Lake of the Arbuckles

Fished a tourney at Arbuckle today. I've never fished the lake before and though it looked really good. Clarity was 2-3 feet except along the shores where wakes from all the boats was washing mud down into the water. Water temps felt pretty warm to me. Water level seemed to be a foot or two above normal. Winds were amazingly calm for Oklahoma, probably too calm considering how hot it was.

I had luck with a buzz bait from 0600-0700 in the area around Guy Sandy ramp. I had much less luck trying to t-rig in mid-morning though. However, once I switched to a c-rig, I started getting pretty consistent bites. I'm not sure if the c-rig is just better there, or whether it's because I switched to a chartreus lizard. It was the first time I've really used a c-rig, and I missed a lot of bites I probably should have gotten.

Unfortunately, the big bit seemed to be off for everyone. The largest bass was barely over 4 pounds, compared to an 8+ and a 9+ last year. Everyone seemed to be catching plenty of dinks.

If you've never fished Arbuckle and are planning on giving it a try, I personally would try to avoid doing it on a weekend. Arbuckle is absolutely packed with pleasure boaters and jetskiers, even on Sunday.