down. Rocky Point about four miles downstream of 33 landing is a very pretty area. There's is a big campground, two ramps and docks. The park is surrounded by tall cliffs and a protected cove. The only way to access these days is by boat and I've camped there a few times....nothing like having a place all to yourself. There was too much crime going on down there and they didn't have the funds to manage it. :sad: They ripped out a boat ramp that was just below lock and dam 18 also because of the same reasons. I would love to have the ease of just putting in just below the dam instead of locking through or coming up from Afton Landing on highway 51 on L @ D 17. There's lots of history down there on the channel and have several stories from some old timers on how they would fish the Verdigris back in the thirty's.

[capt theory]

yeah actually one of those bridges crosses the creek at 33 landing about 75 yards up the creek. i didnt know it went all the way to the mississippi though. i know it goes through okay oklahoma as well but i didnt see any good holes there. man to drift some jugs or just drift fish the area below newt graham would be sweet. untouched territory basically. i know they closed the ramp below newt because of silt though. same thing at cheoutoue lock and dam. theres some real nice campgrounds and ramp but all closed now. makes sense on rogers point though. since its on the otherside of the county line it takes a long time for the sheriff to get out there. by the way when i was fishing this weekend i was using real large baits and got a couple of runs that looked impressive, but man it was hard to get them to take the whole thing. the pole that was about 20 feet deep would get nailed and the one on bottom would get dragged around. when i picked it up to set i could feel good weight but it would pull right out of its mouth. the point? using smaller baits allows for an easier hookset. i got a 48 pounder from the same hole with a ridiculous small bait. but i just cant help to think that theres a fish there that makes a huge shad head look like small bait. we'll see..

[catfishcentral]

I've never spent a whole lot of time right below L @ D 18 fishing but plan on changing that this year. I've locked my boat through quite a few times but usually I'm looking for lost jugs that have made it through the lock. I plan on camping this spring at either Bluff Landing and just locking through each day or camping at Afton Landing there off highway 51 and running up to dam. All of the times I've gone through the lock I've never seen anyone by boat fishing below there. I guess it's too much of a hassle for most to lock their boat through or drive upstream from Afton Landing. I'm sure the fishing could be great during the spring prespawn.

[TDawgNOk]

how far is it from the Afton Landing up to the dam?

[catfishcentral]

Tony,

I believe it's around ten miles by boat from Afton Landing to L @ D 18.

[TDawgNOk]

Let's see, since my brother in law has now been released by the doc for his foot to go back to work, that means if we went and took his boat.

Lets see here, 10 miles X extremely slow boat + gas = Would never happen

LOL

guess I'll have to wait till I've gotten mine in the water and see how well she runs.

[catfishcentral]

Put in a Bluff Landing right at the lock and take your boat through. I always like taking by boat through the lock it just takes a little time,

[TDawgNOk]

Hey Chris, do you know if skipjacks can be caught anywhere in OK?

[catfishcentral]

There's some around here but not a lot. I've never heard of any in any Oklahoma Lakes but there in the Navagtion Channel in some places. Webbers Falls and on down the channel into Arkansas you can find them. There's also some I'm sure going up the Arkansas River at the three rivers area up toward Tulsa but most of the access to this part of the river is hard. I've never seen or caught a SkipJack out of L @ D 17 or 18 but that doesn't mean there not there.

[TDawgNOk]

I guess I'll have to take a trip to Arkansas and try and get some.

[capt theory]

theres times in the spring when i go to zinc dam in tulsa to specifically catch skips. they get real thick there. thats only during their migratory runs up whatever rivers running water though. ive also had times were i could catch them at lock and dam 18 but thats not very often. like i said they go where the waters running. on a regular basis though you can catch them at webbers falls and downstream of there all the time. especially at the mouth of the illinois river. they love that area when the weathers extreme. they keep the temp below tenkiller just right for the trout and that in turn pulls other fish to it as well. also ive caught them plenty of times below fort gibson dam. they are a great bait on the arkansas. ive had times where i got one skip in the net with a bunch of gizzards and that skip got nailed right off when i couldnt get even a bite off the gizzards. thats happened more than once.

[TDawgNOk]

Josh,

If you are able to "get into" any skips at Zink this year, would you mind PM'ing me? I would love to head over there and try and get a few.


