Where To Fish Since City Council Closed Lawton Lakes

UPDATE: The City of Lawton officials have changed this proposed proclamation. City lakes shall remain open, but only for use by Comanche County residents.

Mayor Booker and the city councilors are catching a ton of flack as fishing and hunting becomes the liberty they've decided to take away from you this week. Officially, the proclamation adopted states:

In furthering efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the Lawton community, Lawton City Council voted to enact additional measures that will take effect at noon on April 10, 2020:

 

Hunting/Fishing and Boating will be not be permitted on City of Lawton property.

This leads to the question of which lakes are affected? There are a few fishing opportunities in Lawton proper such as Lake Helen in Elmer Thomas Park and Liberty Lake off Cache Road, but what about Lake Lawtonka and Lake Ellsworth? As boating in Lawton is only permitted on these two lakes, and Lawton operates these lakes, you can only assume they are included in this proclamation.

For the record, I've reached out to the Lakes Division at the Lawton Parks & Rec Department, they claimed they had no idea what I was talking about and gave me Mayor Bookers office number. That line has been allegedly taken off the hook, and I have not yet received a reply to the emails I've sent.

While there has been a huge outpouring of anglers on social media with posts sharing information about how hunting and fishing is listed protected as essential activities at a state level, you have to cut out elected officials a little slack. They're not lawyers. They're mostly small business owners knowing they can probably work out the fine details later and appeal to the public with an apology.

That being said, here are some fine lakes within a reasonable driving distance you can feel free to get your social distance on at.

Elmer Thomas Lake is the only refuge lake you can run your boat in, albeit at idle speed only. Located adjacent to Lawtonka. Also, there are several good fisheries deep in the refuge. Jed Johnson and Quanah Parker being the two most popular.

Lake Waurika and Jap Beaver Lake are Southeast of Lawton down by Waurika.

Lake Humphreys, Clear Creek Lake, and Fuqua Lake (pronounced Foo-Quay) are East past Duncan/Marlow.

Tom Steed Reservoir located to our West, just North of Snyder.

Lake Lugert is located on the old Oklahoma/Texas border in the Quartz Mountains North of Altus. While it experiences total fish kills every few years, it's currently thriving. Fishing is hot over that way right now.