Verdegris and Arkansas river report?

[montesa]

Does anyone know about lake Arcadia right now? Is the water level high?

 

[SlugSlinger]

Never been out in the area, looking at spending a few days on the verdegris river between the port of catoosa and the Arkansas river, and the Arkansas river between Muskogee and i40 sometime this month. How’s the water? How’s the fishing? I’m getting my Jon boat finished the next few days and want to go out for a few.

I put in at Roger's Point. The river is up due to Oologah releasing 9966 cubic feet per second and with a few inches of rain possible over the next couple of days, the release may continue.

This is one of the easiest videos I've found to learn how to throw a cast net.

https://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/OOLO.lakepage.html

 

[mr ed]

Keystone is like 14 feet up

 

[HoLeChit]

I put in at Roger's Point. The river is up due to Oologah releasing 9966 cubic feet per second and with a few inches of rain possible over the next couple of days, the release may continue.

This is one of the easiest videos I've found to learn how to throw a cast net.



View attachment 276607

View attachment 276608

https://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/OOLO.lakepage.html

Up like dodging trees and houses floating down the river up, or up like the banks have turned into a swamp And it may be sketchy going under low bridges?

 

[SlugSlinger]

Up like dodging trees and houses floating down the river up, or up like the banks have turned into a swamp And it may be sketchy going under low bridges?

Dodging trees. Haven’t seen many houses floating downstream lately.

 

[sklfco]

Definitely wanting to be careful, and am curious as to the water conditions as well. I’m hoping to not have to dodge logs and stuff going down the river.

When I was just old enough to begin having “lookout” duties, i was told something along the line of “the higher it sticks out of the water the more attention you give it, but don’t discount nothin “ failure to spot wasn’t accepted well.
You are correct, certain periods it’s best to just leave em in the shed on the charger.

 

[HoLeChit]

Dodging trees. Haven’t seen many houses floating downstream lately.

When I was just old enough to begin having “lookout” duties, i was told something along the line of “the higher it sticks out of the water the more attention you give it, but don’t discount nothin “ failure to spot wasn’t accepted well.
You are correct, certain periods it’s best to just leave em in the shed on the charger.

Well, after spending a few hours in an oxbow, I decided to head down the main channel to get to another oxbow. Figured I would check it out before hitting up the oxbow a few miles down where Billy creek wma is at. Nope. Spent half my time dodging logs and big sticks, current was pretty strong too. Didn’t end up making it to the WMA area I was shooting for.

For anyone that’s interested in staying at gore landing tonight, and supposedly there’s lots of rainbows biting. Guess what I’m gonna go after tomorrow?

 

[HoLeChit]

So I forgot to update the findings of the trip. Rivers were high, turbulent, and full of sticks and logs. Water was too cold to get a lot of stuff to bite, I lost at least half a day to rain. Stayed at gore landing, not a bad location, with the exception of the locals wanting to party until 4am. Saw tons of bait and some striper on my finder, but I could t get anything on the boat. Caught a few blue cats on the Illinois and a lone 3lb striper at the tenkiller dam.

Was looking at corps of engineers water data, everything is still crazy out there it appears. You guys think levels will work their way down and temps will work their way up over the next few weeks? I have a buddy coming down the second week of July, would really like to get us on some stripers and rainbows in the same area while he is here. If the levels aren’t coming down/the river doesn’t calm down I feel like I’ll have to find another place to go.

 

[swampratt]

Thanks for the report.
If Mother Nature eases up on the rain for a couple weeks the water will get lower and warm up.
Hot miserable to be on the water and bugs smearing the windshields is the right time to get it on the river.

 

[HoLeChit]

Went out to the lower Illinois again, water is down 3 feet from three weeks ago. Starting to have issues getting the Jon boat around. Dinged up my prop and skeg on a few gravel bottoms. Caught my first two Oklahoma trout, two small rainbows. Caught three hybrids. All but two of the fish were caught on power bait that I formed into a wobbly spoon shape and retrieved slow through calm pools below the spillway. Two hybrids off 5”ish shad pattern swim bait cast along the grass and retrieved across the current. Lost at least 6-8 fish too, but I’m happy with how things went. Caught some nice channel cats off dead shad, but I didn’t feel like keeping them.

Next time, I’m gonna try some of Swampratt’s tips, and maybe hit the wma there along the lower Illinois. I need to find a few squirrels and raccoons for the puppy to train with.