Fishing madness!
Cast your line: It’s March, which means basketball, but also some of the best fishing of the year

March Madness means one thing to college basketball fans but quite another to fishermen.

March and April are probably the two best fishing months of the year. Big bass are biting, crappie are spawning, and the white bass and paddlefish are running up the rivers.

And the trout fishing is usually pretty good, too.

Most of the state’s winter trout areas are still open and on the beautiful Lower Mountain Fork River in southeastern Oklahoma, the brown and rainbow trout are actively feeding on new spring hatches of insects.

This is the best time of the year for anglers to be on the water.

The white bass is Oklahoma’s state fish, but they are also called sand bass.

They are in many of the state’s large reservoirs, but in the spring they head up the streams and creeks to spawn.

In March and April, sand bass migrate into the upper-lake tributaries and anglers will follow, lining the banks for sometimes frenzied fishing.

Jigs, minnows and spinners are the top bait choices for these river runs.

The sand bass runs begin in southern Oklahoma first, where it gets warmer the earliest.

Most Oklahoma anglers believe there is no better table fare than crappie.

In the spring, you can catch a mess of ‘em across Oklahoma, especially at Lake Eufaula, the state’s best crappie lake.

During mid-March to mid-April, crappie move into shallow waters to spawn.

Crappie usually spawn in or near woody cover, so the best fishing occurs near timber.

Minnows, jigs, or jigs tipped with tiny plastic grubs or live minnow are popular baits.

In March and April, walleyes move onto rocky shorelines to spawn, making it the best time to catch big fish. On many lakes, they prefer to spawn on riprap along dams and bridges.

One of the best ways to catch them is on jigs tipped with large red worms.

After the spawn, they move to deeper water and anglers catch them by trolling deep diving crankbaits along shoreline drop-offs.

Some of the best walleye lakes in the state are Canton, Hefner, Broken Bow and Kaw. Remember, don’t lip them like a bass. They have teeth.

Paddlefish, or spoonbills (also known as the Oklahoma marlin), will be making spawning runs soon and anglers will be snagging some of these prehistoric beasts, which can weigh more than 100 pounds.

At Twin Bridges State Park on Grand Lake, located at the junction of the Spring and Neosho Rivers, the state Wildlife Department already has its paddlefish cleaning station in operation.

Grand Lake and its river systems have the largest population of paddlefish in the state.

When you snag a spoonbill (paddlefish are plankton feeders), you can have it cleaned at the station for free in exchange for the eggs from female spoonbills.

The state is processing the eggs into caviar and selling it. Last year, the first year of the operation, the state Wildlife Department earned $1.5 million from caviar sales.

Like the sand bass, warm weather and spring rains will spur paddlefish runs. The best spoonbilling usually begins in mid-March.

Hybrids, hatchery-produced crosses between striped and white bass, move into shallow water to feed on baitfish in March and April.

Fishing along the dams often is successful for anglers. At no other time of year can big hybrids be caught from the shore as easily as in March and April.

Sassy shads, stick baits and crankbaits are popular lures.

Waurika, Canton, Fort Cobb, Foss and Overholser are great lakes for bank fishing for hybrids in the spring, especially around the dams.

Konawa is another good lake for hybrids, fishing around the discharge canal.

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