Nov. 03–Blue River will be the site of the annual Veterans Day Trout Derby on Nov. 9-10.
Sponsored by the Johnston County Chamber of Commerce and the Blue River Association, the entry fee is $25 for adults and $20 for ages 15 and younger.
Cash prizes of $100 will be awarded for heaviest two-day total of trout in male, female, youth and fly-fishing divisions.
Some trout in the river will have attached tags worth $100, $50 and $20 for the anglers who catch them. The number of tagged trout totals $1,000.
For more information on the derby, call (580) 371-9288 or (580) 371-2175.
PADDLEFISH, NOODLING REGULATIONS MAY CHANGE
State wildlife officials are proposing new fishing regulations involving paddlefish and noodling for catfish.
Currently, anglers are allowed to keep one paddlefish per day. However, state wildlife officials are recommending to the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission that anglers be allowed to keep just two for the entire year.
“We are thinking we need to do a little more to protect the population,” said Barry Bolton, chief of fisheries for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
Anglers would have to check in their paddlefish on the Wildlife Department’s website.
“When you catch one (to keep), it would be an e-check just like it is now for deer,” Bolton said.
A new law signed by Gov. Mary Fallin earlier this year allowed noodling for channel catfish and blue catfish in addition to flatheads.
Noodlers, or hand-fishermen, are currently allowed to keep three flathead catfish per day.
State wildlife officials are recommending that noodlers now be allowed to keep a total of three catfish per day, regardless of species, with only one being more than 30 inches, the current rule for blue cats.