Lake Texoma Fishing Report :: Meet Our New Boat
Posted on December 21, 2022Sometimes life will throw you the unexpected, a new challenge to face, a new obstacle to navigate, a new void to adjust to, it is the nature of the journey of life and you never know what may lie around the next turn in the path. So it was when I received a call at 2:00 AM on November 28 from Little Mineral Marina where I dock my boat, letting me know that my boat had caught fire in the slip. They had worked tirelessly to put it out but there was little left of my faithful boat, a yellow 23 ft. Falcon Striper Delux which had been the backbone of my fishing guide service for 13 years. Feeling helpless and not really knowing what to do with it being 2:00 AM, I laid back down in bed and finally calmed my thoughts enough to go back to sleep. The next morning we went down to observe the catastrophe and found that everything of and on the boat had been turned to ash, though not all was lost, I saved my reels though the tops of my rods were all burned and I had one storage locker full of tackle that remained undamaged as well as our 2 year old daughters tiny pole. We were blessed that the wind was in the right direction to contain the majority of the damage to just my boat and keep the fire from spreading to the rest of the dock. The crew at Little Mineral and the Preston Volunteer fire department did an outstanding job in their quick response to put out the fire. We are so grateful for their service.
Over the next couple of weeks, the outpouring of love and support from friends and family to help me get back on my feet was a beautiful and humbling experience. With your help, we have now successfully replaced most all that has been lost in supplies and tackle. We are now back in operation with the purchase of a new boat from my high school friend Trent Mahana, a fully equipped 24 ft. Blazer Bay with a Yamaha 300 HP which he had auspiciously put on the market the day prior to my boat catching fire. Thanks to all of you, navigating this obstacle has been as graceful of an experience as possible. I am honored and deeply grateful for all of you who reached out to show support and help me to rebuild, I can not thank you enough!
I am blessed and grateful to be back on the water running fishing trips again so soon! We have already logged 2 trips in the new boat and the winter fishing patterns are getting hot. The fish are really stacking up thick on their winter structure locations and we are hooking up 3-4 fish at a time casting sassy shad over key structure and reeling them slowly through the fish. It is common this time of the year to hook up fish at least 8-10 pounds if not bigger on every trip. The dead stick pattern also looks like it is turning on, though I have yet to try is as I have been focused on structure so far. Either way will catch them and you get to decide what you like best or what method you would like to learn, and we can certainly do both. On structure we will be casting sassy shad, letting them sink to the bottom and reeling them slowly back through the fish, with this pattern we are moving around a lot, the fish hold on these key structure in locations all over the lake and after you drift over a piece of structure a couple of times, it is time to move on to the next. Some of our biggest fish of the year will come from fishing over structure like this. The dead sticking pattern is more like fishing live bait except you are using a pink fluke on a heavy jig head instead and just holding it still. With this method we find fish in the deep water and turn on the splasher to get them following us under the boat and drift in one location for the majority of the trip. When it is on, it can be really productive and we catch a lot of fish this way. Some days you get to choose how you want to catch them, some days you go with what works best.
I'm ready to put some hours on this new boat and I love fishing these winter patterns, the big fish are biting and we usually have the lake all to ourselves. The weather looks like it will be warming back up next week and now is a great time to fish. For all of you last minute holiday shoppers, keep in mind we do have gift certificates available. You can book your trip online at www.stripersinc.com or give me a call at (903)815-1609 and I'll get you setup over the phone. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'll be looking forward to fishing with you!
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas,
Brian Prichard
Stripers Inc.
(903)815-1609
