2024 fishing reports

Weather

Cold north breeze; ~26° this morning. Gulls diving — possible early thermal-shock shad on the upper (shallower) end; cats there may slow first. Typical Christmas-window shad kill pattern.

Hunting

Firearm done — lots of nice deer around the lake; big ones from Spavinaw / Eucha / Jay area. Family hunting more SE Oklahoma than up here. Late archery (last 3–4 weeks through mid-Jan) can be excellent over feed if cold/snow; acorns breaking down after heavy rains; green browse fading.

Fishing outlook / holidays

May skip next week’s report for Christmas — pattern holds: same docks, deep brush, Twin Bridges whites/Crappie, below-dam when generating, Eucha and Spavinaw good; Paddlefish improve as water cools. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Thanks

GRDA; area dealers / Grove Walmart stocking Fish Lucke; Haydn and Owen’s customers; Patricia at VIP Grand Lake; fishlucke.com.

Open this report alone →

Hunting

Firearm season wrapped — picky on bucks; remainder of archery (through Jan 15) fun with woods to yourself; cold helps corn/attractants.

Catfish

Blues should be tearing up — Dec 10 was always Jeff’s big-blue target with Jerry Croft, family, clients. Fish gorge until a shad kill; then lethargic on free food.

Crappie

Getting good in deep clear docks — shade/dark spots. 2" Lucky Bugs on 1/16 oz working best. Colors Toby Keith and Jeff named: Desert Hero (upper/mid lake), Blue Moon, USA, Winter Storm (south end), Dream Walking (purple/pink — Haydn’s winter clear-water favorite). 2" and 2½"; Grove Walmart, fishlucke.com, Fish Lucke Amazon — keep asking dealers.

Paddlefish

Upper lake snagging really good — fish stacking/staging as water cools; guides targeting depth day after day. ODWC running Paddlefish sampling nets (big orange buoys) in front of Jeff’s house — age/growth on a world-class population.

Thanks

GRDA; Patricia VIP Skin Care; Owen Grand Glass Cleaning; Haydn Williams Guide Service; Fish Lucke.

Open this report alone →

Sponsors

GRDA; Patricia at VIP Luxury Skin Care on Monkey Island; Williams Guide Service; Grand Glass Cleaning; Fish Lucke — swimming minnows, American-made hard baits, Redman spinnerbaits, kits (fishlucke.com, area dealers, Grove Walmart).

Hunting

Last week of firearm season — uneventful for the family on the bucks they wanted; better luck in Missouri opener with bucks still chasing. Rut winding down; bachelor groups reforming; secondary rut often ~Dec 5–10 (and toward Christmas) for leftover does and yearling does — late bowhunters: watch new scrapes/rubs over food. Encourage Hunters for the Hungry / deer donation — antlerless to participating processors for families in need.

Fishing

Quiet with deer season. Matt and Christy Watson: tremendous blues 10–20 lb on deep ledges, anchored. Haydn and girlfriend Haley: two quick limits at a Duck Creek dock on Dream Walking Lucky Bug (pink/purple) with 1/16 oz pink-and-chartreuse or pink-and-white head. Cold front should help cats; Twin Bridges White Bass historically strong in December (Jerry Croft / Dwayne Morris days). Shad kill usually by end of December — not there yet.

Open this report alone →

Hunting

Opening week of Oklahoma firearm season — lots of success statewide on social media; Grand Lakers also posting Kansas and Missouri bucks. NE Oklahoma corner lets hunters hit OK, AR, KS, MO. Biggest firearm weekend with Thanksgiving coming — happy Thanksgiving. Cold weather ahead should help late gun season: bucks worn from 4–6 weeks of chasing start hitting food sources hard. Hunting with Patricia (one-for-one on deer so far) through the weekend; boys in and out; great deer-camp family time.

Fishing / safety

Cold stretch — if you fish, bundle up and wear life jackets. Thank GRDA for partnership; keep their number handy.

Thanks

Area dealers over the years — Caliber Sporting Goods, Honey Creek Outdoors, Grand Lake Sports Center, L&L Outdoors, Littlefield’s Outdoors — plus KGVE.

Open this report alone →

Community

grandfishingreport.com Facebook group; GRDA site; Grove Area Chamber; Grand Lake Association; Wolf Creek into 2025.

Hunting focus

Oklahoma firearm season opens in a couple days — ~100,000 deer harvested/year statewide to manage the herd. Unified voice across bow/gun/muzzleloader/crossbow. Grand River chain (Grand, Hudson, Fort Gibson) plus tributaries Eucha and Spavinaw with public hunting — check GRDA vs city of Tulsa vs Corps/ODWC regs; they differ. Expect strong harvest; Saturday opener: light winds, high pressure, low humidity; Sunday windier. Season ~16 days (two weeks + three weekends); pressure drops after Thanksgiving weekend. Some public areas archery-only even during firearms — check. Forced-exposure funnels between woodlots / powerlines / hedgerows for sit hunters. Bucks still chasing through November into secondary rut late archery. Missouri hunt good last weekend. Non-resident tags up sharply (~$500/tag + ~$200 license cited by Mississippi friends hunting LeFlore County / Smithville). Wear orange vest + hat (Jeff likes orange gloves too).

Fishing

Light this week — hunting dominated the report.

Open this report alone →

Lake

Still little frost mid-November; colder night tonight, steamy morning. Need more cold to shift into early winter. Still late-summer/fall patterns — fish shallow; Bass on topwater backs of coves; cats drifting a bit deeper but not winter-deep yet (by December big blues often 45–90 feet depending on end of lake — Elk/Grand River channel ledges ~45–50; south end 60–70). Lots of shad evenings when water's still. Keep doing what's working until real cold churns the lake.

Crappie

Shallower brush; swimming minnows and Lucky Bugs.

White Bass

Swimming minnow, trolling, Rooster Tails, bank casting.

Paddlefish

Haydn last week — nice fish upper lake, Sailboat Bridge north, Dipsy divers. Booking hard after New Year's.

Hunting

Great muzzleloader season statewide; Jeff/boys unsuccessful but saw deer. Bow weeks ahead; Oklahoma firearm season starts Saturday before Thanksgiving — two full weeks, three weekends. Peak chasing now, lockdown bucks beginning. Share the Harvest for antlerless — processors + state donate meat to needy families.

Dealers

fishlucke.com — new tackle rolling out through winter and spring.

Open this report alone →

Thanks

Area dealers carrying Fish Lucke; Patricia at VIP Grand Lake; Haydn at Williams Guide Service / fishgrand.com; Owen Williams at Grand Glass Cleaning; KGVE; GRDA (Bass tournaments, fisheries, water quality, towing — give them a wave).

Weather / inflows

Windy warm end to muzzleloader, then heavy rain — spots 3–10 inches. Jeff hunting Octavia, OK lease and at the plant area; Greenwood AR ~9", Poteau ~7", Wilburton solid; SE Kansas too. Watersheds were so dry ponds/watershed lakes need to refill before big Grand Lake inflows — another soaker could flood once they're full.

Hunting

Strong muzzleloader participation; quality Oklahoma bucks. L&L Outdoors for Shockwave bullets, scope work, breech plug — interested in more Fish Lucke into spring (handy for Jay). Thanks ODWC for liberal antler harvest (two antlered whitetails with firearms vs Missouri's one archery + one firearm). Antlerless harvest feeds families — jerky, summer sausage, chili around the holidays. Huge economic impact; lots of public land if you put boots down.

If fishing

Crappie on brush or shady docks — soft plastics as minnow bite falls off. Bass backs of coves on schooling shad / surface. Drift blues 25–50 feet. Paddlefish Patricia Island past mouth of Elk River into Three Fingers.

Open this report alone →

Weather

Much-needed rain — SE Kansas 3–4 inches. Straight-line winds / tornado warnings around the lake; hope everyone stayed safe with limited damage.

Hunting

Mid-muzzleloader — remainder of week plus weekend. Nice bucks and strong antlerless harvest. Wear orange even if bowhunting during any firearm season (Oklahoma requirement). After muzzleloader closes Sunday, ~three weeks of prime archery (last week of Oct + first three of Nov = peak chasing). Firearm season late this year with late Thanksgiving.

Fishing

Pattern mostly same; unseasonably warm October hasn't fully pushed fall water temps. Cooler nights will push fish deeper soon. Crappie still shallow brush/docks. Black Bass feeding aggressively backs of coves (classic fall migration). Cats drift flats 15–45/50 feet, fresh cut shad, under 1 mph. White Bass — windy points; small topwater popper with a jig. Paddlefish good — learn Dipsy divers; some Live Scope but many prefer relaxed trolling.

Dealers

Fish Lucke American-made — Jimmy Houston Redman spinnerbait, Vibra Swing, STX jerkbait, Crappie Magic crankbait, G5 (Wiggle Wart–style), All American Rattler, Deep Smoothie (Jimmy's favorite crank). Fish Lucke Amazon store and area dealers. (Toby Keith acquired the brand April 2023; Jeff is GM.)

Open this report alone →

Hunting

Muzzleloader season coming fast — check regs, dust off the gun. Hoping for cooler/moister weather; unseasonably warm and dry with mosquitoes in the stand. Haydn taking a lot of late Oct–Nov off for deer after a hard guide year.

Paddlefish (Haydn)

Really good this week south of Sailboat Bridge — divers, 150 feet of line, Patricia Island / Port Duncan / Terra Miranda area where the river channel swings. Fish move a lot; Grace Ranch had them a couple weeks ago, then nothing on a group trip and they were stacked at Patricia Island channel and in front of Port Duncan. Fall pattern: stacking in the river channel more than roaming flats. People come from all over the world for Oklahoma Paddlefish.

Crappie (Haydn)

Brush piles, certain docks; clear/low rain means fewer roamers, but bigger fall fish start roaming coves — Live Scope suspended in coves. Main-lake brush still producing 15–20 feet; docks loading up. Once water hits mid–high 60s (~65°), most Crappie move into or to the mouths of coves off main lake. Last week Haydn found more on bluffs with structure than on flats.

Catfish

Dominic Pellegrino on a group trip drifted ~40 feet at about 0.5–0.7 mph on cut shad — lots of fish.

Bass

Facebook posts of Bass toward backs of coves schooling on shad; some topwater on high banks with nice fish. Join grandfishingreport.com Facebook group (~20,000+).

Contact

fishgrand.com for Haydn / Williams Guide Service.

Dealers

Ask area dealers for Fish Lucke — Scrounger, Jimmy Houston Redman spinnerbait, Lucky Bug, swimming minnow.

Open this report alone →

GRDA

Thanks for water ecology and safety — towing boats all year; give them a thumbs up on the water.

Lake / weather

Pattern mostly unchanged; cooler mornings the last two days. Stable, clear water. Short days will drop temps; fish should get more aggressive through Oct–Dec unless high muddy inflow or a shad kill. Transition shallow — backs of coves, shallow points — until water temps fall below about 55°.

Catfish

Blues drifting 15–60 feet; once you find the depth, repeat nearby. At night, blues very shallow for anchor fishermen. Flathead bite evenings/nights with live bait should be tremendous.

Bass

Good spinnerbait reports; anglers using Jimmy Houston Redman spinnerbait in backs of coves. New Scrounger things coming — quarter and 3/8 oz great for schooling Bass in cove backs with your favorite 3–4" soft plastic.

Haydn

Spoonbill snagging with Crossland Construction — several fish, some nice, a banded fish.

Crappie

Shallow to deep brush 15–30 feet; 1/8 oz head with 2½" moonshine or Blue Moon Lucky Bug.

White Bass

Shallow points evenings; wind on rocky banks — swimming minnow, Lucky Bug, little Rattle Trap / All American Rattler.

