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Medicine Park will be the site of winter trout fishing beginning Jan. 1.

The state's newest trout fishery in southwest Oklahoma will replace the one at Quartz Mountain.

Medicine Creek is a popular swimming hole in the summer, but now it also will be a winter trout fishing destination. The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation plans to put trout in the stream beginning Jan. 1, replacing the winter trout fishery at Quartz Mountain. Photo by The OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVES

State wildlife officials ended the winter trout fishery below Lake Altus-Lugert Lake this year because trout could not survive in the stream due to golden alga blooms.

Looking for an alternative site for winter trout fishing in the southwestern part of the state, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation will start putting trout in Medicine Creek in the city limits of Medicine Park.

We think it has a lot of potential, said Gene Gilliland, assistant chief of fisheries for the Wildlife Department.

There are number of other places that we might have gone (in southwest Oklahoma), places with more of a lake-type environment. But this one just had more appeal, the little restaurants and shops at Medicine Park, and the stream environment.

The trout that had been designated for Quartz Mountain now will go to Medicine Creek, but it will be Jan. 1 before fishing will begin there, Gilliland said.

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Medicine Park now will have winter trout fishing for Southwest Oklahoma anglers