My brother in law recently said that I wouldn't know what to do if I caught a 15+ lb cat. I want to make him eat those words. :cool:

[capt theory]

no problem man.. itll be about april or so before it happens. when that time comes just spend time on the water there at zinc and i guarantee youll run into a 15 pound plus blue before its all over. just dont eat it coming from that pollution hole. i cant stress enough that time spent on the water will put blues on the stringer, there is no substitute...

[catfishcentral]

I was out on the Navagtion Channel this past weekend mainly to hunt but did a little fishing. This was closing weekend for deer bow season and we didn't see a single deer.:sad: I've always gone out for opening day for bow so we tried closing weekend for a change but I don't think it will become a tradition. Anyway I tried and tried to catch some shad but the schools were very tough to find this time. I threw for a couple hours during the midday and all I caught was two shad, one bluegill, one crappie and a 1 1/2 pound buffalo. I cut up that buffalo into about 50 small pieces and my two shad and that was enough to bait up 28 jugs and 56 hooks. There is of course no current on the river and the fish were not in too much of a biting mood. We took the grand total of six blues off the next day. The biggest went eight pounds and the rest were in the two to three pound range. I never had this hard of a problem catching shad in the winter before but they sure were hard to find this weekend. As soon as we get some dang rain and some current going the fishing should be super.

[capt theory]

man thats rough on the shad. where did you put in? it seems like if it was your usual areas that the shad would have been a little thicker. maybe this crazy warm weather weve been having? well if you can find those shad you will most likely find the bluecats.. at least you saw some fish though man..

[TDawgNOk]

We took the grand total of six blues off the next day. The biggest went eight pounds and the rest were in the two to three pound range.


Man, at this point that sounds GREAT to me!!!

I'm ready to catch some!

[catfishcentral]

Oh, I was out at the usual location about 4 miles upstream of 33 landing. We catch our shad in the same oxbows all year long. We had to break ice before to get into our oxbows sometimes in the winter but we always seem to catch enough. They were just a little too hard to find this time. Since there not flipping at the surface at all in the winter it can really be hit or miss in finding them. A better sonar with more pixels is needed in our boat to really target them when we have days like Friday.

I wasn't going to post this but it really was kind of funny. My buddy dropped me off at my treestand on Friday morning and then he went about a 1/2 mile upstream to his stand. I called him about 12:00 to tell him I was ready to get out of my stand and catch some shad for the jugs. Well about 20 minutes later he calls me back to ask if I had the boat. I replied "No remember you dropped me off". :confused: My Buddy says "Well the boat isn't here now!!" A couple hours earlier a tow boat pushing 9 barges came by and we suspected that the waves and rise in water when the barge came by pulled the boat from shore. Anyway all I could say to him was " I sure glad it was you and not me who didn't secure the boat, because I would never hear the end of it" We were not quite sure with all the wind what side of the river the boat was going to be on and there was no way I was going to swim in 40 degree water to get to the boat. We ended up walking about a 1/2 mile downstream from my treestand and found it about 40 feet from shore on our side. The anchor was out but it sure did drift quite a ways before snagging onto something. "Now how in the heck to we get the boat?" The wind was still blowing pretty hard and sometimes the wind would blow the boat farther out and other times within 20 feet or so. The anchor stayed in the same position but the wind would bring it in pretty close at times. I cut down a skinny but tall tree about twenty feet long. We trimmed off all the branches and put a strap on the end of the tree. There was a mud shelf that you could walk out about five feet before the water dropped off. The next twenty minutes we tried and tried to "fish" our boat to shore. The back end of the boat came pretty close to shore and we snagged some of the cables on the back of the motor. We slowly pulled the boat close enough to shore for my buddy to get on. :) Those barges displace a LOT a water and you can actually watch the water level rise when the go by. When you combine this with a anchor not secured into the soil or wrapped around a tree, well you can see what can happen. The morale of the story, make sure your dang anchor is secure when barges go by because you may be walking.:o

[capt theory]

man thats insane. i know the feeling though. its in the middle of winter, theres noone around and you just had the thought "is this getting out of control?" that river provides a certain nostalgic feel in those moments. your not kidding about those barges though. ive had bait buckets float off because of the barges wake. also one time a big one was coming upstream back when we had alot of current coming down the river and my buddies engine cut out and he couldnt get the thing started. i couldnt believe how fast we were heading for that barge and his anchor was useless at that point. luckily after a rise in my blood pressure he got that thing started. but man when that crap happens in the winter its nothing short of dangerous. id hate for one of us to find the other in a bad way.. be safe out there chris.