Hunting

Archery swinging; youth season around mid-October if it hasn't run; muzzleloader end of October. Oklahoma Bowhunter Facebook showing fantastic deer.

Sponsors

Grand Fishing Report Facebook (~20,000); Patricia at VIP Day Spa on Monkey Island; Fish Lucke American-made baits with the Toby Keith family.

Open this report alone →

Weather / lake

Beautiful around the shores; end of last week hotter than folks liked (Jerry Croft: after a taste of fall in the 70s/50s, mid-90s feel like 100–115). Stable, clear water; lots of people fishing.

Guides / corporate

Haydn running corporate groups with other guides — fishgrand.com for corporate fishing retreats. Remembers huge Shangri-La / Monkey Island corporate trips years ago with Gene Pearcy, Ivan Martin, Tony Contini — 100+ boats when Jeff was 18–19 (he's 54 now).

Fishing

Still a bit finicky like last year; hoping cooler surface temps put fish on the fall feed bag. Haydn's Paddlefish trips good — between the islands around Sailboat up to Three Fingers / mouth of Elk River, fish scattered. Dominic Pellegrino (guide, often Oolagah area) power-drifted cats with Hayden's corporate group — trolling motor + planer boards covering water under/beside/behind the boat; did well. Tony Contini posting White Bass and Hybrids.

Hunting

Archery in full force; nice deer already; trail cams lighting up. Muzzleloader usually last week of October — one of the best deer seasons in the U.S. (pre-rut muzzleloader).

Community

Share tournament/reports in the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group — info gets slow this time of year.

Sponsors

vipgrandlake.com (Patricia, luxury facial/skincare); fishlucke.com — ask area dealers for American-made Scroungers.

Open this report alone →

Guides

Haydn (Williams Guide Service / fishgrand.com) estimates 250–300 guide trips this year — mainly Crappie, winter Paddlefish snagging, occasional night bowfishing. Off this week putting up trail cameras; about four trips next week starting Saturday/Sunday, then winding fishing down for deer.

Crappie

Picky lake-wide — Lance Lutke (Lance's Guide Service) said the same. Even big wads yield two or three fish, then move on. Plenty of fish on Live Scope; eating a lot of shad. Last year this window was some of the best fishing of the year; the last two–three weeks have been tougher. Friend report: Patricia Island area, Crappie in 30 feet that took hard work; any wind makes staying on them tough.

Hunting

Archery opener was October 1. Dry; deer sign concentrated around water. Bucks shed velvet, not grouped up, shifting into pre-rut spots — scrapes and rubs already. Oklahoma bucks often start acting up around October 20; by Halloween they're making mistakes; peak rut roughly November 7–14. Pre-rut scrape/fight period is the most fun. Congrats to friends on the Washita Mountains lease in southeast Oklahoma who took two bears with archery — short list in Oklahoma.

Dealers / sponsors

fishgrand.com for Haydn; VIPGrandLake.com for Patricia at VIP Skin Care / Luxury Skin Care on Monkey Island; fishlucke.com (L-U-C-K-E) — Jimmy Houston Red Man spinnerbaits, original Scroungers, Lucky Bugs, swimming minnows. Tell area dealers you appreciate them stocking Fish Lucke.

Open this report alone →

Four-state listeners

Thanks to listeners all around the four-state area. A few surfers, skiers and WaveRunners are still out, but Jeff is seeing more fishermen than in the last month. That little blast of cool air made it more enjoyable, even with warm afternoons.

Consistent patterns

The unsettled weather of late summer and early fall brings some of the most consistent fishing of the year: no inflows, no lake swings, intermittent generation. With lower humidity and light winds, it's a great time to be out even if you don't care about catching fish. "We're gonna have a big ham sandwich and maybe a cold beer or a soda pop or an iced tea and just sit out here and enjoy this lake."

Bass tournaments

A lot of Bass anglers were out last weekend. Jeff wishes tournaments would share information with the Grand Fishing Report. There's always a tournament out of Wolf Creek in spring, late summer and fall, and you can find the sanctioned tournament schedule on the GRDA website.

Crappie are tight-lipped

Haydn says fishing has slowed. They're still catching limits, but it's not fast and furious like the last few Septembers (last year September and October were some of his best Crappie fishing of the year). He sees all the fish you'd want on LiveScope but has to work much harder. Jeff remembers Ivan Martin and other longtime guides talking about tough fishing in mid to late September. Nobody knows the exact recipe. Into October, with consistent cooler days and nights in the 40s, the fish will move, probably a little deeper as it gets colder. For now, main-lake brush piles are your best chance. One group caught a nice mess of Crappie and White Bass under the Honey Creek Bridge on Swimming Minnows, casting up to the piers.

Popper and Lucky Bug for bank White Bass

It won't be long before White Bass push up on the banks on cloudy, windy days. Tie a Lucky Bug or jig behind a popper and work windy banks. You can't believe how shallow they get, and you won't see them, but they'll hit the popper or the bait behind it, sometimes two at a time. Between topwater and bobbers, "it just doesn't get much better."

Haydn's schedule / hunting

Haydn guides through about October 7 to 10, then hits the woods. He works so hard all year that he can take deer season off, and it's special family time for Jeff, both boys and sometimes Patricia. October 1 opens archery for bear and deer, and archery Turkey in the right zones (check the regulations). Haydn will be at the family's southeast Oklahoma lease with hunters from Tulsa, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Fish Lucke / VIP / OnGrandTime

Buy tackle at FishLucke.com, or ask your dealer for Lucky Bugs, Swimming Minnows, Scroungers and Jimmy Houston Redman spinnerbaits and have them contact Jeff at Luck E Strike. Ladies, Patricia at VIP offers facials and skin-care consultations. OnGrandTime.com has t-shirts, hats and gifts for Christmas.

Open this report alone →

Cooling water

It's a whole lot more of the same, but the water temperature is falling. Some mornings Haydn sees the high 70s. His afternoon Crappie bite has been better, and he's picking some off on the Desert Hero Lucky Bug, which mimics a small Bluegill. Most clients still catch theirs on minnows, but he's limiting everybody every day he goes.

Crappie on the bottom

The fish are moving around in transition: shallow brush and on top of structure, high spots and humps, relating straight to the bottom. That's a strange pattern for Crappie, more like White Bass, but it's deadly when you find them. Drop straight down or cast into them.

Dock Crappie: fish shallower

Good dock reports are coming in, and this is when people fish too deep under their docks. In late summer and early fall, Crappie often move right up under the Styrofoam or black encapsulated foam, and you'll get bit while reeling up, unbelievably shallow. When that happens, raise up and fish 2 to 3 feet deep. On the clear south end you can watch them shoot out from under the foam to hit a Swimming Minnow or Lucky Bug. It's a short window in spring and fall, and many anglers miss it because they're stuck in a depth rut.

White Bass / Paddlefish

White Bass fishing is really good. Tony Coatney has been posting White Bass and Black Bass from his guide trips, though never what he caught them on. The Bernice Bridge area has been good for Paddlefish, and the mouth of the Elk River is always great from now through winter as the fish stage there.

Hunting

Folks around Kansas, including youngsters and muzzleloader hunters, have taken some really nice deer already. Trail cameras, corn and salt are out. Dove season (September 1) starts everything, but nothing puts hunters in the woods like the October 1 archery opener for bow and crossbow hunters. Oklahoma's early muzzleloader season, usually around the last week of October, is one of the best seasons in the country to Jeff, and many hunters travel in for it. Last year Jeff and Patricia hunted together, waiting on one particular deer that never showed. "It's not always about what you're taking. It's about having fun and enjoying friends and family out there and making memories."

Below the dam

During intermittent generation you can do well on White Bass and Catfish below the dam. Get out fast if they shut the water off, or there won't be enough water to load your boat at the State Park ramp.

Fish Lucke

Visit FishLucke.com and the Luck E Strike selection at the Grove Walmart. Don't forget the Scrounger, Lucky Bug and Swimming Minnow, "one tremendous Crappie bait here on this lake."

Open this report alone →

Thanks

Thanks to the area dealers stocking Luck E Strike, the GRDA for keeping the lake safe and for its water-ecology work, KGVE, Williams Guide Service, Owen Williams with Grand Glass Cleaning and Patricia with VIP on Monkey Island. Give them a call, and Jeff doesn't think you'll be sorry.

Transition starting

It's mostly the same old same old, but the water is cooling. As fish move shallower they'll feed more heavily and aggressively. Haydn with Williams Guide Service still sees a lot of fish deep on main-lake humps, but he's starting to catch a few in shallow brush around 10 feet. During this transition, Crappie often move off the minnow bite they've been stuck on through July, August and September and onto artificials.

Scrounger tip of the week

Jeff gets a lot of questions about the Scrounger. Bass anglers have used it for years, and Luck E Strike sells sizes from 1/16 oz up to 1 oz. It's the brand's number one seller to Tackle Warehouse, and the sales numbers made Jeff figure out why. On the Fish Lucke YouTube channel he catches Catfish, White Bass, Crappie and Bass on it at Grand Lake. For Crappie fishermen who like to cast and drag, a 1/16 or 1/8 oz Scrounger is unbelievably effective, and White Bass schooled on the bottom destroy it. Tip it with a Lucky Bug: the flat tail works better than a curl tail. Use the 2-inch Lucky Bug on the 1/16 oz Scrounger and the 2½-inch on the 1/8 oz. It's great for casting over brush, to the bank or into dark slips, though not so great for trolling. Crappie and White Bass haven't seen many, and Jeff may be one of the first to target them with Scroungers on Grand Lake. Day in and day out, his color is the Moonshine Lucky Bug (chartreuse and white). Find Scroungers at the Grove Walmart, or ask area dealers. "Toby Keith would be so proud of you for giving that a try."

Catfish

As the water slowly cools, more Blue Cats move deeper. Drift from 25 to 50 feet and pick up fish accordingly. Keep the boat under 0.75 mph, with about 0.5 mph on GPS the optimum, especially for big fish, which don't want to chase a fast bait across a deep bottom. Use a drift sock or control your drift with the trolling motor.

Paddlefish

Guides are tremendous at targeting Paddlefish year-round. Lots of fish are coming from the Bernice Bridge area, believe it or not, and from upriver toward Three Fingers and the mouth of the Elk River, historically one of the best places on the lake.

Bass

There were some big Bass tournaments, but as always nobody posts anything about them. Enjoy the lake this weekend. There won't be much traffic.

Open this report alone →

Labor Day weekend

Thanks from the GRDA, KGVE, the area dealers carrying Luck E Strike, Patricia at VIP, Haydn with Williams Guide Service and Owen with Grand Glass Cleaning. Labor Day is the last big boating weekend of 2024, always a special occasion around Grand Lake for Jeff's whole life. Weather reports are mixed, but expect big crowds. Be safe.

Crappie turning on

The lake is falling slightly with intermittent generation. Haydn says the Crappie have gotten less picky this week and more aggressive as the lake stabilizes. Despite some hot days, the lake has cooled a little and the days are getting shorter. You'll notice it next time you jump in, and any rain will cool it more.

Late summer into fall: fish go shallow

Many people don't realize how many target species move really shallow in late summer and early fall: Bass, White Bass and Crappie on shallow brush.

Jim Wagner's popper rig

Into October, Jeff remembers going out with longtime guide Jim Wagner, catching White Bass right off the banks on poppers and jigs. Tie about 18 inches of 8-pound line from a white popper's hook to a jig with a Lucky Bug in white, clear (like USA) or a natural color (Thunderstorm is incredible too). Then hit the windy banks. You won't believe how many Sand Bass you can catch, and it's fun to watch them come up and hit.

