Lake Texoma Striper Fishing Blog

Warm beautiful days are something to celebrate, especially during the winter. So when my trip canceled on Sunday I took the opportunity to take my wife Megan and my 6 year old son Aidan out on a family trip, thankfully, they both love to fish. It is a blessing to spend my days on the water making memories with all types of people but its a special treat to be able to share that with my own family. We went out around noon, to find we practically had the lake all to ourselves, which is one reason I love winder fishing, even on the warm days there are few others out on the water. It was cloudy with a good wind and we fished structure using sassy shad along the bottom and caught fish in 15-30 ft. of water. Fishing was a bit slow for Texoma standards, but the good thing about Texoma is that even when fishing is slow, it still makes for an exciting time and we caught plenty of fish to make for some great memories.  Check out the video of our trip here youtu.be/An7ZT6MrWjo

Structure fishing is my favorite way to catch fish this time of year, most of the work comes with learning the structure and finding where the fish live, but once you have figured out the pattern, it is reliable and it is also how we catch some of our biggest fish of the year. Most the time, the fish will be in the same locations so we move around from place to place without having to spend as much time looking for fish. Structure means anything that changes on the bottom of the lake, a ledge, an underwater point that sticks out, a creek channel, a brush pile, a rock pile, etc... It seems some of the best places are where you find structure on structure, like a stump bed on a ledge or a brush pile in a creek channel. Sometimes there will be fish piled on these locations but often you may only mark a couple of hooks or sometimes nothing at all, just fishing a good location, and still catch fish. If you caught fish there yesterday, it's always worth a couple of casts today. People are also catching fish deadsticking right now. Deadsticking works better for suspended fish out in the deep water, you will see them piled up off of the ledges and in the river channels but it can be difficult to get them to bite. To deadstick use a fluke or bass assassin on a 1 0z jig head and drop it down to the level of the fish and hold it there like you are bait fishing. I know, I prefer to be casting and reeling too, that's why I prefer to structure fish, but sometimes its the only way to get them to bite and you've got to be ready to adjust your presentation to the mood the fish are in that day. Often times however, it is what you feel most confident in that makes the difference, if you know a pattern well and it's working for you, stick with it, but if you are not catching fish, try something new.

On Texoma you are allowed 10 fish per person for you limit but only 2 of those can be over 20”, you will hear the locals refer to those as “overs” and anything under 20” are called “box fish”. Right now most all of the fish we are catching are overs which means we only get to keep about 2 per person plus whatever we catch that happens to be under 20” Still, we may be out catching and releasing a lot of big fish with the possibility of some in the range of 10-20 lbs. Needless to say, I don't get too many complaints about catching too many big fish but it is good to know what to expect. I expect to be structure fishing and hunting big fish this way until around April, typically as it begins to warm up we begin to catch a lot more box fish structure fishing like this to fill out our limits but every year is different. Spring break is just around the corner and you will want to reserve your trip asap as those slots will fill up fast, that would be the second and third weeks of March for anyone planning your trip during that time. We will be casting lures but don't worry, I can teach anyone how to cast, and we have both spinning rods as well as baitcasters available. You can book your trip online at www.stripersinc.com or give me a call at (903)815-1609 to setup your trip. If you have any questions for us, don't hesitate to ask. I'll be looking forward to fishing with you!

Your Lake Texoma Striper Fishing Guide,
Brian Prichard
www.stripersinc.com
(903)815-1609