Outdoors: Catfish, get your catfish in Oklahoma
FISHINGJUNE’S HERE, AND THE STATE’S MOST POPULAR FISH are SPAWNING

In the latest angler survey, more people in Oklahoma fish for crappie and bass than any other species.

Oklahoma Wildlife Expo at the Lazy E Arena near Guthrie, Friday, September 26, 2008. Carson Cole, Oklahoma City, holds up a channel catfish he caught. Photo by David McDaniel/The Oklahoman

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Oklahoma Catfish Fact File
Oklahoma has three species: channel catfish, blue catfish and flathead catfish
How to identify them
Blues and channels have a forked tail. Flatheads have a round tail.
The whiskers on a channel cat are darker. The anal fin is curved on a channel and straight on a blue.
Flatheads have brownish mottling or blotches while blues are lighter-colored. And, of course, flatheads have a flatter head.
Best times to catch them
Nights, dusk and dawn. Channel cats feed for longer periods than blues and flatheads. Blues and flatheads are more nocturnal in the summer months.
Best ways to catch them
For flatheads, live sunfish is the bait of choice. For blues, shad and cut bait. For channel cats, prepared stinkbaits work well as they feed more by smell than sight.
Where to find them
Blues are mainly found in lakes impounded on large river systems, such as the Arkansas and Red River systems. Flatheads are native to Oklahoma streams and are in many lakes. Channel cats are in almost every lake in the state. Fish around rip-rap, dams, logjams, deep pools, rock piles, old river channels and mouth of tributaries.
Good catfishing lakes
For Blues
Statewide: Texoma, Grand, Waurika
Oklahoma City area: Arcadia
For Flatheads
Statewide: Waurika, Hugo, Webbers Falls and Eufaula
Oklahoma City area: Thunderbird, Overholser
For Channels
Statewide: Eufaula, Canton, Lawtonka and many more
Oklahoma City area: Guthrie, Thunderbird, Overholser and stocked ponds such as Kids' Lake near Lake Hefner and Edwards Park in south Oklahoma City
State records
For Flatheads: 106 pounds from Lake Wister on a trot line; 72 pounds, 8 ounces from El Reno Lake on a rod and reel.
For blues: 118 pounds and 8 ounces from Lake Texoma on a jug line; 98 pounds on a rod and reel from Lake Texoma.
For channels: 35 pounds, 15 ounces from Taft Lake on a rod and reel.

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Channel catfish was third, but when blue catfish and flatheads are included in the mix, catfish are by far the most popular fish in the state.

And catfishing season is upon us.

Catfish typically spawn in June in Oklahoma when the water temperature reaches the mid-70s, moving into shallow water to make their nests in rocks, root wads and log jams, anywhere there is a hole or cavity.

The blues and channels spawn first, when the water temperature reaches 75 to 78 degrees, followed by the flatheads, which typically spawn in late June when water gets even warmer, normally between 78 and 82 degrees.

It’s normally started by now on most Oklahoma City area lakes, but cooler than usual spring weather has delayed the spawn in some places.

However, the catfish should start biting soon on local lakes, if they haven’t already.

Blues and flatheads get most of the media attention because anglers can catch some huge ones. The state record for each is more than 100 pounds.

And "Okie Noodling” has become legendary thanks to filmmaker Bradley Beesley’s two documentaries on the subject of handfishing for flatheads.

Channel cats, however, are still the catfish that most Oklahoma anglers pursue.

"In terms of popularity, channel cats are still way ahead of the other ones,” said Gene Gilliland, fisheries biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

That’s because channel cats are abundant and can be found in almost every lake in Oklahoma.

While they won’t reach 100 pounds, you can catch a mess of ‘em that are frying pan size, which is the real appeal of channel cats: eating them.

Channels are different than blues and flatheads in other ways, too. Blues and flatheads are predators, primarily feeding on other fish.

Shad and cut bait attract blues, while live sunfish is the fisherman’s bait of choice for flatheads.

Channel catfish are omnivorous, meaning they will eat almost anything. Maybe that’s why they are such a tough critter.

State wildlife officials admit they really don’t know as much as they would like about the channel catfish population in lakes because electro-shocking — the method they use to count bass — doesn’t work well on the whiskered-fish.

"We can’t sample them (channel cats) near as efficiently for some reason,” Gilliland said, "so we rely on catches in gill nets and hoop nets.”

The prepared stink baits and dough baits sold in stores and bait shops work well for channels, but so do worms, chicken liver, shrimp, grasshoppers and about any kind of bait imaginable.

I’ve even heard of channels being caught on slices of hot dog.

Fishing for channel cats can be like fly fishing for trout in one way. You try to match the hatch.

If you see a bunch of grasshoppers around the lake and on the water, you can bet grasshoppers would be good bait for channel cats there.

As proof that matching the hatch works, an angler from Harrah once shared with me the following story of channel cat fishing on Lake Texoma.

Mike Jones and his buddy had stretched a trot line across a shallow creek that flowed into Texoma. They kept noticing that all of the channel cats they were catching had persimmon seeds in their stomachs.

Realizing the trot line was tied to two persimmon trees that were both full of ripe fruit, they baited the hooks with ripe persimmons and caught limits of channel cats for two days.

Bank fishing for channel cats should be good this month as the spawn occurs across the state.

Like everything else, catfish start spawning on Oklahoma’s southern lakes first where the water gets warmer the earliest, then proceeds to move north.

Concentrate your fishing around rip-rap, bridges, dams and any rocky places.

And if there is a persimmon tree nearby, you might want to try a persimmon on a hook.

The prepared stink baits and dough baits sold in stores and bait shops work well for channels, but so do worms, chicken liver, shrimp, grasshoppers and about any kind of bait imaginable.

I’ve even heard of channels being caught on slices of hot dog.

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