White Bass / Bass

There's lots of topwater action, and trolling and jigging spoons are both catching fish. Some really nice Bass are coming out of jackpot tournaments at Serenity Point. One angler posted on the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group that it's almost time for his favorite big-Bass pattern, giant flutter spoons, with a picture of a nice Bass to prove it.

Catfish

Drift fishing is great. At night, fish shallow for Blue Cats from a stationary spot. For Flatheads, anchor in 5 to 10 feet near a big drop-off, river channel edge or ledge and surround the boat with live baits. You might catch a 20- or 30-pound Flathead.

Paddlefish

Haydn sent pictures of a Paddlefish trip yesterday, taking a break from Crappie. The guides keep getting better at snagging earlier in the year. Locals take Paddlefish for granted, but millions of people would love to catch one, and Grand Lake's guides do a great job getting visitors hooked up.

Dove opener

Dove season opens September 1. Jeff's boys are getting ready, and he's tempted to join them. It's hard to beat an Oklahoma opening-day dove hunt.

Luck E Strike

Check out the Toby Keith and Jimmy Houston Luck E Strike display at the Grove Walmart. Ask area dealers to call and get Luck E Strike products in their stores.

Open this report alone →

Thanks to the GRDA

Check the GRDA Facebook page and website now and then to see what's new. GRDA officers patrol just about every weekend to make sure everybody treats the lake right, and Jeff appreciates them serving everyone on the water.

Late-summer pattern

It's the same old same old. The late-summer pattern will hold through August, September and early October, until temperatures really change. Only a big inflow would change things. Those sometimes happen in fall, but historically the big inflows come earlier in the year or in late fall and winter, from the end of October through December. Whatever is catching fish for you now should keep working for the next month or so.

Why the fish get finicky

As Haydn said last week, you won't pull up somewhere and just catch limits. Keep moving, because the active fish aren't stacked on structure. Jeff thinks he's put two and two together: falling water turns fish off, and Grand Lake is usually on a fall in August as it's pulled down toward 742 by the end of the month. It really affects Crappie and Catfish (he's less sure about White Bass and Black Bass). It's a mystery how fish sense a slow fall of an inch or two a week in so much water. A fast fall of half to three-quarters of a foot a day is obviously a shock, but even slow falls make them finicky.

Below the dam

Good reports come from below the dam. When the lake is falling they're generating, so check the generation schedule. With consistent generation you can catch a lot of fish. Guys have been catching Blue Catfish tied up to the cable (seen on the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group). Cautions: when they shut the water off and Lake Hudson is low, the state park boat ramp can be hard to use. The water is swift, so make sure your boat runs reliably or you could get swept down into the first bridge. You can fish from the bank there too.

Hunting ahead

A few doves are landing in the yard to eat the neighbors' birdseed, and Jeff's dog watches them pack around on the ground. It's a reminder that dove season opens September 1 to kick off Oklahoma hunting, and archery opens October 1. By late August many hunters are hanging trail cameras with salt and corn to inventory their deer herds and find that monster buck.

Fish Lucke / OnGrandTime / VIP

Visit FishLucke.com and OnGrandTime.com. For a facial or massage, see Patricia at VIP Day Spa on Monkey Island.

Open this report alone →

Thanks / local shout-outs

Thanks for asking your area dealers for the Luck E Strike products. Jeff also gives shout-outs to Williams Guide Service, Grand Glass Cleaning and VIP Day Spa on Monkey Island, and to OnGrandTime.com for Grand Lake gear gifts.

Special guest: Haydn ("Slim")

Jeff's son Haydn of Williams Guide Service joins the report straight off a guide trip. Jeff says Haydn catches more Crappie than anybody on this lake.

Crappie

They're out on the main lake on any structure you can find. Deep docks hold fish at certain times of day when the sun hits them just right. With how hot and sunny it is, the fish stack up in the shade. Haydn fishes brush piles from about 12 to 25 feet, mostly 15 to 20. He's using mostly minnows on guide trips. When scouting he uses Luck E Strike Lucky Bugs and catches fish, getting right on top of them with LiveScope. Any brush on the main lake from 15 to 25 feet has fish on it. They're eating a lot of Shad and aren't real aggressive in the heat, so you may have to hit four or five spots for a good mess of fish. Catch the ones that will bite, and the minute they quit, leave, even if there are 100 to 150 more down there. You can't beg them to bite. Yesterday, right before the storm, they bit really well, probably from the pressure change. This is about the pickiest they get all summer.

Bowfishing

It's been good around the islands, up around the mouth of the Elk River and one night at Duck Creek. Gar tend to be out on the main lake. If you just want to shoot Buffalo and small Carp, the coves are loaded.

Paddlefish

Haydn isn't snagging right now, but being on the water daily he sees them. Spoonbill are stacked from about Three Fingers to Wilson's Point and scattered along the Horse Creek main channel from about Snake Island to the Bernice Bridge. Some guys have been LiveScoping and trolling for them.

Catfish

Lots of people are catching Blue Cats by drifting out by the islands and around Horse Creek, especially on a 12 to 15 mph wind day like today.

White Bass

Not a ton, but Haydn saw some this morning chasing Shad over by Weed Island and caught a couple. In the afternoons you can definitely find them topping. Last week near Governor's Island, his clients saw White Bass topping on the way to a brush pile. The fish stayed up about an hour, and the group put around 60 in the boat quickly.

Book a trip

To book Haydn, see FishGrand.com, or follow the Williams Guide Service Facebook page, where he posts every day. Book soon: Haydn works hard all year so he can take off much of late October and November for deer season, then starts back in December. "You're more likely to find him up in a tree somewhere than out on the water when those bucks start chasing does."

Support the report

Jeff hopes Haydn will take over the report someday. Sponsors don't pay Jeff to do the Outdoor Report. He does it because he enjoys it, so supporting the brands he mentions helps keep it going.

Open this report alone →

Weather / traffic

It's warm and sunny, but this morning a north wind dropped temperatures and lowered the humidity, always a welcome relief in August. "It's not necessarily the heat that gets everybody, it's the humidity and the hot wind." There haven't been many boats or WaveRunners on weekdays, and traffic starts dropping as kids and college students head back to school. Weekends have been busy with great weather, and there's one more giant weekend ahead over Labor Day.

Crappie

Haydn with Williams Guide Service says Crappie are in the tougher-than-normal zone that comes every late July and August. He mostly uses minnows on trips, which is normal now. When he's fun fishing or scouting, he does really well on the 2-inch Desert Hero Lucky Bug from FishLucke.com on a 1/16 oz head. Jeff has been scouting with him, and they can flat catch fish casting to the brush piles without getting right on top of them. It's a really light bite, and light jigs work best on days without much wind.

Catfish

Catfishing is really good. Folks are drift fishing the southwest side of Shangri-La (there's almost always someone there when the big boats aren't running around the corner), the mouth of Honey Creek, and around Patricia Island and the islands at Sailboat. Use cut bait for Blue Cats anywhere from 10 to 50 feet. Get on a long, gradual slope or drop-off. You can often see the fish on the depth finder, then drag your baits into them.

White Bass

There are really good Sand Bass reports. You don't need a fishing boat. People troll from pontoons, runabouts and even WaveRunners with Rooster Tails, Swimming Minnows or tiny Rat-L-Traps, and Luck E Strike's new All American Rattlers will be a great choice. Troll in the evenings or early mornings. On top of the humps, try jigging spoons or 2½-inch Swimming Minnows on 1/4 oz heads.

Beat the heat

Fish live bait under the bridges, or fish at night under dock lights, bridge lights and the lights along the riprap.

Bowfishing and the Crappie boom

Haydn ran a bowfishing trip this week, and his clients did really well with lots of Gar, Carp and Buffalo up on the banks in good clear water. Jeff thinks it's wonderful: those fish have no known predators but man, so without harvest they keep multiplying and taking up the lake's biomass. His own theory is that one reason the Crappie population is where it is now is that bowfishermen have reduced the Carp and Buffalo. Those fish crowd the shallows at Crappie spawning time, vacuuming up everything and raiding panfish and Bass nests. A wildlife biologist might call him crazy, but he's watched these fish cycle together on the lake a long time.

Luck E Strike dealers

Visit the Grove Walmart for Luck E Strike products, Toby Keith, Bigfoot and Luck E Strike stickers and Jimmy Houston Redman spinnerbaits. Ask area dealers for Luck E Strike and tell them Toby Keith and Jeff Williams sent you. Trish at Littlefield's and Laramie at L&L Outdoors in Jay have wholesale pricing and say they're ready to stock it.

Open this report alone →

Crappie

Fishing is really good, though Crappie on the brush piles have started getting a little picky. That's nothing new for this time of year. Once the water warms and the shad fry mature into 1-inch baitfish, the Crappie get gorged and lethargic, and some days they're really picky. Haydn says some days they just look at his minnows instead of jumping out of the brush for them. He's still catching fish beside structure, but it's nothing like a month or so ago when they were coming off the spawn and really aggressive.

Toby Keith tribute

Jeff has been busy with ICAST, then the Toby Keith tribute event in Nashville. The NBC special, about one to two hours, should air at the end of August according to Toby's wife. It has fantastic performances, including Toby from his last studio session, so tune in.

Catfish

Catfishing is really good and very consistent, with aggressive fish. Drift shad on the main lake, or anchor on islands in 15 to 30 feet of water. If you find a school of Blue Cats on the edge of a drop-off or island, you can catch a lot. Jeff sees more people drift fishing with good equipment and drift socks to slow down. Catfishing has come a long way since he started drift fishing 40 years ago out of a paddle boat on Grand Lake.

Paddlefish / White Bass

Believe it or not, some guys are snagging Paddlefish in summer by chasing them down with LiveScope, nothing like the standard winter and early-spring snagging when the fish are staged in big groups. Tony Coatney has been catching a lot of White Bass with clients around Shangri-La.

Grand Fishing Report group

Join the GrandFishingReport.com Facebook group. Ask questions, because there are a lot of experienced anglers there. Nobody will hand you a waypoint, but they'll help with which plastic worm, soft plastic or Rooster Tail color to throw. Post pictures of your catch. You don't have to say exactly where you caught them.

Dealers

The Grove Walmart end cap has a big assortment of Jimmy Houston and Toby Keith products under a banner, Bigfoot and Toby Keith decals (just five bucks), Scroungers, Lucky Bugs, Swimming Minnows, jerkbaits, big swimbaits, buzzbait and spinnerbait kits, and Crappie Magic crankbaits. Laramie at L&L Outdoors and Trish at Littlefield's say they're putting in orders, so ask them for Luck E Strike products. Also check out Patricia's print-on-demand Grand Lake goodies at OnGrandTime.com.

Thanks

Thanks to GRDA for everything they do around the shores of Grand Lake and to the good folks at KGVE who keep the country music cranking.

Open this report alone →

Family businesses

Thanks to everyone supporting KGVE and the family's businesses around the lake: Williams Guide Service, Grand Glass Cleaning, Luck E Strike, Patricia's OnGrandTime.com, and her VIP Spa on Monkey Island. When you visit a local dealer carrying Luck E Strike products, tell them you heard Jeff on the fishing report. It lets them know you want those products.

