Lake Tenkiller Fishing Report: Cooler Temps, Mixed Bag Bites and Autumn Opportunities

You’re listening to Artificial Lure with your Lake Tenkiller fishing report for Saturday, September 20, 2025. The sun rose this morning at 7:07 am and expect it to dip below the horizon around 7:25 pm. Lake Tenkiller’s water level is sitting about 0.7 feet above normal this week, with the pool elevation reading 632.7 feet as of early yesterday morning. The Corps of Engineers is releasing water at 590 CFS, so expect steady flows down by the dam and a gentle bit of current throughout the upper arms. The flood pool’s barely filled—plenty of shoreline to walk and shallow spots to probe if you’re on foot or kayak. Weather’s shifting to autumn here in eastern Oklahoma. We kicked off this morning with temps hovering in the low 60s, and you can expect highs to nudge up toward 81 by mid afternoon. Winds should stay mild, five to eight miles an hour from the northeast. Skies’ll bounce between partly cloudy and mostly sunny—very comfortable for long hours on the water. Local anglers reported good mixed-bag catches this past week. The bass bite picked up especially well with cooler nights. Largemouth have been pushing up shallower—think three to eight feet, hunting shad schools on pea gravel points and near main-lake humps. Smallmouth are cruising the bluffs and deeper rocky ledges, best found using a finesse jig or a Ned rig. Spotted bass—those Kentucky bass—are schooling up, running with the bait in open water. For best results, throw a chrome or shad-pattern topwater, especially just after daylight and towards dusk when surface activity’s high. Best lures right now are shad-imitating crankbaits, white chatterbaits, and walking-style topwaters like Spooks and Sammys. Folks having luck with swimbaits over submerged brush, especially in back coves. If you want numbers, shaky heads and green pumpkin stick worms are getting bites all day long. Crappie action has been solid off docks and brush piles in ten to fifteen feet, especially around Snake Creek and standing timber near Cookson Bend. Small minnows and chartreuse jigs under slip bobbers are getting the nod, but don’t overlook a plain jigging spoon for bonus slab crappie off deeper structure. Catfish have been hitting well too. Drift cut shad or chicken liver across mud flats in twenty feet. Blues and channels are both active—local bank anglers have even been catching a few decent flatheads soaking live sunfish after sundown. Down below the Lake, the Lower Illinois River is flowing cool and steady, and the trout bite remains good in the Watts Unit. Weekly trout stockings are ongoing—rainbows are biting on orange PowerBait early, switching to small spinners and woolly buggers when the sun is overhead. According to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife, the lower river below the powerhouse is catch-and-release with special regulations—so check your hooks and remember, barbless only in that stretch. For hot spots this week, head to the mouth of Standing Rock Creek and the rocky points off Strayhorn Landi This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.