Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC)

#FreeFishingDays kicks off TOMORROW! Are you making plans but need a place to go? Try Close to Home. These small bodies of water are stocked to ensure opportunities exist for anglers who may only have a little time on their hands, and provide urban dwellers an opportunity to share their fishing heritage with others. Who's in your fishing crew this weekend? http://ow.ly/KKGF50EX9Zx

Save your spot now for Ask an Angler: Spawning Catfish Tips! This free online course will cover fishing tips for targeting spawning catfish in Oklahoma. Register here: http://ow.ly/8ACZ50EULrT

This is our second new state record fish this week! Dixie Lee landed a new state record Hybrid Sunfish weighing 2 lbs. 5.68 oz. from a Craig county pond on May 31st. Congrats Dixie on a great catch!

The swift fox is our state's smallest and most prairie dependent fox. These foxes are primarily found in the High Plains of Oklahoma's Panhandle and often live in social pairs. Swift foxes feed on rabbits but will also eat insects, amphibians, reptiles, and birds along with other small mammals like ground squirrels and kangaroo rats. Larry D. Brown/RPS 2020

We have a new state record River Carpsucker! Jaci Williams landed this 9 lb. 7 oz. River Carpsucker at Fort Cobb May 30th. The fish was donated to our Oklahoma Fisheries Research Lab in Norman. Congrats on a great fish!

Oklahoma’s Best of Show placed 4th nationally during the 2021 National Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest held at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters in Falls Church, VA. For the second year in a row, London Peterson took the top prize in Oklahoma. This year’s winning painting, In His Element (a male Canvasback), represented our wildlife art community proudly. The contest is part of the Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program, which is a dynamic art and s...cience-based curriculum that teaches wetland and waterfowl conservation to students in kindergarten through high school. The program encourages students to explore their natural world, invites them to investigate biology and wildlife management principles, express themselves, and share what they have learned with others. This year’s contest included over 10,000 young artists from around the nation. Submissions for the 2022 contest are due by March 1st postmarked to Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge. More information regarding contest rules and its associated curriculum can be found at: http://ow.ly/tZHa50EWWW8 *Image copyrighted; used with permission from the USFWS Jr Duck Stamp Program