Crappie

Jeff Crappie fished around Paradise Point over the weekend. There were lots of boats around the mouth of Elk River and up toward Three Fingers, but everyone was respectful. He caught nice Crappie, 12 to 14 inches, by finding brush piles with forward-facing LiveScope, backing off and casting. His bait was an old Luck E Strike product he pushed to get back in stock, the cable guard (wire guard) weedless ball jig head. It's coming this year in 1/32, 1/16, 1/8 and 1/4 oz, likely the biggest assortment of weedless ball heads around. He threw a 1/4 oz natural head with a 2½-inch Swimming Minnow or 2½-inch Lucky Bug and crawled it slowly through the brush. No jig head is bulletproof, but you'll be surprised how deep you can get it and how often you get it back. Yesterday Jeff went out with Haydn after a trip cancellation, fishing Haydn's brush piles around Sailboat Bridge and Shangri-La. On the down-view LiveScope the Crappie were absolutely buried in the wood. They caught a couple of limits, and the Traeger-smoked Crappie last night was fantastic.

Year classes

They caught some short fish (7 to 8 inches) for the first time in a while, which is good to see. A few years ago it was all 9½-inch fish. Now there's a bumper crop of 10- to 13-inch fish dominating the structure, so the shorties are a welcome sign.

Shad / White Bass

There are a bajillion shad fry absolutely everywhere, so anybody who says there are no shad in the lake doesn't know what they're talking about. Jeff wishes more Hybrid Stripers were stocked to help control them. White Bass are surfacing in lots of places chasing shad fry in the waves. Mornings and evenings, find wind blowing into a bank where zooplankton gathers, and you'll often find shad with predators feeding on them.

Trolling / Bass

People are catching fish trolling Rooster Tails, and some folks who bought Crappie Magic crankbaits at the Grove Walmart trolled up Crappie and White Bass. You can troll Swimming Minnows too. Tony Coatney has had some really nice hauls of White Bass on guide trips, with a few Stripers mixed in. Jeff didn't hear much about Black Bass this week, since he was at the ICAST tackle show in Orlando. White Bass and Crappie fishing is fantastic, and the water is clear and warm.

Weekday tip

During the week there are hardly any boats, just a couple of Wave Runners and a boat by Fifth and Boston as Jeff records. If you want to get away and catch some fish, come to Grand Lake on a weekday.

Open this report alone →

Holiday recap

Patricia thanks everyone who visited her at VIP Day Spa skincare on Monkey Island. Her On Grand Time print-on-demand products are doing well, with a few in the spa and many more at OnGrandTime.com. Fourth of July week was wild and crazy on the lake, with everybody running from storms, but the fishing was really good over the holiday.

Crappie

Haydn (Williams Guide Service) had clients out heading into the holiday and caught a ton of Crappie on main-lake brush piles, mainly from Sailboat Bridge over to the Governor's Island area around Shangri-La. He caught most of them on minnows, which is typical for this time of year. He can pull a few on jigs up and down the piles, and his favorite is the Desert Hero Lucky Bug, but minnows get clients in and out faster.

Bass

Jeff and Owen went Bass fishing with Luck E Strike products Jeff is still learning. Many were developed long before he arrived, since the brand is 50 years old. Owen "put it on the old man," catching some really nice Bass on a 3/8 oz Mighty Craw football jig in PBJ, fished on drop-offs with old stumps. From the back of the boat, Jeff tried the Scrounger, swimbaits, a chatterbait-style bait and a spinnerbait, and lost one really nice fish on a deep Smoothie crankbait run in 8 to 10 feet of water on a point. Tony Coatney of Shangri-La Guide Service says he's doing really well on Bass, catching a lot of fish on jigging spoons.

White Bass

There are a ton of fry in the lake, so White Bass are busting on the surface midday, early morning and late evening. Look for wind blowing into points. They can be particular, so downsize to the small Lucky Bug (called 2-inch but not quite) on 1/16 oz jig heads. At night under lights, small Lucky Bugs in purple and pink were a great color.

Catfish

The Catfish spawn should be about done. A few hand fishermen may still be after Flatheads, but most Blues are off the nest, and drift fishermen are catching a lot around Shangri-La, Horse Creek, the islands around Sailboat Bridge, and the flats east of Sailboat to the mouth of Elk River. Use fresh, good-size cut shad.

Fishing with Krystal Keith

Jeff took Toby's daughter Krystal Keith fishing. She'll be spending more time working with Jeff at Luck E Strike, and she's quite an angler, having spent a lot of daddy-daughter time fishing with Toby growing up. They fished underwater rock piles and islands in the Horse Creek area with a 1/8 oz Scrounger and a pretty good-size split shot ahead of it. On a 2½-inch Lucky Bug (Jeff's go-to size) and the Scrounger they caught Crappie, White Bass, drum and Catfish, and shot a couple of video clips that Luck E Strike followers loved.

Walmart Grove end cap

The Grove Walmart sporting-goods area has a sidekick display with Toby Keith stickers, a Red Solo Cup sticker, Bigfoot stickers ("Should Have Been a Bigfoot" is the top seller, plus "Proceed to Party" with a Bigfoot holding a red Solo cup), and Jimmy Houston Redman spinnerbaits. It also carries Luck E Strike American-made Lucky Bugs and swimming minnows. Other lake dealers have requested catalogs, and after a long year Luck E Strike finally has inventory to supply them.

Dog days

We're rolling into the dog days, with little wind and real heat, but the fishing should be outstanding as long as there are no big floods. Fish get very predictable now, so if you caught them trolling in the evenings before, you can do it again. Tie on a Crappie Magic crankbait, troll it and hang on to your pole.

Open this report alone →

Weather / pop-up storms

Warm, toasty, muggy weather, definitely July in Oklahoma. Jeff warned about this over Memorial Day: any summer weekend a thunderstorm can pop up right on top of the lake out of nowhere. Yesterday a small one popped up between Shangri-La and Woodard Hollow, and most boaters ran into the storm instead of heading toward Sailboat Bridge, where there was no storm. Check the weather app on your phone to get out of the wind, rain and lightning. The same could happen today and the next couple of days. Then a nice stretch of cooler, less humid weather is coming in, which will make fishing really enjoyable and still leave it plenty warm for tubing, surfing and swimming.

Crappie with the Keith family

Haydn (Williams Guide Service) is taking Jeff and Krystal Keith Crappie fishing this morning with minnows on main-lake brush piles. Krystal's girls and a few friends make four little ones in the boat, aiming to sling some slabs over the side before the holiday boat traffic hits. Since Toby's passing, Krystal is the family's representative at Luck E Strike, and she and Jeff will be doing a lot of fishing together. She and Toby spent a lot of daddy-daughter time fishing when she was growing up.

Bass

Jeff caught three really nice black Bass on some of the Luck E Strike lures he hadn't fished much. The brand is 50 years old, and he's getting out to talk more about the American-made hard baits, crankbaits, chatterbaits and the Scrounger, all at fishlucke.com.

Catfish

Catfish are biting. This is the time of year to start catching a lot of Catfish drifting.

Holiday boat traffic tip

Evenings will bring heavy boat traffic on the main lake. To avoid it over the holiday, fish from the mouth of Elk River up to Twin Bridges. There's plenty of territory with smaller fishing boats, a few pleasure boats and Wave Runners, and not many big boats running.

Sign-off

Happy Fourth of July. Stay safe out there, and remember, freedom don't come free.

Open this report alone →

Weather / Fourth of July traffic

It's beautiful but steamy. Yesterday's thunderstorm dropped about half an inch at Monkey Island, cooling things off. The water is really clear and the lake very stable heading into the Fourth of July. Next week, especially after Tuesday or Wednesday, fish early in the morning before the big boats, WaveRunners, surfers and tubers churn up the lake. The upper end (the mouth of the Elk River up through Three Fingers to Twin Bridges) will be calmer. The Elk River and Honey Creek will be busy, and Sailboat Bridge to the dam extremely busy, especially if it stays warm and sunny with lighter winds.

Jeff learns Black Bass

Jeff is applying his years of Crappie, trout, White Bass and Catfish experience (boat control, LiveScope, fish finders and GPS) to consistently target Black Bass. As head of Luck E Strike, with all these Bass lures, he wants to learn how they perform. Fun fishing this week, he Carolina-rigged a Tequila Sunrise Ringworm (a kit now, individual packs later this summer) on long mid-lake points and caught some nice Bass.

Owen's big Bass

Last Friday Jeff's youngest son Owen switched to Luck E Strike's PB&J (peanut butter and jelly) football jig with a crawdad trailer and caught Bass of 6, 4½ and 3 pounds. Jeff was cranking a 3/8 oz Scrounger with a Craw Bug from the Craw Bug kit, the crawdad Guido and Dion Hibdon designed for Luck E Strike, originally called the Guido Bug. He had two really nice bites: one broke his line, and the other he fought until it was almost in sight. Jeff promises more Bass information than the report has had maybe since Ivan Martin, since Bass anglers are tight-lipped.

Dealers

The Grove Walmart has a starter assortment of Luck E Strike. Trish at Littlefield's has the catalog and is interested, and Laramie at L&L Outdoors in Jay has the catalog and pricing. Jeff wishes his buddy Toby Keith were here to talk about it, because he had such a passion for it. Jimmy Houston is telling everybody, and Jeff credits the many great Bass anglers and earlier owners behind the brand's Bass products.

Crappie

Haydn is catching a lot of Crappie, now more on brush piles than docks. He mostly uses minnows, but he'll cast a Lucky Bug or a little Crappie Scrounger to pick off fish up on top before moving in with minnows.

Catfish / dock lights

Neighbor Lance, fishing his dock this morning, says Catfish are biting at the point of Shangri-La. People have been fishing Jeff's dock lights at night and catching fish, and he enjoys watching them. In summer heat, find dock lights to fish, but don't get on anyone's dock, and treat everything respectfully.

VIP Day Spa / OnGrandTime

Visit Patricia's VIP Day Spa on Grand Lake and OnGrandTime.com for t-shirts, hats, coasters, stickers and beach towels with custom artwork. "We're living on Grand Time."

Open this report alone →

Weekday secret

Jeff is recording from his back porch on a beautiful summer day with not much happening on the lake. Weekdays, Monday through Friday mornings, are still one of Grand Lake's best-kept secrets. The farther south you go the more pleasure boaters you'll find, but from Shangri-La east to Sailboat Bridge and from Sailboat up to the mouth of the Elk River you won't get beat up by big boats. There are just a few WaveRunners and grandparents pulling grandkids on tubes, and everybody is welcome to enjoy the lake.

Reading the water by dock light

Some murky water came down the upper end and crept toward Shangri-La over the weekend. Jeff judges clarity by the halo from the Green Monster fishing lights on his dock at night. The murky water rounded off the halo, and now it's getting brighter again as clear water filters back in and the sediment settles.

Spawn status

Most Catfish are coming off the spawn, though some Blue Cats and quite a few Flatheads are still spawning. The Crappie and Bass spawns should be done, and White Bass are out of the rivers and creeks.

Surface action

A couple of days ago, on a drop-off between Governor's Island and Snake Island, White Bass and some Hybrids blew up everywhere in the morning. They're gorging on the half-inch to one-inch Shad fry from this year's spawn. From now until about mid-August, when the Shad grow bigger, expect fish surfacing in the mornings, evenings and even midday on cloudy days. Try Goat Island, Sweetwater, Governor's Island, Sailboat Bridge, the Bernice Bridge and the shallow gravel just southeast of it. Don't forget trolling.

Luck E Strike at Grove Walmart

Heath Claxon at the Grove Walmart heard the Luck E Strike talk on the report and asked to stock it. There's now a display with jerkbaits, square bills and crankbaits, Lucky Bugs, Swimming Minnows, the Crappie Magic crankbait and kits, with more on order. Jeff especially wants them to get Scroungers.