[capt theory]

does anyone fish below newt graham lock and dam? (lock 18) i havent been out that way in a couple of years but i just moved back over there. i was real dissappointed with the way the locals have been taking care of that area. theres trash everywhere and the parking lots are in horrible condition. i do remember not catching very much out there when i lived there but i may chalk that up to poor fishing skills at the time. i do however recall losing some pretty good fights out there but that was because i didnt understand the concept of setting the drag correctly. im gonna give it some tries but i was wondering if any ones had luck out there? id love to get on the lock side a little downstream but im not sure if they have that opened up yet..

[jholl949]

Josh,
The Corps of Engineers has stopped maintaining the ramp, etc. on the east side of the Nav. Channel. On the west side where 71st St. ends, The locals haven't taken care of the area very well. Last time I was out there, A guy and his son were sighting in a rifle in the parking lot.
I've heard of some big cats by the lock but Chris Glass (catfishcentral) could probably tell you more about it.
Are you coming to the Keystone gathering?

[catfishcentral]

I really haven't spent much time below L @ D 18, but I really think there's not too much pressure below newt. The only way to fish below by boat is to take your boat through the lock, which many people don't know how or are afraid to. The only other place downstream of Newt to put a boat in and travel upstream is at Afton landing. I believe it's about 10 miles upstream and most people don't bother. Usually when I lock my boat though I'm looking for lost jugs that have made it though the lock, but every time I do that I think that I need to spend some time below the dam. There's some decent fishing right above the dam. On the east side of the lock you are allowed to take your boat there and fish. There's all kinds of logs and crap just prefect for flatheading. I've caught a couple nice fish 20+ pounders there a few years ago. The other side of the lock I know has tons of logs and structure for fish but it's clearly marked no boats allowed. I've thought about drifting a couple of ballon rigs into that area and see how I do but I haven't as of yet. This spring I definatley plan on hitting below the dam when the current is right. I believe just like any other dam in the spring how far up the catfish come will depend on how much current is coming out of the dam. If they are letting out a lot of water for a continued amount of time they will be stacked up there big time. If not there the cats will fall farther back downstream. Oolagah hasn't been know to let out much water over the years but there are several big creeks and small rivers that dump into the Verdigris below Oolagah. The caney river, bird creek, dog creek and several other small creeks can get the channel moving real good. If the timing is right with the spawn I plan on spending several days camping at bluff landing. The campsites there are kept up nice and are right above the dam. I've got a 2 1/2 pound mold that I'm getting ready to use to make some anchored jugs to use below Newt this year. Combine that with seven rods in the boat I know that the there will be some big boys there. Here's a pic of the area. The red line is off limits and green area you can fish.

[TDawgNOk]

The only way to fish below by boat is to take your boat through the lock, which many people don't know how or are afraid to.


Ok, I admit, I don't know how to lock through. How do ya go about it?

[catfishcentral]

The next time I'm out on the channel I'll take some pics and do a step by step instructions on proper navagation of the locks.;)

[TDawgNOk]

that would be awesome Chris.

Maybe sometime we could get together on the channel.

[capt theory]

yeah mike i plan on being there. it should be a good one. the area above newt and the bluff landing area is where i would spend most of my time if i had a boat. the whole area above the dam is very deep and has a large flat just littered with timber and stuff. the wall where the hole and flat meet has to harbor some huge blues and ive heard of people standing at the top of the dam drifting balloons in a strong south wind along the wall above the dam. one guy pulled a couple of 60 pound class blues in one sitting doing that. im gonna try to get a john boat or something and work on that area. does anyone remember years ago the bait shop right in front of bluff landing? they used to take the heads of their big cats and string them up on the outside wall of the shop. there were 3 or 4 rows of huge heads. just shows what can happen if you put your time in there.

[capt theory]

hey chris how much does it cost to get access to google earth? i keep seeing those shots you post and the photos look great. does it compare or beat out the wildlife departments satellite viewer? i know they were talking about upgrading their system to show river and lake depths as well. now that would just be the ultimate scouting tool..

