The Fishing is on Fire Across Oklahoma

In a curious turn of events, most of Oklahoma is getting a second round of hot spring fishing across the state thanks to the recent cool and rainy weather.

As lakes warm up, it seems that the hardest-fighting fish have developed voracious appetites across the entire state. My local lake was back down to around 60° over the weekend, which is typically the temperature that turns on the feeding switch for our state's largemouth bass in anticipation of breeding.

Even the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is surprised by how hot the bite is right now and encourages everyone to get out and spend a little time casting lures. Just look at the pot belly on this little feller.

While the bite may be hot, the fish are still being a bit picky about the bait. According to at least one angler that fishes nearly every day said that his regular go-to baits aren't working for him right now. He's had to get into the depths of his boat hull to pull out some of the classic lures.

Keeping with the unspoken law of angling, I can't tell you what he's catching fish on right now, but it's plastic and you can rig it on a hook half a dozen different ways...

Fishing for these lunkers is easy from the bank this time of year too since they're typically making breeding beds in warm shallow water until it's time to spawn. It'd be a great time to take a day or two and just go toss a line.

Fishing Clinics

If you've never fished before, or haven't very often, the ODWC is set to host a few free fishing clinics around Central Oklahoma in the next few weeks. If you can make one or more of them, have fun. Here are those details.

If you can't make it to the clinics, there's always YouTube and tons of free fishing resources out on the web to help you enjoy your outdoors too.