Thread: Oklahoma crappie in the spring

Our son and his family just moved to the Claremore area. My wife and I are planning a two week trip in the spring and I would like to know what is the prime time for crappie that time of year. My son has talke about Oologah Lake and Grand Lake, which lake would be the best for crappie? Any help would be appreciated.

Smoke both lakes are great for Crappie. The NorthEast side of the Winganon ripraff and talala or spencer creek on Oolagah. On Grand I like the Bernice area around the bridge pillars or Red Arrow around the Cleora area. Good Luck and welcome to OK.

Either lake will produce Crappie for you. Since Grand went to the 10" minimum, they have been doing much better. Oologah would be the better of the two since you will be in Claremore. Claremore lake is small, but very good as well, there is plenty of natural structure. Either way, keep in touch and maybe us locals on Oologah can set you right on top of a couple of spots that will give you fond memories of your visit.

Thanks guys, I am looking forward to the trip. The spring crappie here in Ohio did not have a good season but hope the fall will be better.

What is a good month or time span in the spring there, our prime time usually hits about the middle of April to mid May depending on the weather. My youngest son and I went to Kerr Lake in VA this spring and the weather had been in the 70s, wouldnt' you know a cold front came in as we got there. It is a little cold when the temp only gets to 40 all day and the bite was not on.

Hope to see some of you fellows when we get there.

Mid March to early May are usually the hotter times. This last spawn was the strangest I have ever seen. The fish seemed to move deeper as the sun rose higher. There were very few males that were sitting on the nests. However, hit the brush along the banks overnight, or the first hour or two of the morning, and you could clean up. Then they would just disappear till the next night.

This was a strange year here also. We usually are on the water by 6 to 7am and if you don't catch fifty or more in two to three hours you had a bad day. This year the best day we had was 29 and that was in about a 5 hour period. They never did come on like usual, real odd year.

Have you ever tried KY or Barkley Lakes, we were there two years ago, the crappie were not biting but we had a blast with the blue cats and channel. We were there at the end of April and first part of May.

Thanks for the info and will keep in touch. Take care! Smokey