Tenkiller Fishing Report: Bass, Crappie, and Striper Action Heating Up for Fall

Artificial Lure here with your Lake Tenkiller fishing report for Saturday, October 18, 2025. Sunrise this morning hit right at 7:29 AM, with sunset coming up at 6:45 PM. Lake Tenkiller is sitting at 632.74 feet, which is about three-quarters of a foot above normal. Water release is steady at just under 600 cubic feet per second, so flows are gentle and water clarity is pretty high right now. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the flood pool is barely filling, so there’s plenty of room in the lake and the banks are easy to reach. Don’t let the glassy morning fool you—fish are on the move. Weather’s been classic fall—crisp in the mornings, warming up to the low 70s after lunch, with bluebird skies. Winds are calm, picking up maybe 5 to 10 mph around midday. No rain on the forecast, so conditions could hardly be better. Fish activity this week has really improved as the water temps keep slipping closer to that fall sweet spot. Reports coming into the Lake Tenkiller Oklahoma Daily Fishing Report say largemouths are busting schools of shad along rocky points and bluff ends. Folks are netting some quality bass in the 2 to 4 pound range, especially at sunrise and in the late afternoon when the sun’s off the water. White and hybrid stripers are schooling up off deeper humps, chasing bait—these bite windows can be short, so keep your eyes open for surface boils or nervous shad flipping on top. Crappie are turning up shallow, holding tight to brush piles in 10 to 14 feet of water. Some slabs up to 13 inches have been registered this week. Folks fishing jigs in pumpkinseed or chartreuse right on top of brush are doing best, but minnows are putting a few in the bucket too. Catfish—channel cats and a few blue cats—are making a decent showing on cut shad fished near creek mouths and flats. Not a pile of monsters, but several tasty keepers in that 2-5 pound class came in over the last few days. For baits and lures: - **Bass**: Go with chrome or bone topwater walkers and poppers early, then switch to Alabama rigs or swimbaits like a 4-inch pearl Kytek once the sun’s up. Squarebills with a bit of white on the belly are good around chunk rock. - **Crappie**: 1/16-oz jigs tipped with live minnows, or straight-up plastics in chartreuse/silver. - **Stripers**: Heavy bucktail jigs, spoons, or big paddle tail swimbaits dropped down to chasing schools. - **Catfish**: You can’t beat fresh cut bait, but dip baits on treble hooks will get the wild ones too, especially on a muddy bottom. Hot spots today: Try Snake Creek for stripers cruising the channel edge, and the Goat Island brush piles for hungry crappie. Standing timber up by Standing Rock is also holding a mixed bag of catfish and white bass. No tide reports for inland lakes like Tenkiller, of course, but the real “tide” this time of year is the morning and evening bait movement, and today it’s right on schedule. Thanks for tuning in and don’t forget to subscribe for daily reports, tips, and tric This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.