Lake Texoma Striper Fishing Blog

The fishing this past week remained good here on Texoma. The cold front slowed things down a little bit but that’s nothing this 20mph south wind and 80 degree weather we’re having won’t fix. Don’t get me wrong, the fishing was still good, we still caught our limits on every trip but they were not coming in the boat as fast as you could drop the bait in like before. The big fish I was catching on topwater were also affected as they disappeared when the north wind started blowing but we were still catching smaller fish on top. Most of the fish brought in this past week were caught on anchor in 50 ft. of water fishing shiners anywhere from 30ft. down to the bottom. 

 

Friday evening was a beautiful afternoon, sunny with light winds.   I just had 2 people for a catch and release trip. It took an hour or two on the water before the fish really got hungry but when they did but when they did, it was on! We were catching them as fast as you could drop the bait down until they got blue in the face and were ready to come in. Using circle hooks, I only had to clean one fish that was gut hooked. I put him in a brine and ate him as sashimi for lunch on Sunday. He sure was good.   

 

Saturday morning we had a rain shower before daylight which made for perfect topwater conditions. Right as we are heading out the rain quits and we have a nice strong south wind. I could feel it in the air that it was a good morning for a big fish. We work several spots and only manage to catch smaller box fish which were great and a lot of fun but not what I was looking for. Finally after about 45 minutes into the trip we hook up a good fish. I would estimate it to be around 10-12 lbs but I was slacking in my coaching that day as my customer let slack in the line just before we get the fish to the boat and it gets off. No problem, we’ll just catch another one. So I set up another drift and a few fish later another explosion, he missed the lure but still following it, we give it another twitch and BAM! a monster explosion and fish on. The drag is singing and the fish strips off about 50 yards of line faster than you can blink an eye and spits the hook. We never turned her. Shortly after we switched to bait for the rest of our limit and the fishing was on as usual. I can’t help but to imagine how big these fish are that get off the hook before we can turn them. I mean they are stripping drag out fast the whole time they are hooked up and then they are gone. Since they never stop pulling drag you can have no way of estimating how big they actually are. I know I’ve caught 10-15 lb fish that don’t fight as hard but 15-20 lb fish that do. They could be 15 lbs or they could be 70 lbs. Yes I said 70 because stripers do get that big. Not in Texoma you say but that doesn’t mean that it is not possible. We have the food source. The world record is 78 lbs 8 oz., the fresh water record is 67 lbs. 8 oz., and there are documented striper caught in nets in excess of 100 lbs so the species is more than capable of reaching that weight.   I’m not saying that there are fish like this in Texoma, just that is not impossible and that I will never know what was on the end of the line.

 

 

Saturday evening the wind was blowing something fierce out of the west and it was too rough for me to fish the area of the lake I had been fishing so we found a spot out of the wind. We had to move a couple of times but the fish finally got going for us and ended up biting pretty fast. The fish are smaller than I have been catching but I’m thinking it is just the spot.

 

 

 

Sunday morning was still windy but manageable. It was much colder and we tried everything we could to get a big fish to eat a topwater plug but no takers this morning as all we caught were box fish on top. We drop anchor to finish our limit and I noticed the fish were biting slower in the cold and never set off as they had been on every trip the past 3 weeks but we still end up catching an easy limit and got to catch and release too. The fish were still a little smaller though. 

 

 

 

Sunday evening my guys wanted to catch a limit and get on the road so they could get home at a decent hour so that’s just what we did. The fish were biting much better that evening and I noticed they were bigger on average than the morning trip. It took us about 2 hours to put 40 fish in the box with me picking through the little fish, not fast and furious but some great fishing. 

 

 

Monday morning it was even colder and the wind is still blowing hard out of the North West. We try several spots topwater fishing and could only manage box fish again. We set an anchor using bait and it is slower than the day before. The fish were still stacking up underneath me solid but they were not biting like the should have been but I’m not going to complain too much as we brought home our 30 fish limit and the memories of 5-10 fish trips just a month ago have left a deep scar in my poor little ego.

 

 

Just as Sunday evening was better, Monday evening was better as well. The evenings always seem to be better when the fish get cold because they get to warm up a bit. The fish were biting fast again and were better in size. We put our limit in the box and I noticed some cloud cover setting in so we throw some topwaters for the rest of the trip and had fun catching some nice box fish. 

 

 

Tuesday morning was the coldest I’ve seen yet with temperatures in the 40’s. I’m fishing the same guys that were with me on Monday evening and I’m ready to throw some topwaters and hunt some new locations to try to relocate my big fish. Unfortunately, my guys said it was too cold and they wanted to just go out and catch their limit so that they could get on the road. I guess I’ve heard just about everything now :) We go out put our limit in the box and are back by 9:00. Fishing was still a little on the slow side though with the cold weather. I guess time is valuable, especially for a long road trip, and I am looking at it from a guide’s perspective. I’m sure my customers are thrilled to catch a bunch of box fish and I love to make them happy but I catch box fish all the time. After all I do catch probably 7-10 thousand of them a year, but seeing a 10-15 lb striper blow up on a topwater plug and hearing the drag sing gets my adrenaline pumping every time. I still get the shakes every time we get one 15 pounds or better on the line.

 

 

With the fish piling up under the boat the past few trips and not getting them to fire off had me wondering what would happen if I were to put some threadfin shad in front of them, so today Mark Jr. and myself traveled to the land of the of the threadfins and loaded up for our trips this next week. I can’t imagine that they could be any worse than shiners :) The fishing will only continue to get better from here and with threadfin in the tank there is no telling what will happen. I have 1 Saturday trip available in May on the evening of the 22. There are also a couple of Sunday trips available. The evening of the 2^nd and all day on the 9^th and 16^th are open as well as a few weekday openings. You can book your trip online at www.stripersinc.com or you can call me anytime at (903)815-1609 and I’ll get you set up.

 

Your Lake Texoma Fishing Guide

Brian Prichard

Stripers Inc.

(903)815-1609