Scrounger slam

Fishing near Bernice on Sunday with Patricia, Jeff caught Channel Cat, Blue Cat, Kentucky Bass, Black Bass, White Bass and Crappie, all on a 1/8 oz Scrounger with a 2½-inch Moonshine Lucky Bug. He wishes he'd known years ago how good the Scrounger is. Plenty of Bass anglers know it, but Crappie, White Bass, Walleye and Smallmouth anglers mostly don't. Troll it or cast it. He likes the Lucky Bug on it a bit better than the Swimming Minnow. Ask area dealers for made-in-USA Luck E Strike Scroungers in 1/16 or 1/8 oz, or order at LuckEStrike.com.

Open this report alone →

Early summer pattern

Thanks from Excalibur Sporting Goods and KGVE. Fishing is really, really good as the lake moves into its early-summer pattern and clears up. Black Bass, White Bass and Crappie are biting, and weekends have been busy despite a few pop-up storms.

Catfish / noodling

Catfish are still on the spawn, though you can catch a few. Flatheads will go on the nest before long, and Blue Cats should come off toward the end of June. Hand fishermen could probably get bit right now, but Jeff warns that big Blue Cats aren't like Flatheads. Once they get your hand in their mouth, they "do donuts" on your fingers and it's really hard to get away. They're ferocious.

Finally, a Bass report

With the Luck E Strike assortment built and the catalog nearly out (White Bass, Crappie, Walleye and Black Bass), Jeff is gearing up to Bass fish. Luck E Strike has historically been even better known for Largemouth than Crappie. Grand Lake has a lot of great Bass fishermen, but the tournament anglers are tight-lipped with money on the line. Jeff sells tackle and wants to show how Luck E Strike's works.

The Scrounger

It has long been a mainstay for Bass anglers, but few have fished it for Crappie, White Bass and Walleye. Jeff has been running a 2½-inch Lucky Bug (the straight-tail Crappie bait with a flimsy, floppy tail) on a 1/8 oz Scrounger. He casts it over brush and to suspended Crappie and White Bass, finding them under the bridges in midday shade, and they hop all over it. It's easy to fish: cast and reel. The faster you reel, the more it wobbles. Jeff admits he didn't know how good Scroungers were until about a month ago.

Fishing with Jimmy Houston and Krystal Keith

Last week Jeff fished Jimmy Houston's Twin Eagle Ranch near Sulphur, Oklahoma, with Jimmy and Toby's daughter Krystal Keith. Krystal put a Whiskey Girl Lucky Bug on a 1/8 oz Scrounger and caught Bass of unbelievable size in Jimmy's 130-acre lake. Jeff caught all his Bass on a Scrounger dressed with the old Guido Bug crawdad, a black one with red pinchers. For Grand Lake Bass he'll go to about a 1/2 oz Scrounger on 30-pound braid with a 4- or 5-inch bait such as the small curl-tail Ringworm or the Guido Bug.

Made in Greenwood

It took a year to assemble the assortment and learn American-made manufacturing, painting and injection molding. There's now a great team in Greenwood, the catalog is done, and plenty of molds and tooling are waiting to produce.

Patterns

Crappie will be on brush piles, in shady areas and suspended. Troll for White Bass in the evenings with Swimming Minnows and Rooster Tails (or even a Scrounger) around Sweetwater, Governor's Island and the islands out at Sailboat. Midday, jigging spoons work around Goat Island and Sweetwater.

Open this report alone →

Pop-up storm rodeo

As Jeff predicted, a pop-up thunderstorm hit during the busy Memorial Day weekend, and it was a rodeo: people scrambling for shelter in heavy rain and a little hail. The rain comes so hard you can't see the shoreline, and people get disoriented and lost. Another pop-up hit Shangri-La last night for about 15 minutes. Jeff and Patricia were eating at the docks restaurant when Haydn texted that he'd just made it back from a guide trip as the storm grew right on top of them. In May, June and July these storms don't roll in where you can watch them. They expand and grow overhead, can come from the east or southeast, and often die out fast. If you see a dark cloud growing quickly, don't wait. Head in and let it pass.

White Bass

White Bass fishing is fantastic, with schools of hundreds, if not thousands, of fish. Jeff has fished around Sailboat Bridge and the islands, Governor's Island and Sweetwater, and guys are catching a lot at Goat Island (he passes too many White Bass to get that far). Midday, the fish rest stacked on underwater islands and high spots, then move off to feed, often in the evening and at night.

G3 Sportsman

Scott Turnage of G3 Sportsman TV fished with Jeff yesterday and said, "Jeff, this fishing is just ridiculous right now." They caught White Bass and Crappie up to 14 inches on 2½-inch Swimming Minnows with 1/8 oz Luck E Strike heads in Moonshine (white and chartreuse), Old School (black and chartreuse) and USA (clear with red, white and blue flakes). Bring an extra pack or two of plastics, because White Bass tear them up. Scott also landed a 10-pound Flathead on a black-and-chartreuse Swimming Minnow on 6-pound line.

Bridges for shade, and a wave warning

In the last week Jeff has caught Crappie at the Honey Creek, Sailboat and Bernice bridges, with White Bass at Honey Creek too. Bridges get you out of the midday sun, usually with a breeze. Watch out at Sailboat Bridge, though. Fishing a pier on the south side where the river channel passes under, Jeff barely caught a glimpse of the waves from a big boat that never slowed down under the bridge. Boats are supposed to idle under bridges, but at Sailboat many don't, and their wake can rock your world against the piers even when you never saw the boat. Honey Creek and Bernice aren't too bad.

Crappie

They haven't moved into brush much yet. Haydn is still catching a lot of open-water fish and some around docks. Jeff's are coming off rocky structure and drop-offs, staging on bluffs and rock drop-offs and on top of underwater islands.

Catfish / Bass

Catfishing will probably slow a bit, with Blue and Channel Cats in the rocks. Bass fishing is really good, with lots of nice stringers at the evening jackpot tournaments. Now's the time to come fish Grand Lake.

Luck E Strike / OnGrandTime

Visit LuckEStrike.com for American-made hard baits from Greenwood, soft plastics and Jimmy Houston Redman spinnerbaits. Luck E Strike is ramping up its Bass products over the next few months. For a unique lake gift, check Patricia's OnGrandTime.com: t-shirts, caps, coasters, stickers, blankets and pillows.

Open this report alone →

New KGVE sponsor

Mike at Excalibur Sporting Goods is now the sponsor of the Grand Lake Outdoor Report on KGVE. Jeff has been out there several times for ammo and guns. Mike is very knowledgeable, likes to work with you, carries ammo and has a nice shooting range. (L&L Outdoors in Jay does a great job too.)

Memorial Day safety

It's a big holiday weekend, and many anglers will go early before the big boats and WaveRunners pile in. Thunderstorm chances are nothing new for Memorial Day in Oklahoma. Living at the point of Shangri-La, Jeff and Patricia have seen some crazy scenes when a storm rolls in at 3 p.m. on a Saturday or Sunday and everybody leaves Courthouse Hollow and Woodard Hollow at once. Novices rent or buy boats, people get lost, confused and panicked, and that's how accidents happen. Pay attention to everything around you.

Honey Creek Bridge

Jeff fished the Honey Creek Bridge over the weekend with friends Ken Rains and Mike Murray. They kept about 30 keeper Crappie, released maybe 15 small ones and caught well over 50 White Bass, all on the 2½-inch Luck E Strike Swimming Minnow with 1/8 oz heads. Jeff threw black-and-chartreuse (Old School), and Ken and Mike threw Knockout (clear chartreuse). They fished all around the bridge, in the sun and under it, alongside trollers and pontoons anchored under the bridge fishing minnows.

Bernice Bridge

Jeff took Patricia to Bernice Bridge and they got into a bunch of great big Sand Bass on the same 2½-inch Swimming Minnow in Old School, Moonshine and Knockout with 1/8 oz heads. Patricia had a great time casting and catching, and some fish were surfacing. Main-lake brush piles held Crappie, but it was too windy to stay. That's big water from Governor's Island to the Bernice Bridge and around Blackberry and Snake islands.

Holiday trolling

Trolling should be great around Sweetwater, Governor's Island, the islands around Shangri-La and Goat Island, with lots of White Bass and some Crappie mixed in. Go early or late, because some of these are high-traffic areas when the big boats run.

Weekend plans

Barbecue ribs, a couple of adult beverages, maybe a cigar on the back deck, and people- and boat-watching, which is sometimes as fun as being out there.

OnGrandTime.com

Visit Patricia's new print-on-demand site, OnGrandTime.com, for custom-designed Grand Lake apparel and gifts: pillows, blankets, towels, t-shirts, caps, stickers and coasters. It's original artwork, not recycled designs. And check out what Toby Keith and Jeff are doing with American-made hard baits at LuckEStrike.com.

Open this report alone →

New format: a phone recording

Jeff is proud of mastering some new technology ("hard for an old dog to do"). Back when his boys were born there were no cell phones. When it was time to go to the hospital, his wife Patricia went out front and rang a bell. This week is his first phone-recorded report, with his good friend John Lewis from the Shangri-La area. John is the friend who introduced Jeff to Toby Keith. Without John, Jeff might never have met Toby.

Crappie

Post-spawn Crappie are probably in 15 to 20 feet of water. Drop a jig, or swim a Lucky Bug swimming minnow (or any bait) over the top of a brush pile and you should find active post-spawn fish. Jeff saw Haydn getting minnows. Haydn's been using minnows on trips, which is always a good choice.

Remembering the first Toby trip

The first time John and Jeff took Toby Keith fishing was this time of year in 2020. John called and asked, "Jeff, you want to take Toby Keith fishing?" ("Well, hell yeah. Who wouldn't?") Toby had never seen LiveScope. Watching the Crappie in those brush piles as they picked them off, he absolutely flipped out and loved it. They have pictures from that trip, and Jeff calls them precious memories. That trip started a great relationship. Toby got interested in the tackle business, asked a lot about Jeff's history in it, and loved Catfishing. He told stories about fishing the Red River in his jet boat near his Tishomingo-area property, where the Chisholm Trail crossed the Red River. Jeff hopes to go down there and fish later this year.

Lake conditions / debris

The lake level is going down. There's a lot of debris around the point at Shangri-La, but Bass boats were flying around, and it seems the debris is hanging up along the banks, so the lake may not be nearly as nasty as people thought.

Visit

If you're listening somewhere other than the shores of Grand Lake, this is a great time to be here. Jeff thanks John for helping with the first phone report.

Open this report alone →

Weather / lake level

The lake is glass calm this morning after a nasty storm last night dropped hail at Monkey Island, Fairland, Grove and around the lake. The lake is up substantially, with two main gates and some small gates open at the dam. Jeff can see the current coming around the point at Shangri-La and past his dock, carrying trash and debris down the Neosho, Spring and Elk rivers from Missouri and Kansas. That's expected, and a healthy inflow is good for the lake.

Spawn / high water

This is the best thing that could have happened to the Crappie and Bass spawn. Lots of fish on the bank are protected, and the fry will be too. Muddy, high water is tough on anglers, but it pays off for years. When male Crappie stay on the beds raising fry, there are tons of Bluegill and Sunfish waiting to eat them, so the more flooded grass, bushes, trees and leaves, the better young fish survive until they can get off the bank and start eating zooplankton in the main lake.

Crappie

Haydn has had a tough time but is still getting folks limits, running all over the lake chasing a little clear water. Jeff fished with his good friend Mike Murray a couple of times over the weekend at Honey Creek Bridge, Bernice, and assorted points and coves. They caught a lot of nice Crappie and cleaned several spawned-out females that had dropped two-thirds to three-quarters of their eggs. The spawn is definitely going on.