[catfishcentral]

Josh,

Google earth is totally free but the resolution is better in some places than others. Some overhead pics were done I believe by airplane while others are super sharp. The ODWC pictures are nice but take a while each time you want to move or zoom in. Google earth is quick and seemless the only catch is you need a decent computer to run the software. Another really cool thing is you can rotate and tilt the earth and get really cool views other than overhead views. Here's a pic of newt tilted and rotated.

[TDawgNOk]

How would one get to lock and Dam 18, or the bluff landing area?

[capt theory]

hey chris, how do you get the program started? i downloaded it but cant get it going.
tdawgnok just go east on 71st until it deadends. there is no missing it cause it deadends at it..

[TDawgNOk]

Josh, you should simply download google earth from http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html

The system requirements are:
Operating system: Windows 2000, Windows XP
CPU speed: Intel® Pentium® PIII 500 MHz
System memory (RAM): 128MB
200MB hard-disk space
3D graphics card: 3D-capable video card with 16MB VRAM
1024x768, 32-bit true color screen
Network speed: 128 kbps ("Broadband/Cable Internet")

When you download it, save it to your desktop.

After it is downloaded, double click on it, and install it.

After it is install, just double click the new Google Earth Icon

[catfishcentral]

Tony,

Take the B A expressway and get off on Kenosha/71st. Go east for about 13 miles. The road just keeps going and going but you will see a left turn to bluff landing. They really have some nice campgrounds there IMO with showers and campsites right on the oxbow. Bluegill point is just a little farther east of bluff landing and you can walk out onto it and fish above or below the lock. If you wanted to actually visit the lock it's on the other side of the river and there's a road you can take on the east side of the verdigris off highway 412.

Josh, I don't really know how to tell you how to run the program if you have it already loaded. I just have a icon shortcut on my computer and it loads up and runs the program.

[catfishcentral]

Well,

Next time I go to the locks I'll post some pictures but this will give you a pretty good understanding on how to lock through. Take a look at this picture and it will show some basic things to look for.

First. Small boats(non commerical) are to use the pull chain that's on the lock wall to notify personal that you want to lock through.


Second. After signaling for lockage wait for the lockman to signal that you may enter. There is a traffic light just like any other traffic light to signal when you may enter the lock. The gates to the lock may be closed and they might have to fill the lock up before you may enter. This may take up to 30 minutes before you can enter. The locks doors may also be open when approaching but do not enter until the light has turned green, letting you know it's safe to enter. Also there are also horns that will signal when it's safe to enter. One long blast 4 to 6 seconds, means enter the lock. One short blast for one second is to leave the lock. Four or more short blasts is a danger signal.

Third. After the green light has been lit and a long blast to signal it's OK to enter go into the lock. Along the wall you will see ladders built into the wall along with "floating mooring bitts". This is what you want to tie off to while they are either raising or lowering the water in the lock. When you enter the lock tie off to the mooring bitts and they raise and lower according to the depth of the water in the lock. It is also wise to have some sort of fender on your boat as not to damage it or the lock wall while in the lock.

Fourth.

Don't worry if you are unsure if you are doing this right or tied up to the wrong mooring bit. There will be a lock personal that will come over and ask you any questions that you have before they start the lock procedure. Sometimes they will ask how long you will be down below the lock and will leave the lock open on your end if it's only going to be a short while or until another barge comes through needing to be locked.

Fifth.

Don't be in any hurry to get through. Sometimes you have to wait a good half hour before they open the lock doors to let you in. Other times the doors are open and takes only a few minutes before they sound the go ahead to enter the lock. It's pretty darn cool to watch all that water be displaced in a short amount of time. I think it's about 10 mintues to raise or lower all the water in the lock. On average plan on a half hour to 45 mintues to get from one side to the other side of the dam. Make sure to wear your life jacket, listen and watch for the horns and signals, and you will have a great time locking through.

[bj78]

I am going to do some jugfishing in Webbers Falls and was curious how much weight I needed to anchor my jugs.

[Tulcat]

I am going to do some jugfishing in Webbers Falls and was curious how much weight I needed to anchor my jugs.

