What are watershed lakes?
Watershed lakes, or flood control ponds, dot the Oklahoma landscape from border to border. But some anglers mistakenly believe that the public is entitled access to these ponds, which can create conflicts between landowners and envious anglers. Because they are on private land, these flood control ponds are not open to public access. Most watershed reservoirs were, and still are, built with technical assistance from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Primarily constructed to prevent flooding, these mini-reservoirs allow for increased agriculture and other land use opportunities downstream. Fisheries development is not a primary consideration when building or planning a flood control pond and, if there happens to be good fishing in one of these ponds, it is because the landowner has taken efforts to make it happen. Permission to fish one of these ponds is entirely at the landowners discretion. If asked, many will allow responsible anglers to spend a day fishing their pond, but