White Bass

Jeff and Mike also caught a ton of Sand Bass on 2½-inch Swimming Minnows with 1/8 oz heads. Jeff threw Thunderstorm and Mike threw Moonshine (chartreuse and white), just casting and reeling. The White Bass absolutely destroyed the Crappie Magic crankbait in white pearl with red eyes: reel it fast and they hammer it on a reaction strike. It caught a few Crappie too. Trollers take note: the Crappie Magic runs about 4 to 6 feet deep.

Below the dam

Fishing in the tailrace below Pensacola Dam is on fire. Weeks of full generation are pulling fish up, and people are catching Hybrids, White Bass and Crappie below the cable. Make sure your engine is in good operating condition before you go. The water is really swift, and with an unreliable motor you'll be in the trees, on a bridge or on the riprap before you know it. It can go from good to bad in a hurry.

Inflow outlook

The dam has almost caught up with the inflow. Not enough rain fell up north yesterday to keep a heavy inflow coming. John Redmond has some water in it, but releases of probably 6,000 to 8,000 CFS will be manageable. Spring River, Honey Creek and the Elk River will be coming down. As long as they keep pulling water at the dam, the Honey Creek and Elk River arms will clear fastest, and Duck Creek and Drowning Creek will clear from the back out to the main lake. Even in muddy water you can troll up shallow fish on the flats by Governor's Island or the islands at Shangri-La.

On Grand Time

Patricia's site, OnGrandTime.com, has cool new t-shirts (Flathead, Paddlefish, Crappie, Bass and White Bass designs) plus decorations and decals for lake houses. They're great for birthdays or vacation gifts. And check out the fishing lures being made in Greenwood, Arkansas.

Open this report alone →

Inflow / log jam

The Grand Fishing Report Facebook group is nearing 20,000 members, and more folks are finding GrandFishingReport.com again. Grand Lake finally got some inflow and is up. Four small gates were running at the dam with full generation, and they've finally caught up with the inflow. The lake was about 4 feet over normal yesterday, which isn't too terribly bad, and the Neosho should crash tomorrow if no more rain falls. Above the Neosho River bridge at Twin Bridges there's usually 50 to 75 yards of brush on the north side. This time Jeff bets 300 to 500 yards of brush is stacked up the river, probably the largest log jam he's ever seen. Several group members posted photos, and it's incredible how it stacks up. Water still moves under and around it through the floodplain, but when it breaks loose there'll be a lot of extra driftwood in the lake. There are already plenty of floaters, so be careful. The water is getting muddy, with heavily stained but not yet chocolate-brown water at Jeff's place by Shangri-La. There's a mud line between Shangri-La and the mouth of Honey Creek, where some clear water remains, and the tributaries will likely stay muddy. The surrounding watersheds and lakes are packed full, and all the lakes draining down the Arkansas River are being managed accordingly, so Jeff expects releases to catch up with the flow fast.

Catfish

Jeff went catfishing with John Lewis yesterday afternoon and caught a few Blue Cats in about 6 feet of water on cut bait. It was too windy and rough to fish the islands around Sailboat Bridge like he wanted, so they went where the fishing was easier. They talked about their good friend Toby Keith, who absolutely loved to Catfish and would have loved to be in the boat. Over the weekend Jeff caught some really nice Blue Cats off his dock with his wife Patricia and son Owen. Catfishing is great.

Crappie

Haydn (Williams Guide Service) somehow keeps catching limits every day. Jeff watched him bring two groups into the Shangri-La resort marina with limits and a bunch of smiles. He's catching most of them on minnows, bouncing between the bank and the docks, and is starting to see spawned-out females with much smaller egg sacs. There are still plenty of Crappie on the bank, though you may find them a little deeper than last week. A slow drawdown and these 3- to 5-foot rises protect the spawn. Rising water makes it harder for Sunfish to raid the nests, and the male Crappie stay and guard the nests and fry. Jeff expects waves of spawning fish off and on until mid-May, later the farther down the lake you go. Grand Lake may have pulled off another really nice spawn.

Gear

Patricia has a bunch of brand-new t-shirts on OnGrandTime.com, with Flathead, Spoonbill, Crappie, Black Bass and White Bass designs, and the stickers just came in. For lures, see what Toby Keith and Jeff are building at Luck E Strike in Greenwood, Arkansas: LuckEStrike.com.

Open this report alone →

One year in Greenwood

Jeff recorded from the Greenwood, Arkansas plant he and Toby Keith bought. This week is the one-year anniversary of Luck E Strike there. The team has been working hard on the American-made hard-bait selection and bringing in import goods, and area dealers around the lake are starting to call. Thanks to every angler who asks a dealer for the new Luck E Strike products. The report is on KGVE Grand Lake Radio, GrandFishingReport.com, YouTube and the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group.

Crappie

Crappie are on the banks right now. Swimming minnows, or a cork and a Lucky Bug, are great choices. Williams Guide Service is still catching big female Crappie between the docks and the bank and limiting folks out every day. Some fish are on the bank and some are still over the boat docks, so the Crappie fishing remains fantastic.

White Bass

White Bass are coming back down Spring River and the Neosho River and filtering into the lake. Last week Jeff found huge White Bass around Shangri-La and the island, and there are reports of White Bass at Fifth and Boston too.

Inflow / Paddlefish

A big inflow looks to be coming. If it brings the Neosho up, expect a lot of Paddlefish up at the dam in Miami, so snaggers should get ready.

Bass with Al Fisher

Guest Al Fisher, Luck E Strike's lure designer and catalog guy, once won a big Bass tournament on Grand Lake and is a prolific tournament angler. In April and early May, Bass are in every stage (pre-spawn, spawn and the start of post-spawn), so look shallow. A jig, including the MCFJ jig, is an everyday tool deep or shallow. When Grand Lake is down and there's not much cover, a small bait like the CMCB Crappie Magic Crank Bait is really effective on Bass. It was a key player in an FLW tournament Al won in the 2000s and lets him fish behind other anglers and still catch fish. Al limits himself to about three colors this time of year: a white (shad), a perch and a red. Red shines when the water is 50 degrees or below, especially Chili Bowl, a crawdad red that's awesome in early spring.

Crappie Magic crankbait

Jeff says the little Crappie Magic Crank Bait will catch just about anything that swims, Catfish included. They've been built in Greenwood since the start, American made, and are two for $5 at LuckEStrike.com as a try-it promotion.

Open this report alone →

Bass

It was a great week of fishing. Last weekend's big Bass tournament weighed some really, really heavy stringers, and anglers told Jeff the Bass fishing was on fire.

White Bass and the Crappie Magic

Jeff has caught White Bass and Crappie for days. It's crazy how many White Bass (Sand Bass, as Oklahomans call them) are already out in the main lake. He catches them at night under the light on his dock, and the wind has pushed them into windy coves and points like it's summertime. He doesn't believe he's ever seen this many in the main lake this early. Usually that's around the first to the middle of May. He's caught them all on the Crappie Magic crankbait in white/pearl and clown. For Grand Lake's many trollers, he's not sure there's much better than the Crappie Magic for trolling. Swimming minnows and Rooster Tails are great too.

Crappie on the bank

Crappie moved onto the banks heavy over the last two days, after a couple of warm nights that stayed in the 60s with a warm wind. Historically, now through the end of April is the best time to catch them, and some will still be on the bank on the south end come May 1. Work a Swimming Minnow up and down the banks in Knockout (clear chartreuse) or Moonshine (chartreuse and white, a color Toby Keith helped pick). Haydn has been catching limit after limit on Old School (black and chartreuse). Jeff can't believe how many Crappie are in the lake, or how many that kid catches for all his happy clients.

Paddlefish / Catfish

Guides are still snagging Paddlefish up around Twin Bridges. The first one- or two-foot rise on the lake is prime time for big Flatheads and big Blues. When the water comes up fast, there's a two- or three-day window to really get your string stretched, and live bait gives you a shot at a big old Flathead.

Looking ahead to May

In May, Sand Bass will pile up on top of the humps and start surfacing as the new Gizzard Shad hatch comes on, and the lake will fill with trolling, casting, WaveRunners, skiing and tubing. For now it's quiet. Jeff and Haydn fished this evening and saw very few boats, though people were catching Crappie on the bank. Folks waved from their lake-house porches, eating dinner and watching the fishermen go by.

OnGrandTime.com

Jeff's wife has a new print-on-demand site for Grand Lake gifts: hats, t-shirts, lake maps, coasters, doormats and more. Free shipping is built into the price, and she keeps adding to the assortment. Also check out Crappie Magic crankbaits at LuckEStrike.com, two for $5 online right now.

Open this report alone →

Spring is here

Lots of people are out fishing and posting pictures on the GrandFishingReport.com Facebook group, from out-of-towners to locals. In April the Crappie and Bass head for the bank, White Bass run the rivers, Paddlefish get going and Catfish go shallow.

White Bass / Paddlefish

There are good reports of Crappie and White Bass on Spring River. Pictures showed Paddlefish snagged at Miami last week, though the water didn't get very high, and Jeff doesn't think today's and tomorrow's rain will move them up in a big way. It might stir the water and bring a few. Grand Lake still hasn't had a big inflow this year, unusual for mid-April. Some years bring big floods in February and March, and April showers can bring lots of muddy water, so anything can happen by month's end.

Spawning Crappie on the bank

Bass and Crappie are close to the banks, and some people are surely catching Crappie there already. In the evening, a jig under a bobber (a little Lucky Bug under a float) is a great way to try. The Swimming Minnow and Go-Go Minnow are tremendous lures for spawning Crappie too. If you work during the day, fish evenings: the big females often move closer to the bank near dark. Many people keep catching spawners after dark right on the bank. One of Jeff's favorites is a lighted bobber near a yard light or street light, where you can silhouette the bobber in 12 to 24 inches (1 to 3 feet) of water. You'll be surprised how many Crappie you can catch at night.

Williams Guide Service

Haydn hasn't gotten on the spawning Crappie yet. He's finishing a few Spoonbill trips below Hudson toward Fort Gibson for clients who wanted that area.

Flatheads on the rise

Catfish are biting all kinds of cut bait, and big chunks of Gizzard Shad are hard to beat. In April and May, Blues, Channels and Flatheads all move shallow. Some of Jeff's best Flathead fishing ever has come in the last two weeks of April and first two weeks of May on a rise. Set out three or four rods with live bait, fish shallow around structure, and hang on. Grand Lake has an abundance of Flatheads from 15 to 30 pounds, and bigger ones too. "It's not like channel catfishing." You never know what will eat a big live bait, and Big Blue Cats bite during the day then too.

Outlook

Barring something unexpected from these showers, Jeff expects the water to stay down, clear and warm enough to push Crappie to the banks. April 10 has always been his target date, and from now through the end of April is when you can really get them.

Open this report alone →

Grand Fishing Report online

The GrandFishingReport.com Facebook group keeps growing. There's also a Facebook page you can't post on. The GrandFishingReport.com website is back up and gets a lot of traffic and views, so local businesses interested in sponsoring or advertising can message through the site.

Crappie on the bank

A small inflow came through and the lake has come back down and stabilized. On the upper end, not quite to Twin Bridges, two anglers caught keeper spawning Crappie on the bank in the evenings a couple of nights ago, using a 2-inch Lucky Bug under a bobber. They didn't quite fill two limits. Any day now Jeff expects most of the fish to hit the banks. The water is about 60 degrees, right at the tipping point, and the warm days today through the weekend should push Crappie to the bank, especially on the upper end.

John Lewis and remembering Toby

John Lewis sent pictures of really nice Crappie from Monkey Island, caught on a Lucky Bug in Desert Hero (chartreuse and pumpkin) on what looked like a 1/16 oz chartreuse head. John is always on big Crappie. Jeff looks forward to time in the boat with John talking about Toby Keith and the good times of the last three years. Toby loved fishing the Grand Lake Crappie spawn on the marina docks and out in the lake, and he loved the Crappie Magic crankbait. Jeff had hoped to get pictures with Toby this spring using the color patterns they picked together. Unfortunately, that didn't work out.

