Lake Texoma Striper Fishing Blog

It is now May here on Lake Texoma which traditionally is one of the best months of the year for catching stripers. Normally during May fishing is a no brainer. You can go out and throw anchor on a river ledge in the same location for a month and catch you limit in about an hour every day. However, this year, for whatever reason, the fish have just not kept up with tradition. As with everything else that is going on in the world, patterns are changing for fish as well. We can speculate all we want as to why this has occurred and many factors will apply but try as we may, the habits of the fish still elude even the best among us. Some of the more obvious factors are a shad kill last winter led to an above average die off of larger fish this past summer which reduced our numbers a bit. There are still plenty of fish left and the ones that survived are far healthier than before. Since the restocking effort the shad have rebounded at an incredible level and there seem to be more shad in the lake now than before the kill and creating an overabundant food source. Possibly the biggest factor at play is the drought. Stripers need running water to lay their eggs, without it they are infertile and it wasn’t until the last week or so that we received enough rain to put a current in our rivers which has caused a late spawn. Some fish successfully spawned in March as I’m now seeing a few 3-4” long baby stripers while catching bait, and some fish have yet to spawn and still have eggs. Whatever the reason, it is disappointing to those of us that have become spoiled to having it easy this time of year. That being said there are still plenty of fish in the lake to be caught. There are lots of small stripers and sandbass for the taking but if you want to fill the box with nice sized stripers, you’re going to have to work for them.

 

Fish are still on the move and patterns are still changing daily. I never know where to start out but the best thing to do is pick a spot and stay with it. Micah has put it on me a couple of trips by staying put while I’ve been burned by constantly moving around looking for something better that isn’t there so it is best to stay in an area and take what you can get while the getting is good. The fish are doing different things depending on what part of the lake you are in. You might find them on topwater along the shore in the spawning shad during daybreak in some areas, after which drifting has been working best for the larger fish, on most days and what depth they are in depends on where you are. In the same day I’ll catch them in one spot in 10-20ft. and move to find them in 50ft. 

 

Fishing is a hit and miss sport, we have been lucky in the past to have enough numbers in Lake Texoma to have more consistency than other locations around the world . Catching small fish and sandbass has been consistent if you want to settle for that and we have had plenty of great days catching lots of nice fish but we have had some tough ones as well. I just want people to be aware when they come fishing what to expect and that it might not be as good as their past fishing trips during May. I did get word today that the big fish were biting all over the lake with guides having to throw back overs. It would happen on my day off so it will have to wait until the morning for me to confirm it for myself.

 

Here are some pictures of our recent trips catching good fish, I’ve been too embarrassed to take pictures of the trips that I’ve had to settle for the small fish.

 

 

 

 

Micah's trips

 

 

 

There are lots of fish yet to be caught, if the fish are indeed returning from their spawning run, things will get crazy any day now. You can book your trip online at www.stripersinc.com or just give me a call at (903)815-1609 and I’ll get you set up.

 

Your Lake Texoma striper fishing guide,

Brian Prichard

Stripers Inc.

(903)815-1609