While I'm no Catfishcentral, (He's my OK advice Hero), some helpful details to your question would be what type of jugs are you using (include materail type and size [necessary criteria to determine flotation abilities]), depths set at, free floating or anchored jugs, and as to whether they are in the main channel or the side waters.

[catfishcentral]

I don't jug fish below Webbers Falls but I can tell you most times of the year you would need more weight than if you were fishing L @ D 17 or 18. When you get to Webbers falls you have all three rivers converging the Arkansas, Neosho(grand) and the Verdigris. The river is a heck of a lot wider and has a lot more current down South. Now that being said you need to look at the release flows to see if it's even worthwhile to use anchored jugs below Webbers Fallls. In the spring times if there's 100,000 cfs flowing out of L@ D 16 you would need a lot bigger jug to keep the jug just not in place but from being pull under by the current. I've made some longer line noodle jugs one year and they didn't have the boucany of a two liter. I only had a 8 ounce weight and the current was flowing very strong on the Verdigris. Basically what happed was that 8 ounce weight was dragging the bottom then it got snagged on a rock or log under water. The current was so strong that it pulled the jugs under water never to return. I found a few a couple weeks later but basically those noodle jugs didn't have enough weight to hold them in place and the current actually pulled them under. We were also using two liters that weekend and we hardly lost any two liter jugs since they were more bouyant. If you were trying to set jugs below Webbers Falls first I believe it's nothing but rod and reel the first 1 /4 or so below the dam. Right now if you were to put anchored jugs off to the sides of the main channel they would probably stay in place with eight ounces. Now come spring and we finally get some rain you would probably need at least one gallon juice jugs and two to four pounds weight to keep it in place. If your looking at catching a lot of fish I really would just suggest free floating jugs. They can cover a ton of ground and present that bait to a lot of catfish along the way. I personally will just use anchored jugs to place in specific structure and that's not very often. I personally like using 8 ouncers on my freefloating jugs for a number of reasons but one being is they won't drift all the way onto the shore. This makes them, first easier to run and also will stop on edge/dropoff of the river channel( a great place for a jug to be sitting). This is most of the time, when the current is strong we chase them all the way to the lock and sometimes through the lock also. Wings dams are a different story there's none on the upper sections on the channel but below Webbers Falls there's lots of Wing Dams. Placing jugs behind these current breaks would require less weight and are prime catfish locations. Also old oxbows, creeks and other slack water would of course require less weight. Me personally if I was going to fish webbers falls I would place jugs behind wing dams and then go up as far as you can set anchor toss some rods outs and then while waiting for your fish to bite toss a freefloating jug out of your boat every few minutes depending on the amount of current. Do that for a couple of hours and catch a few fish off the rods. Then motor downstream at pick up your freefloating jugs and the one's you placed behind the wing dams. If you want to leave them out overnight I would suggest in oxbows or very slack water areas so they are not a big a pain to find in the morning. Webbers falls in a ton bigger than 17 or 18 and you might burn a ton more gas or lose a lot of jugs leaving them unattended for too long. A muffin tin makes a nice 2 1/2 pound mold that would keep a jug secure in many situations. Good Luck and post your results.

http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/ReservoirDailyReport/


Watch your current releases

[catfishcentral]

Oh, I was out on the Navagation Channel is weekend L @ D 18. I did some jug fishing but was mainly there to clear shooting lanes for next bow season. This seems like a odd time of year to prep for bow season but there's no bugs, no hot weather, and just makes it nice to trim trees and make longer or more shooting lanes. Anyway the fishing was poor but we didn't try that hard either. We through out 32 jugs with frozen shad and caught three nice size blues 4 to 8 pounds over a five hour period or so. We rebaited the jugs before nightfall and only caught six fish the next morning. This no current stuff is getting old and we need some rain to turn the fish back on in the river. Anyway I didn't try netting any fresh live shad this time because we wanted to spend more time in the woods. We may have done better with some live or fresh cut.

[bj78]

Thanks for the advice. I usually jug fish at Grand Lake and never really have to worry about my jugs drifting off. I've never tried free floating my jugs before. How much line do you let out when you do that? Do you try to put the weight a couple feet from the bottom of the river or do you just put out a couple feet of line? By the way, You must live quite a life every post of yours I read your either fishing on the river, bowhunting on the river or fishing and bowhunting on the river!!! I'm jealous!!

