Summertime fishing is here, and Oklahoma lakes are stocked. Where to find these species
With Oklahomans in full-blown summer mode, it's time to grab your rod and reel, tackle box and head to your favorite fishing spot.
Oklahoma offers a diverse range of fish for anglers to catch, along with numerous lakes, ponds, and rivers where they can be found. And the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is keeping Oklahoma waters stocked.
Here's what to know about where fish have been stocked ahead of summer fishing in Oklahoma.
More: Taking a dip in dirty water? Here's how to tell if Oklahoma rivers, lakes are safe to swim
As mentioned in a TikTok video, the wildlife department "lovingly stocked" nearly 1 million fingerling Florida bass in bodies of water across the state at the end of May.
A subspecies of largemouth bass, Florida bass will interbreed with native largemouth bass. The hybrids created grow rapidly and produce trophy-size fish, according to the department. Largemouth bass is the most sought-after game fish in Oklahoma. In 2024, more than 800,000 of the Florida bass were stocked in public Oklahoma waters.
You can spot a largemouth bass by noting the following traits:
The mouth hinge is well behind eye
Most do not have a tooth patch on their tongue
The first and second dorsal fins are barely connected.
This is not an exhaustive list, but rather a handful of lakes that were stocked in 2024. There were many smaller lakes stocked, as well as ponds and rivers.
Lake Murray: 100,809 Florida largemouth bass
Foss Lake: 1,100,000 walleye and 350 white bass
Fort Supply Lake: 990,000 walleye
Altus-Lugert Lake: 82,051 walleye
Broken Bow Lake: 100,246 Florida largemouth bass
Kaw Lake: 85,459 walleye
Eufaula Lake: 119,963 Florida largemouth bass
Oologah Lake: 147,300 walleye
Skiatook Lake: 100,017 hybrid striped bass, 108,030 walleye and 2,000 Florida largemouth bass
Lake of the Arbuckles: 100,138 Florida largemouth bass
Canton Lake: 4,393,951 walleye
In 2024, more than 10.1 million fish were stocked in public Oklahoma waters, plus 315,000 in private farm ponds.
Here's the breakdown of fish species stocked in public waters in 2024:
Bluegill: 240,225
Brown Trout: 20,008
Certified Florida Largemouth: 801,955
Channel Catfish: 150,693
Grass Carp: 6
Hybrid Striped Bass: 283,735
Hybrid Sunfish: 5,713
Rainbow Trout: 305,492
Redear Sunfish: 24,030
Saugeye: 1,211,489
Walleye: 7,074,791
White Bass: 350
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma lakes now stocked for summer fishing: See best spots
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Meet the Utah mom using TikTok to stop bullies in their tracks
Jaime Hamilton can't keep up with the hundreds of heartbreaking messages she gets every day. 'What do you do when someone hits you in the head every day even tho you have told them to stop (7th grade)' 'My son was choked by another boy in school/lunchroom and nothing was done by principal.' 'I lost my 14-year-old son to suicide (stemmed) from bullying.' 'They called my daughter a stupid Barbie. She's in kindergarten.' A communications expert in Utah, Hamilton often spends hours sifting through messages like these. Through her viral TikTok account, which now has more than 315,000 subscribers, she's made it her mission to equip kids with language that disarms bullies and disrupts the power dynamic. Although she can't respond to all of the messages, their weight stays with her. Sometimes filming from her kitchen while chopping vegetables or casually perched on her living room couch, Hamilton offers bite-sized and concrete tips: verbal and non-verbal strategies to help kids, and parents, stand up to bullies and regain a sense of control. 'For example, if a bully says to you 'you're so ugly' — your response can be 'pancakes.' And then continue on with your life," Hamilton said in one of her videos. Language is symbolic, she says, and the communication unrelated to the verbal attack can effectively 'throw off the bully.' A former director of a nationally competitive speech and debate team at Indiana University Indianapolis, Hamilton understands just how powerful words can be. The mother of three (including two teens) is reaching hundreds of thousands of parents with her hands-on advice. And people are listening. Since launching her first videos in 2020, Hamilton's social media presence has skyrocketed. In just the past month, her Instagram following jumped by over 200,000. 'This passion project has taken over my life,' Hamilton, who runs the STEM and Arts Academy in Lehi, Utah, told me. (The academy also partners with an elementary school in Spanish Fork to offer classes in game design, robotics, animation and 3D printing.) The surge in interest in her social media following reflects a deeper national anxiety. Bullying and cyberbullying are top concerns for parents. Studies show about one in three children experience bullying at some point in their lives, with 10–14% facing chronic bullying that lasts more than six months. A recent study in the journal BMC Public Health investigated the link between bullying and trauma and found that even non-extreme forms of cyberbullying can cause psychological harm. It also revealed that nearly 9 in 10 students had experienced some form of online victimization, and the frequency of cyberbullying — not demographics — was the strongest predictor of trauma symptoms. 'Bullying affects all aspects of their life: it affects everything, in the immediate and in the long-term. It affects their mental health, their physical health, their academic achievement, their sense of self,' said Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt, a professor of psychology who studies bullying at the University of Ottawa in Canada, in a recent podcast interview. 