Crappie Magic deal

Jeff is still at Luck E Strike in Greenwood. For a few more days you can get two American-made Crappie Magic crankbaits for $5 at LuckEStrike.com, a way to get the little American-made hard bait into anglers' hands for the spawn. Please also ask area dealers for the products.

Paddlefish

Spoonbill fishing has been fantastic from Twin Bridges south. Fish are still in the rivers, waiting on one big inflow to drive them up to Miami. Several days of rain are in the forecast for late next week, and if it comes, the Paddlefish will be thick at Miami.

Catfish

The next good rise, especially a warm rain, should make Catfishing incredible around the lake. Expect lots of Blues, some Flatheads and many Channel Cats up shallow, biting worms, chicken livers, prepared baits, cut Shad and live bait.

White Bass

White Bass and Crappie are still biting up at Twin Bridges. Around April 15 the river White Bass usually start to dissipate. When they do, fish below the dam at Grand during intermittent generation, often from the bank.

Open this report alone →

Where to listen

You can hear the report on KGVE 99.3, the YouTube channel, the GrandFishingReport.com website and the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group.

Williams Guide Service

Fishing has been really good. Haydn is running two trips a day, sometimes Crappie in the morning and Paddlefish in the afternoon or vice versa.

Paddlefish

A lot of Paddlefish have moved into the upper end of the lake and are waiting on the first strong rise, which usually comes in March or April. The lake is a little high from this week's and the weekend's rain, with intermittent generation below the dam and no floodgates open last Jeff checked. It isn't enough to push the fish up to Miami, where the bank crowd can get after them.

Crappie

Haydn is catching a lot in deep brush and around boat docks on 2-inch Lucky Bugs (he prefers them to the 2½-inch) with a 1/16 oz jig head. His colors are the blues and clears (USA, Thunderstorm) plus purple-and-pink, which he really likes. He's also LiveScoping roaming fish in the coves. It's a slow way to fill several limits, but effective, and his clients enjoy picking them off.

Big Blue Cats from the bank

Matt Dodge keeps posting huge Catfish from the bank on the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group. He keeps his spots private, and rightfully so. He has proved you can catch big Blue Cats from the bank on Grand Lake by targeting them on leftover winter-kill Shad.

Shallow action

Crappie are moving shallow looking for spawning beds, and Shad are staging shallow too, ahead of the April–May spawn. Cast into 3 to 10 feet (even 2 to 6 feet) off shallow points, docks and flats. There's also a lot of bank fishing below the dam. Bank anglers, keep at it.

Bassmaster Classic

Congratulations to everyone who fished the Bassmaster event on Grand Lake. Luck E Strike wasn't there yet because it's still building inventory and its American-made hard baits. Jeff looks forward to showing everything at ICAST in Orlando in July, the country's largest tackle show, and is setting up wholesale customers nationwide. To support the report, ask dealers for the products he mentions: the Lucky Bug, STX jerkbait, Swimming Minnow and Crappie Magic crankbait. Dealers know how to order them through wholesale distribution. Visit LuckEStrike.com.

Open this report alone →

Early spawn watch

Stormy weather but really warm temperatures. Haydn with Williams Guide Service has been sending pictures of Crappie he's cleaning, and Jeff can't believe how far along the eggs are. They aren't ready to hit the bank yet, but the eggs are starting to get bloody. Without a strong cold front or two to push the water temperature down, Crappie could spawn toward the end of this month. That isn't unheard of, but it would be unusual for a lot of Crappie to hit the bank at the end of March instead of around the second week of April. March can be cold and miserable or warm and wonderful, like the last few weeks. The water is warm enough that fish could move to the bank comfortably if they were ready.

The Crappie Magic crankbait

Jeff is excited about Luck E Strike's Crappie Magic crankbait. Over the years he has worked with Go-Go Minnows, Swimming Minnows, Crappie Kickers, Lucky Bugs and Flea Flys, but he never got to try a small floating crankbait for Crappie. It floats when it hits the water and dives about 2 to 3 feet as you reel. The faster you reel, the deeper it goes. It's an alternative to lead heads and soft plastics, which catch a lot of fish but hang up a lot and leave you unsure how deep you are when swimming them off the bank. (A cork and bobber is still a fun way to catch spawning Crappie too.) Jeff has already caught White Bass, Crappie and Kentucky Bass on it. Packaging arrives at the plant this week or early next. Area dealers can place orders now, and it's also on LuckEStrike.com. Haydn and John Lewis will be testing it, and sinking models are in the works for casting over summer brush and at schooling White Bass. It's economical and made in the USA in Greenwood, Arkansas.

Paddlefish

Snagging is really good on the upper end. With a little fresh water and movement, Paddlefish will be thick at the dam in Miami. This is exactly the time of year. Use a barbless treble hook, and if you've never been, pay attention, because Riverview Park gets wild and crazy when the fish run and the water's running and muddy. It's a great place to catch them from the bank once you understand what's going on.

Catfish / White Bass / Crappie

There are lots of good Catfish reports. White Bass are fantastic, with some Crappie, up Spring River, if you can find room ("sometimes you're casting into another guy's boat"). The Neosho River should be getting better, with reports of roaming Crappie caught on LiveScope there.

Bassmaster Classic

The Bassmaster Classic is coming to the area, with competition at Grand Lake out of the Wolf Creek facility and the expo in Tulsa. Jeff wishes Luck E Strike were far enough along with its Bass assortment to have a booth, but that's coming. Go out and watch the weigh-in to see how it's done at the very top level of the sport.

Open this report alone →

Share your pictures

Post on the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group and send pictures of your kids, grandkids, spouse or favorite fishing dog out on Grand Lake. A small White Bass, a 2-pound Crappie or a big old Catfish, they want to see it.

Twin Bridges / Spring River

Not much has changed from last week, and there's still a tremendous number of fish up at Twin Bridges. With the watershed in Kansas and Missouri this high and saturated, the expected rain could bring runoff. That would muddy the river for a few days, but it would also pull more fish up. After the river comes back down, a lot of fish will move into the upper end of the lake.

Paddlefish from the bank

Game wardens will be patrolling at the low-water dam park in Miami (Riverview Park). Use a barbless treble hook and be careful, because it can get dangerous with everybody throwing big hooks and sinkers from one side of the river to the other. There have been accidents over the years. It's a tremendous place to snag Paddlefish from the bank, but if you've never been, go watch how it's done before you walk down the bank and try it.

Crappie

Haydn with Williams Guide Service has been catching a lot of Crappie on the Lucky Bug in Thunderstorm, even though the wind drove him nuts this week before the rain arrived. Fish shallow water from about 1 to 6 feet deep.

Matt Dodge

Friend Matt Dodge has been catching really nice fish on the USA-colored Swimming Minnow. John Lewis sent pictures of Matt fishing below the dam at Grand. Matt also caught some really nice Blue Cats off the bank with Shad in shallow water on the upper end, toward Sailboat Bridge. He always posts nice reports on the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group.

GrandFishingReport.com

The website is up again, showing who sponsors the Grand Fishing Report. It gets a lot of traffic, so local businesses interested in sponsoring should reach out.

Luck E Strike / ICAST

Dealers who want Luck E Strike products stocked around the lake can reach out. Lots of new things are coming, including new Toby Keith items to be shown at ICAST in July, where Luck E Strike will meet dealers, distributors and chain stores from around the country. It's been a big push to finish the full assortment. Ask your dealer for the products. They work great around Grand Lake.

Open this report alone →

Thanks

Thanks for listening, from everybody at the GRDA, KGVE, Jeff's team at Luck E Strike in Greenwood, Arkansas, and the dealers around the lake.

Early warm-up

The water temperature keeps getting warmer. Jeff hopes we're not setting up for a big push of Crappie into the shallows around the end of March, only for a big cold front to knock them back hard. That has happened off and on over the last few years. He remembers one year catching a lot of Crappie on the bank on his birthday, around March 27, but that was years ago.

Crappie spawn timing

The upper end of the lake can do well on the bank at the end of March, but the big push usually comes around April 10 to 23 and keeps going. Some people still catch a few stragglers on the bank until about the middle of May. The farther down the lake you go, the later the spawn. The farther up, the earlier. Jeff caught some nice Crappie off his dock over the weekend on the 2-inch Lucky Bug in Desert Hero and in Old School (the black one).

Paddlefish

Haydn with Williams Guide Service says there's a lot of really good fishing around Sailboat Bridge, but you have to keep moving until you find them. The recent push of water moved the fish down into the lake a bit, and if you keep digging you'll find them. Use a barbless treble hook.

Catfish

Catfish are in the shallows. On nice days Blue Cats invade shallow water looking for shad kill, and they can tear stuff up quickly. If you're bank fishing, keep your rod tied down or in a rod holder. They grab it and go.

Bass

Not much Bass news. Bass anglers, especially tournament guys, are tight-lipped and don't post much on the Grand Fishing Report group. Jeff wishes more would share, because with the lake warming the fish will start moving up into shallower water.

White Bass / Spring River

White Bass are ripping things up on Spring River right now, and you'll probably find Crappie too if you can find a place to fish. Pictures on the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group show anglers shoulder to shoulder above Moccasin Bend, with plenty of fish. This is when they push up past the bridge onto the gravel bars. Swimming minnows in the USA color (red, white and blue flakes) are a great choice.

Luck E Strike at your dealer

Ask your favorite Grand Lake dealer for the American-made Luck E Strike hard baits, Lucky Bugs, Swimming Minnows, the Scrounger (back for everyone who fishes them), kits and Jimmy Houston Redman spinnerbaits.

Open this report alone →

Who's listening

KGVE reaches farther than people realize. Listeners hear the Grand Lake Outdoor Report as far as Pittsburg, Kansas, down in Pryor, out past Vinita and sometimes in Joplin. The GrandFishingReport.com Facebook group is likely over 18,000 members, and far more people read reports than post them. The guides post most of them, along with some regulars. Jeff would love more folks to post a picture or short story about what they caught and what they caught it on. Keep it simple: no need for the cove details, and nobody has to give up their honey hole.

Lake conditions

Things are settling back down. A big snowmelt and rain brought a nice inflow for a few weeks, but that's pretty well gone, and there's just intermittent generation at the dam. The upper end got pretty stained. Around Shangri-La the water is already turning back to Grand Lake's normal blue-green.

Twin Bridges

People are catching fish up at Twin Bridges, which historically fishes well on the Spring River and right at the park. Don't overlook the stretch between the railroad bridge and the Spring River and Neosho bridges. It's a great staging point where fish decide which river to run, depending on which has more flow, and sometimes they come down one river and turn up the other. It can be fantastic for Crappie and White Bass.

Catfish / bank fishing

The hole in front of the Twin Bridges boat ramp is one of the deepest on the Neosho River and a great wintering hole for Catfish. A lot of Blue Catfish are caught there every year, many off the bank, if you can put up with a little mud. Bernice State Park is another great bank spot. On days windy enough to blow your hat off, big Blue Cats move up on the shallow flats in front of the park, and casting rods out there can be a real good time.

Paddlefish

Spoonbill fishing is fantastic. The push of fresh water moved fish up the lake, and they've settled and staged around the Gray's Ranch area, a bit farther up than before. Like the White Bass, they're waiting for a little more inflow before making a big move. Always use a barbless hook and read the regulations on how many fish you can keep, because they can change. Game wardens do a fantastic job protecting the Paddlefish resource.