[catfishcentral]

My typical jug line on the Navagtion channel has two hooks at three and six foot drops. My weight is about two feet below the last drop. The Channel does have some deep holes up to 40+ feet in some places but the typical average depth is around 12 feet in a lot of places. The corps is getting ready to start dreging the channel to make it a couple of feet deeper so they can run bigger(deeper) barges and get more traffic on the channel. Most blues especially during the day are suspended in the water and fishing at the bottom is not necessary. Freefloating river jugs can be a heck of a lot more productive when there's good current in the river. A anchor jugs just waits for a fish to come and take it where a freefloating jugs traveling downstream many miles will present that bait to a heck of a lot more fish. I jug lakes also but rivers are more fun for me.

[bj78]

I'll give that a try. Thanks for the info.

[bj78]

Do you know if the corp of engineers campgrounds are open along the river? Or are they just seasonal?

[catfishcentral]

Most Corps parks have some opened year round.

Click here and pick your area.

http://www.swt.usace.army.mil/recreat/recreat.htm

[bj78]

Thanks, you are a wealth of information. I appreciate it!

[capt theory]

well checkin in here. been catching a couple of them blues on the verdigris just not that big. 20 pounds was the biggest and i should have had that thing banked in 45 seconds but i drug it out for all i could just to keep things exciting. so when do they plan on dredging the river? i thought they decided not to. do you think theyll more or less level all the holes so the whole bottom will be smoothed out for a while?

[catfishcentral]

Josh,

I honestly don't know when there are suppose to start? The last thing I heard is that there were some people in Arkansas that were opposed to the dredging and were taking the corps to court about it. They were afraid it would take out any remaining structure in the river that was necessary for some species of fish. Who knows when they will start if ever but the channel sure is seeing a lot more barge traffic right now. Johnston's port right there on 412 is busier than I've ever seen it. They had been making more area's for barges to be loaded and there's a lot more traffic at the port in recent years. I've seen some billboards and other advertisments talking up the port and trying to get new business on the channel. I figure this is in conjunction with the plans on deeping the river.

[caatstalker]

anyone fished. brewers bend above gore, lately. fished it last week of jan. 2006 cought nice blues, 12-25# on shad off of bank . in a hole we call the blue hole. it always seems to yeald a nice stringer of blues. keep the fathe. anyday is a good day to sneek up on a fish& it takes a big fish to weigh 100 lbs.:) :) :)

[TDawgNOk]

Ray,

Welcome to the BOC!!!

Haven't even had the chance to get out this year myself yet, but hope to change that soon.

[catfishcentral]

Rain, Rain and more Rain. We got a good turd floater going on and the Verdigris is flowing BIGTIME. I fished the navagtion channel Saturday afternoon till Sunday afternoon. While driving to the channel it was pretty easy to see that Bird Creek, The Caney and everything else that dumps into L @ D 18 that there would be plenty of water. There was, and plenty of logs, trees and garbage floating down the river. Anytime we go this long without good rainfall to flush the river it's going to be bad and the last two days didn't disappoint. We didn't put in till Saturday afternoon just as the rain started to pour down again. We caught our shad and fished in the rain till it stopped and fished a little longer. The river is flowing very hard and too much debris to be fishing the main channel. We did try putting out jugs but the current was pretty swift and they became too entanged in everything floating downstream. We abanonded the main channel and fished our favorite oxbow. We ended up catching about 16 catfish and mainly caught lots of channels. I never catch any big channels here in Oklahoma in fact my biggest channel to date has been 8 pounds. I caught a 10.5 pound channel along with a 18 pound flathead. The next few days should calm the river down and push through most of the debris. Blues should be heading upriver with all this current and the fishing will only get better.

[Tulcat]

Sounds like an AWESOME trip and those are some nice looking fish. I hope to do as well next weekend.

[caatstalker]

great post im leaving sunday am willl be on the river for 5 great days arround the brewers bend aria . should be good:big_smile:

[Tulcat]

My plans are putting in at the Big Creek ramp above the Oologah headwaters, early afternoon on Saturday for a 24 hour trip, if anyone is interested in joining.