'It changes who they are fundamentally. And not only that — it lasts a lifetime.' And yet the impacts of many anti-bullying laws and programs have been mixed. In light of these troubling statistics, Hamilton believes there's one powerful intervention in combatting bullying that we often overlook: equipping kids — and parents — with the right words. One day, while teaching communication studies at Florida State Community College — now called Florida State College at Jacksonville — Hamilton asked her students: What's the worst thing anyone has ever said to you? Many of her students came from lower-income backgrounds and struggled academically. She soon learned that bullying was another, albeit less visible challenge, they were facing. Multiple students told her they had been told 'Go kill yourself.' Some students said they heard that phrase every day and they didn't know how to respond to it. Hamilton wanted to help. Bullying involves 'unwanted, aggressive behavior' and a 'real or perceived power imbalance,' according to the national bullying prevention website. Hamilton, who lives in Draper, adds that bullying isn't just being mean to others, but repeated behavior that harms 'self-concept,' the perception that individuals have about themselves. To assert this dominance, bullies send verbal and non-verbal messages. Hamilton asked her students how this behavior made them feel and they tried to deconstruct the interaction. But what stood out most to her was how unprepared they were and how few tools they had to respond. That moment sparked something. She began thinking about simple, effective strategies that her students could use in response to bullying. As a communications professor, she realized there was an entire body of research in her field that she could tap into for effective strategies. At the core of Hamilton's messaging toolkit is what she calls 'neutral messages' — phrases and words that can defuse the power dynamic and prevent escalation. Some of her favorite neutral messages are: 'Nope' and 'I don't care,' and even something random and out-of-context, like just saying 'pizza' or 'pancake,' could be an effective response, too. Although neutral messaging was originally applied in the context of relationships, Hamilton found that some of these concepts could work for bullying. Blending academic theory with the lived experience and the needs of her students, she came up with a set of tools designed to not just fight back, but to help kids hold onto their sense of self. 'Bullying is nothing more than a power struggle, and it's an act of dominance,' she said. Instead of sending a submissive message affirming the bully's power or responding with another domineering message, Hamilton says the neutral messages are 'one-across' messages that don't carry any power and often leave the instigator at a loss and curb the bullying. 'Unfortunately, we will never be able to get rid of all bullies — whether play is supervised or not. So what we can try to do is teach kids how not to be victims (per 'bullying expert' Izzy Kalman)," Lenore Skenazy, author of 'Free-Range Kids' and co-founder of the nonprofit Let Grow, recently wrote. 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This phrase is the verbal equivalent of hitting 'post' before thinking twice. It's a soft disclaimer that something deeply personal—and likely inappropriate for the setting—is about to come out. The speaker might laugh it off or act surprised by their own confession, but make no mistake: they've done this before. According to Dr. Judith Siegel, a professor at NYU and expert in relational communication, oversharers often lack internal emotional regulation and rely on externalizing their feelings to feel connected. But connection without context quickly becomes cringe. If you're leading with disclosures no one asked for, it's not bonding—it's boundary-breaking. This is the conversational version of knowing you're the problem and still refusing to grow. It's a mix of defiance and self-awareness that somehow makes it worse. You're not just oversharing—you're announcing that you've been told to stop, and then ignoring it anyway. It frames the overshare as quirky instead of disruptive. 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It strips the moment of meaning and turns vulnerability into spectacle. You're not connecting—you're being included in a rehearsed routine. This approach makes people feel used, not trusted. If your so-called confession is on repeat, it's not intimacy—it's content. And most people don't want to be your emotional audience. This phrase hijacks the social script and flips a casual exchange into a confessional. It's the conversational equivalent of switching a coffee date to a therapy session without warning. What started as light banter suddenly feels loaded. Not every setting is built for depth. If someone is emotionally caught off guard by your pivot, it doesn't mean they're shallow—it means they didn't sign up for a download. And ignoring that disconnect isn't bold, it's tone-deaf. It sounds like self-awareness, but it's often used to excuse the exact behavior it acknowledges. You're not just warning people—you're asking them to tolerate discomfort because you've opted out of growth. That's not accountability—it's a disclaimer for dysfunction. People can empathize with struggle, but they can't consent to chaos after the fact. If you know you're bad at boundaries, the next step isn't a warning—it's a change. Otherwise, the pattern isn't accidental—it's your baseline. This line flatters while cornering. It suggests that the listener is special—then dumps something intense in their lap. It's intimacy by ambush, wrapped in a compliment. But true safety isn't about flattery—it's about consent and timing. Using someone's perceived kindness as a green light to overshare isn't connection, it's manipulation. And most people can sense the setup. This sentence starts off like a sacred trust—until it spirals into a list of exceptions. It quickly becomes clear that this 'never told anyone' story is less exclusive than advertised. The moment feels cheapened, and the listener feels duped. If your vulnerability is mass-distributed, it loses meaning. People don't want to be one of many—they want real connection. Oversharing doesn't automatically build intimacy—especially if it's not truly earned. This one is meant to be funny, but it actually signals chronic emotional leakage. You know it happens. You name it. But you're still doing nothing to change it. Self-awareness without adjustment turns into justification. And that's where oversharing becomes toxic. People can handle nerves—but not emotional volatility packaged as personality.
