Playing the Arbuckle Slots

Written by Andy Whitcomb

Playing the Slots at Arbuckle Lake

“They’re not rock stars,” a navy blazer-wearing security guard told me when I asked about taking photos in the casino as he lead me to the congregation of  professional anglers on the evening before the inaugural 2009 “Fish and Chips” tournament at the Riverwind Casino in Norman, Oklahoma.  But then I walked past acres of disorienting, blinking slot machines and into an auditorium of digital camera flashes and there is Skeet Reese signing the back of a boy’s shirt. Mark Zona, popping Altoids.  Kevin VanDam in a red hoodie.

Where am I again?

I notice the carpet.  Oh yeah.  Casino carpet.  Ouch.

I’m not much of a gambler.  The only time I utter, “Let it ride” is when I’m emptying the dishwasher and notice a bowl still determinedly clinging to macaroni and cheese residue.  The majority of my casino “experience” comes from when I was on the road as part of a fisheries research crew for Iowa State University.   After a long day of fish sampling on the Missouri River, we would seek out the casinos because of their impressive buffets.  Plus that frightening carpet did a great job of hiding the stray gizzard shad scales that always seemed to accompany us.

Yet the opportunity to meet some of the anglers that are in my living room on Saturday mornings was enough to entice me back to a casino near that other Big 12 school.

The “Fish” portion of this invitation-only event was Friday and Saturday on the 2300-acre Arbuckle Lake, near Sulphur, in south-central Oklahoma.  Although murky from recent rains, it is usually one of the few clear lakes in Oklahoma.   According to the Oklahoma Wildlife Department, a 14 pound 8 oz. largemouth bass was caught there on Feb 27^th of 2008.

The “Chips” portion of the tournament involved playing “Texas Hold ‘Em” on Sunday.  I played my own version of “Oklahoma Hold ‘Em” on the 1 hour 20 minute drive back to Stillwater from the casino after a large Dr. Pepper.

49 teams, 98 anglers in all, threw everything they had at Arbuckle Lake for two days plus a day or two of practice.  And some bass were caught, especially in the 13-16” slot limit that had to be released.  This slot regulation forced some anglers to weigh some bass as big as some swim baits they sometimes throw.  The eventual winner, Dean Rojas caught one “mule” that went 9.82 pounds.  And Rick Clunn got a big surprise when he battled what turned out to be an 11 pound drum.  But most, like Gerald Swindle, were frustrated with the lake and said a silent prayer to the sky when/if they finally landed an “over.”

Tubes and drop-shots seemed to be lures of preference.  Kevin VanDam threw jigs and a soft plastic jerkbait and managed an impressive 4 fish limit on the final day but had to give his trolling motor a workout to cover “a ton of shallow water.”  Several anglers thought that the lake would turn on in about 3 weeks or so when the water temperature had dropped more.

I bought a Sharpie and a couple of white hats at the Bass Pro Shop in OKC and let the kids get some autographs by some really nice anglers on the Day 1 weigh-in.    Held on an outdoor stage in the parking lot at the Riverwind Casino, my two little anglers were exposed their first professional bass fishing tournament and yet still remain protected from the carpet.