[catfishcentral]

I plan on being there on Friday and I'm going to catch all the big flatheads before Jim gets there.:big_smile_2:

[Tulcat]

I plan on being there on Friday and I'm going to catch all the big flatheads before Jim gets there.:big_smile_2:

Since you are mostly catch and release on the big ones I hope you reward each big flattie you catch with a pound of fresh shad before you release them :tounge_out:

[catfishcentral]

I'll take pic's of any 70 lbr's and sell the GPS coordinates for a small fee. LOL

[Tulcat]

I'll take pic's of any 70 lbr's and sell the GPS coordinates for a small fee. LOL

As long as you're not charging by the pound I might be interested.

[catfishcentral]

I bet all this rain has pushed those big flathead into all the feeder creeks if the Verdigris is still flowing enough current. I think some limblines in Kentucky and Big creek many be in order. I'll try in bring a hundred or so live perch for field trials.

[Tulcat]

I bet all this rain has pushed those big flathead into all the feeder creeks if the Verdigris is still flowing enough current. I think some limblines in Kentucky and Big creek many be in order. I'll try in bring a hundred or so live perch for field trials.

Excellent. I sent you a PM just afew minutes ago about live bait.

[catfishcentral]

i heard some good things about sooner this week (MEGA BLUES),.


So what size blues did you hear coimg out of there? I don't get there enough to hear any good reports on a consistant basis. This rain is just what we needed to get the blues stirring and in a real prespawn mood.

[catfishcentral]

As long as you're not charging by the pound I might be interested.


If either one of us catch any 70 pounders hopefully it will be on rod and reel and we can call the ODWC to certify our catch. The 106 pound unrestricted might be a little hard to catch but that section has produced 100 pounders in the past. Oh well one can dream can't they? :big_smile:

[Tulcat]

If either one of us catch any 70 pounders hopefully it will be on rod and reel and we can call the ODWC to certify our catch. The 106 pound unrestricted might be a little hard to catch but that section has produced 100 pounders in the past. Oh well one can dream can't they? :big_smile:

I'm ready and just got in my 100# plus digital scales from Austrailia!

[catfishcentral]

Thanks for the info Jeff. We use to fish the hot water outlet all the time back in Collage and it always produces very well. I've heard of some nice 70 pounders coming from Sooner over the years but I haven't been down there in my boat to target them in a long while. I believe the lack of set lines has done a lot to make this a great blue cat lake. It also helps there's TONS of forage in Sooner also. You need to show pics to us of any HAWGS you catch there or anywhere else.

[catfishcentral]

Jeff,

When you post a reply scroll down to the bottom and you will see "manage attachment". You can click on this and upload your pics with your post. They can't be bigger that 500 x 400 dpi. You need to size them down to this size or smaller to fit or use some third party website such as imageshack or putfile for bigger pics.

[catfishcentral]

Hey, it took me six months on here to finally figure out how to resize pics. I'm sure some of the real computer guys can give you better pointers than me with any other questions you might have. Nice Blue cat by the way.

[Bullrider]

I was up around rogers point, catoosa and we caught a 28 pound 6 ounce white on a big shad head about 6 feet deep when I figure out how to post pics I will.

[TeamPunishment]

well atleast they let the water loose out of Oologah yesterday, so give the fish a few days to start moving and we will be wacking and stacking em... I plan on fishing below Oologah all night monday and skipping school on tuesday to get some sleep, and then some more fishing :lol:

[rivrbunny]

Nice Blue Cat Jeff, Don't believe I have ever seen one that large. Probably started on the Arkansas and all that good food got it that size by the time it got to the Mississippi (makes for a good fish story and I am partial to the Arkansas:smile2: ).
Picasa from Google has a great picture resize program free to download if that would help any.
A friend and I are headed to Bass Pro today to see if there is anything we need (there is always something wonderful I just have to have!).

[Bigmagic]

Jeff nice fish! Sorry about your trip last Friday. I hope all went well this week. The water was on except for the weekend. We caught a 55 and a 25 yesterday but I didn't enter the tournament. I only had a few hours to fish and there was no current and no wind. Both large fish were caught on cut Buffalo and I posted some pictures of them in the "About that Tournament " thread in the Missouri section. The weather was so nasty I had to bring them back to weigh and photograph them but I think they made it ok. I released them at the ramp though not where we caught them. See ya on the water!