Luck E Strike

Jeff's partner Toby Keith passed away a few weeks ago, but Luck E Strike in Greenwood, Arkansas, keeps moving forward. Wholesale dealer requests are coming in from all over the country. Lucky Bugs, Swimming Minnows, tri-color jig heads, American-made crankbaits and rattle baits, and Jimmy Houston Redman spinnerbaits are starting to come into stock. Until dealers pick them up, LuckEStrike.com is the best place to find them. Jeff plans Grand Lake videos showing how the products work, like he did with Flea Fly and Team Catfish.

Open this report alone →

Remembering Toby Keith

Jeff recorded this week's report from the Luck E Strike plant in Greenwood, Arkansas, a week after losing his friend and partner Toby Keith. Toby met Jeff at Grand Lake in 2020 on a fishing trip with a mutual friend and had a lot of questions about Jeff's years guiding, fishing tournaments and building a tackle company that started in a garage in Grove, moved to the industrial park, and sold its intellectual property in 2017. Toby had a genuine affinity for the tackle business. His family has told Jeff many times how excited he was about Luck E Strike and Fish Lucke ("he's doing things for you guys he won't even do for the entertainment side," they said). The two originally planned a product line called Toby's Tackle. Those ideas are being folded into Luck E Strike, and Toby Keith fans will appreciate some of the names.

Red, white and blue

Toby felt strongly that the brand be red, white and blue, so all the color changes were made when they took over. Toby Keith decals and t-shirts are on LuckEStrike.com. The new catalog is already over 40 pages. Toby was a visual guy, and Jeff says he would have flipped over it. Jeff asks everyone to lift up a red cup a few more times and toast Toby, his patriotism and everything he did for our country.

Lake conditions

Snowmelt and rain are running quite a bit of mud. Water is murky around Shangri-La and clearer the farther down the lake you go. Inflows are pretty well over for now.

Paddlefish

Haydn says the fresh water moved the Spoonbill all over the place, so expect to hunt for them this week.

Crappie / White Bass

Crappie fishing is still really good, a little shallower in the upper end and deeper on the south end. Jeff expects people to start slaying White Bass and Crappie quickly up Spring River.

GrandFishingReport.com

The revised GrandFishingReport.com site and the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group are going strong. Local companies that want to sponsor the report can send information through the website. Catch the Grand Lake Outdoor Report on KGVE 99.3.

Open this report alone →

GrandFishingReport.com is back

The Grand Fishing Report website is back up at GrandFishingReport.com after a lapse. It's rebuilt to make it easy for local businesses to sponsor the report. For years a lot of folks used the website instead of Facebook or couldn't catch the show on KGVE, and Jeff expects it to climb back up in the search listings. The audio report is also going up on the Jeff Williams Outdoors YouTube channel (the old Pops Fishing channel, full of Grand Lake fishing videos), on the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group, and of course on KGVE 99.3 Grand Lake Radio, home of a fishing report for many, many years.

Weather / fog

Parts of the lake are still frozen. Yesterday and today brought some of the craziest fog Jeff has seen around the lake. Some of the time he couldn't see from his front porch to the end of his dock. Warm humid air over very cold water made traveling on or around the lake really difficult. Hopefully drier air moves back in.

Inflows / watershed

Southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri were dry all fall, but ground moisture is getting saturated now. A 1–2 inch rain could push a substantial flow down Spring River or Elk River. Driving south to Greenwood, the creeks got higher the farther south he went. The Elk River, crossed twice in Missouri on the new I-49, was running a little above normal but still clear. Driving to Miami yesterday, Jeff found the Neosho River locked up tight with hard white ice. There hasn't been enough inflow to break it up, but a little runoff should start to. A little wind would help break up the ice too.

Catfish

Not many reports this week, but friends Matt and Christie went out and caught some really nice Catfish, likely pre-fishing for the Twisted Cats tournament coming to the lake in a couple of weeks. Search Twisted Cats on Facebook or the web. Jeff did a long interview with Alex from Twisted Cats about the Grand Lake event and the tackle and sporting-goods business.

Paddlefish / Williams Guide Service

Jeff's son Haydn (Williams Guide Service) has a new website, FishGrand.com, a handy tool for his clients. Haydn had friends out over the weekend and they caught 21 Paddlefish in one afternoon. Then a hydraulic hose blew on his boat, and they had to steer the big 225 Suzuki with their feet, one guy on each side, to get back to the ramp.

Cold-weather boat care

Deep freezes are really hard on hydraulics, steering cables, pumps and batteries. When boats come out of a hard freeze, check all of it before you head out.

Coming up

Once the ice clears around Twin Bridges, expect to catch a lot of White Bass and Crappie up there.

Open this report alone →

Weather / ice

If you're fishing Grand Lake this week, you're a diehard. The deep freeze has ice around the shorelines, bays and coves, and anglers fishing docks on the south end are fighting line freezing in their reels. Even so, a few folks have been out there and caught a lot of nice Crappie, so it can still be done in this lousy weather. Jeff wouldn't recommend it, but he remembers years when the upper end of the lake (from Three Fingers up) froze hard enough that people went out and ice fished on Grand Lake. He hasn't seen a winter like that in many years.

Monkey Island memories

Around the winter of 1980 Jeff spent Christmas vacation with his grandparents on Monkey Island. They had a little two-bedroom cabin and an enclosed three-slip dock with a wood-burning stove (Jeff still has that stove). His grandpa cut three wells in the ice with a chainsaw and Jeff and his brother Crappie fished through the ice. He also remembers sitting on the porch listening to the wind and current break up big ice sheets on the main lake, and how much damage that ice could do. His grandparents bought on Monkey Island in the 1950s; Jeff was born in 1970 and has spent his whole life coming to the island, watching it grow with Shangri-La Resort, Tera Miranda, the HOAs, nightlife, boating, skiing, fishing, golf, golf carts and biking.

Crappie

Reports from guys fishing big marinas around Duck Creek: really nice Crappie, fish pretty deep but hitting good. They were catching them on the 2-inch Lucky Bug in Thunderstorm and USA colors on a 1/16 oz jig head. Those colors are made for the really clear water on the south end of the lake. Look for the Crappie bite to stay about the same through the cold.

Shad kill / Catfish

Once the ice breaks up around the shores, bays and coves, expect the gulls to show up and a shad kill to start. Jeff looks for the Catfish bite to slow down when that happens.

White Bass / Paddlefish

White Bass fishing up in the creeks and rivers on the north end should keep getting better through January and February. The cold water bunches Paddlefish into huge groups. They can be harder to find, but once you locate them the bigger groups can make them easier to catch.

Luck E Strike

Visit the new Luck E Strike website. The Greenwood, Arkansas plant is manufacturing American-made hard baits, soft plastics and Jimmy Houston Redman spinnerbaits. The assortment is about 260 items, with roughly 160 made in the USA right there in Greenwood. Toby Keith is Jeff's partner in Luck E Strike. Ask your Grand Lake dealers to carry the American-made products. Full capacity is expected by mid-summer, around ICAST in mid-July, when the catalog and full assortment should be done.

Open this report alone →

Weather / shad kill

Cold weather is coming in this weekend on top of a cold, snowy, crummy week. Jeff expects a shad kill to kick in early next week. There's been enough cold wind to churn up the water, and after the first of the year that's when the shad-kill pattern usually starts. Watch the upper end for gulls diving where you haven't seen them before. They'll be out all day picking up shad going into thermal shock. The south end, where a lot of the threadfin shad winter, may kill a little later, but once it's cold enough there the shad kill can get pretty intense.

Crappie

A shad kill won't slow the fishing down, except for the Catfish. It often turns on the schooled-up Crappie, which chase the threadfin shad going into thermal shock. Fish a lure that resembles a threadfin or gizzard shad: silvers, clears and blues on 1/16 or 1/8 oz heads. The Lucky Bug and Swimming Minnow, both American-made soft plastics from Toby Keith and Jeff's new company, are great choices at LuckEStrike.com. If Jeff were Crappie fishing this week, he'd start up in the Twin Bridges area looking for Crappie on brush piles or suspended fish.

Catfish / Paddlefish

Winter Blue Cats are the exception. Once they've gorged on shad in thermal shock, they can get pretty lethargic. The shad kill affects Crappie and Bass a little, but nothing like the Catfish, and it won't slow down the Paddlefish snaggers.

White Bass / rivers

White Bass fishing ought to start getting fantastic. This week's rain and snow probably isn't enough for a significant rise, so expect a little murky water. Every time the river comes up, the staging fish move a little farther up the rivers.

Hunting

Deer archery season closes for the year on January 15, capping a great season. With liberal limits (six deer per person counting the antlerless season), Oklahoma hunters can take a nice buck and still put up venison for summer sausage and tenderloins. The boys have done really well duck hunting north of Fairland the last few days, and quail hunters in western Oklahoma found birds in some spotty places.

Have the lake to yourself

Hardly anybody is fishing Grand Lake right now. If you need some motivation, there won't be many people on the docks or in boats. Thanks to GRDA for continuing to support the show and to everybody at KGVE and the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group.

Open this report alone →

Happy New Year

Thanks to everyone who listens on KGVE and visits the Grand Lake area sporting goods dealers, to everyone who follows the GrandFishingReport.com Facebook group, and to all the fishing guides who post good information about their clients' trips there year-round.

Weather / eagle watching

It's a gorgeous day around the shores of Grand Lake: 47 degrees, no wind on the east side of Shangri-La, and the water flat as glass. Two bald eagles have been sitting in the trees at Jeff's house the last couple of days. Not everyone knows that winter is a great time to hop in a boat and go eagle watching. Lots of bald eagles are around the lake from late December through February, and they stay as long as the cold hangs on.

An eagle steals the biggest Crappie

Jeff's younger son Owen (Grand Glass Cleaning) was at a regular client's house, and the client told him to go ahead and fish off the dock. Owen caught 10 or 11 Crappie and set the bucket on his tailgate. While he walked back down for his tackle box, an eagle swooped in and snatched a Crappie out of the bucket. "Dad, he didn't just get any Crappie, he got the biggest Crappie I had in the bucket." The biggest Crappie pulled up from 10 to 20 feet in winter often float at the top. Owen wasn't too mad about it. Book him to clean your windows and ask him about the eagle.

Paddlefish

Haydn with Williams Guide Service has been running Paddlefish trips and getting lots of nice fish from Shangri-La up to the mouth of the Elk River, where most of them seem to be.

Catfish

Matt Dodge has posted some really nice Blue Catfish on the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group (John Lewis passed that along too). Others are catching nice Catfish on deep-water ledges.

Crappie

John Lewis has been on docks on Monkey Island. He hasn't done as well this week as before Christmas, but he caught some Crappie around Christmas Eve. Jeff's friend Kenny Neal, who has a place on Monkey Island, caught two limits of Crappie on a chartreuse-and-red jig. Get in the right spot at the right time and you can usually pick up a few fish.

White Bass / have the lake to yourself

Pick a nice sunny, windless day like today and you'll have nearly the whole lake to yourself. Or head up to Twin Bridges, where there are a lot of fish on Spring River now. Jeff is sure White Bass are stacking up between the Spring River Bridge and the old Seneca piers, and that's where he'd troll.

Deer season

Antlerless season is over, but there are a few more weeks of archery. If cold, nasty weather moves in, Jeff might get a crack at the big buck he's been after all season. "He keeps zigging and I keep zagging."

Luck E Strike

Thanks to the GRDA for sponsoring the report for years and years. Ask area dealers for the new Toby Keith Luck E Strike Bass and Crappie products (Lucky Bugs, STX jerkbaits and square bills), part of a big American-made assortment that should be around the lake before long.

Open this report alone →