I'm not a bigtime angler, but I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good local spot for fishing? I've never caught a thing at Lake Hefner or Draper and I'm too scared these days to drop a line in Lake Thunderbird. I know that good fishing holes are top secret, but are there any public locales that are pretty decent?

Hi Soonerborn,

Hefner, Overholser and Draper are all stocked and managed by the City.

We also have several "Close to Home" fishing waters within the OKC metro area. These "Close to Home" waters are managed by the City, and are stocked via a cooperative fisheries management program between the City of OKC, and the State Department of Wildlife Conservation.

I personally cannot speak to the QUALITY of the fishing as I'm not an angler myself, but perhaps others can chime in on the following locations:

Edwards Park Lake, NE 15th and Bryant (OKC, not Edmond) - just East of I-35, north of downtown

Dolese Youth Park Pond, NW 50th and Meridian

Metrotech Springlake, 36th and Kelley

Route 66 waters at NW 23rd and Overholser Drive (West side of Overholser)

Kids' Lake at Wilshire / Grand (North of Hefner Park on East site of Hefner Parkway)

Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge, NW 10 at Council

Oklahoma River Basin

Most of our local lakes and Close to Home waters are stocked with sunfish, channel cat, bass hybrids, largemouth bass (catch and release regulations apply) walleye and other Oklahoma food fish. We also stock one or two lakes with trout in the winter for our annual trout fishing season.

A City Permit is required to fish at all local waters ($5/day or $15/year), as well as a State fishing license.

For more information on these waters, and for a complete listing of permit vendors (Bass Pro and most Wal-Mart Supercenters are vendors), you can visit City of Oklahoma City | Parks & Recreation (http://www.okc.gov/parks)

For those interested, we also have FREE fishing clinics for children throughout the summer. For more information, go to City of Oklahoma City | Parks & Recreation (http://www.okc.gov/parks).

They've been pulling monster catfish out of Konowa for decades.

And that ends my knowledge on fishing, as I never make it past the beer part.

Parksgal, you're a fountain of information and I appreciate all the great suggestions that you posted! A full moon is expected Saturday, so the fish should be biting by week's end. BTW, I hear the cadavers are biting real well on spinner bait at Lake Thunderbird...:dizzy: