Blue River Oklahoma warm water fishing

Hey guys,
My son, dad and I have fished Blue River a few times, but only for trout in late Fall and winter. Has anyone fished there for bass? I guess there are spotted, smallies and LMBs in there. We're headed up there this weekend and I'm looking for tips or spots in the vicinity of the camping area around Hughes crossing.
From what I've researched, using topwater spinners and buzzbaits works pretty well on a spin reel. I did read a an angler guide that said the bass were around brush structure, sand bars and in shallow areas. The water temp is only 78 so I guess they're not as worried about being deeper during these warm months.
I plan on trying poppers and some decent size wooly buggers with my fly rod but I'm open to any other suggestions (fly or not)
Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

It's a wonderful place for warm water wade fishing. Yes, bring your buggers. Also, the biggest smallmouth I have ever seen in person was caught out of the Blue by Gray, on a Turck's Tarantula. Think crawdad.

Agree with what RRhyne said, Blue river is great for bass in the summertime. Look for smallies in the same areas as you'd normally find trout, spots and largemouth will be in the froggier water. I'd suggest hiking up into the South Wilderness area and exploring. Lots of crawdads in that river, so crawdad patterns will be a go to fly.

You guys are awesome and thanks for the idea of crawdads. I've not hiked into the wilderness areas yet but sure want to. That's a great idea.
Sounds like most crawdad patterns would be worked similar to a wooly bugger, but I've spent 4 minutes researching it now
I've fished with soft plastic crawdads on a spinning reel and I'm familiar with the scooting pattern they present on the rocks. I guess I just do my best to mimic that motion down close to or actually on the bottom? Any help there would be appreciated. Thanks again guys.

Oh, and I tied my own leaders in advance. I don't remember the exact size but maybe tapered from a 12-10-8? I tied them originally for catching big sand bass in East Texas, but unfortunately the extremely high river waters prevented us from catching much.

Dain, are you talking about the yellow area?

Are any trout able to hold over right at the source? I keep meaning to get up there during the summer I have also heard that the smallmouth fishing is fantastic.

Fishdaddy- Yes the middle section in yellow directly north of area 2. Really the entire river fishes well, I'm just thinking of you want some solitude probably best to hike up into the south wilderness, or hike north from one of the two parking lots on highway 7. Crawdad flies yes you more less work those like a bugger or a streamer. You might pick up a couple near nuff crayfish or clousers crayfish, but big woollies probably work as well as anything.

Robert I don't think there are any holdover trout in the blue river. I've heard rumors that there's one hole (maybe called the Glory Hole I think?) that's deep enough to hold trout year round, but until I see one pulled out of there, I'm going to assume that any trout that didn't end up in a frying pan, probably ended up as catfish food.

FishDaddy how did you do? My Dad and I fished it yesterday, south of Hughes Crossing. Caught mostly spotted bass throwing poppers against the bank. Dad caught a nice smallmouth on a meat whistle and I lost a bass that might have gone 4 or 5 lbs that I hooked on an articulated sculpin pattern. Broke my heart...

Hey Dain. We did terrible! Thank you for asking though. We threw poppers on the fly rod but caught nothing. "We were throwing a green frog pattern and a yellow one that I can't really describe. We did notice that the spotted bass were hanging around the banks as well though just south of Hughes crossing.
What the heck is a meat whistle? I'm afraid to google that at work lol.
I'll tell you though. On Monday we did go up into the wilderness are after parking in the small lot on hwy 7. It sure was gorgeous. Can't wait to go back there in a couple of months. I'm assuming they stock trout that far north??
Sum total, I caught a stupid catfish on a crawdad pattern I picked up at cabellas. My son caught a cat on a mepps #2 using traditional rod and reel. Stupid things wouldn't bite on stink bait though. And on Saturday I landed right on a spotted bass with a mepps. That was it.

I've had many a day like that at the blue river, trust me it can be tough!

We fished down to the first big waterfall South of Hughes Crossing and only picked up one smallie on a crawdad pattern. Once we got to that waterfall, I started seeing a couple rises on the bank, so I threw on a popper. The secret was to find a shadow against the bank and try to put your popper as tight to the bank as possible and you'd get bit. If you could find a shadowy spot against the bank that was maybe behind a rock or something even better. I was using a minnow type popper, not even sure what it's called exactly, but I don't think it really mattered what you used. I talked to the fly shop manager at Bass Pro here in OKC who I consider to be a local expert on the blue, and he thinks they're waiting for cicadas to fall out of the trees. Anyway, some people came by on kayaks and one guy said that he caught a bunch of fish further down stream at "area 5" whatever that is. He said as far as you could go south before you reach private land. So we walked downstream until we found a waterfall area that looked about irresistible and got in the water there and waded downstream. We got into them there, but I don't know that we went far enough even. I'd never seen that part of the river before.

As far as a meat whistle, google Barr's Meat Whistle. It's a sculpin imitation streamer. Once I saw my dad catch that nice smallmouth I figured it was time to go with a sculpin lol. The best imitation I had was a big articulated thing, but it got bit. There must be some sculpin in that river or something.

They do stock the area north of highway 7. In fact that's where I usually spend most of my time during trout season.