Monday, November 22, 2010
I guess it's about time that I posted something as it has been quite a while. Fishing, while getting better, is still very slow. There have been a few good days baitfishing, but there have been many more that were poor. Chasing the seagulls has also not been very productive as the stripers just don't seem to be schooling & feeding on the shad like they usually do during October & November. The good news is that there are prenty of shad in the lake, both gizzards & threadfins that while still small, are getting big fast. Hopefully, we will have a mild winter to allow the threadfin population to recover and for the stripers as well. While the catching has been slow, those fish caught have been very healthy and the smaller 17" & 18" box fish are like little butterballs. 
SAturday, October 23, 2010
I fished with a bunch of guys from OKC that was hoping for some of the great striper fishing that we encountered when we fished together in May. Unfortunately, it was not to be. We managed some stripers and even a drum that G.A. kept for the “rocks” in it’s head before a nasty storm chased us off the lake.
Friday, August 27, 2010 I went out fishing but mostly scouting and boat riding today and I'll probably only hit the lake 2 or 3 times a week until things pick up. However, once both the lake and air temps drop I will be back at it 100% and hopefully the fish will begin to have started putting on some weight for the winter. Friday, August 13, 2010 After taking a couple months off from fishing, I’m now back fishing Lake Texoma currently on a limited basis and I'll probably only hit the lake 2 or 3 times a week until things pick up. However, once both the lake and air temps drop I will be back at it 100% and hopefully the fish will begin to have started putting on some weight for the winter.Thursday, August 12, 2010 Today I went fishing with a friend again that just returned from Australia. We launched at about 0400 and easily caught lots of gizzard shad for bait before heading to our 1st topwater spot before daylight. However, there were no topwater takers and we headed down towards the dam and cooler, deeper waters in search of hungry stripers. We found plenty of skinny stripers in only 15 feet of water and easily got our limit before it got too hot and pulled anchor around 9 AM. We kept 20 as we are saving fish for an October fish fry and released some of the smaller un-injured, deep hooked fish. Sadly, these 20 produced less than 2 pounds of filets. Thursday, August 5, 2010 I went fishing with a friend this morning. We tried a little topwater fishing at first light and struck out. About 0730 we headed south to the main part of the lake, dropped anchor in about 50 foot of water and started using some of the gizzard shad that we had caught before daylight. After beating the water bit, we got our first fish, a nice 22” fish. For the next 90 minutes we were pulling fish and when things slowed down, we called it quits and headed to the ramp. Most of our fish were healthy and not too skinny. We only kept enough fish for a meal or two and released those other fish that appeared in good shape. Saturday, June 5, 2010 Today I fished with 3 generations of guys scattered from around the USA that get together periodically and decided to come to Lake Texoma for some striper action. We met up at about 0530 and headed south from Catfish Bay for some bait fishing. I was a little nervous as I had been using shiners this year for bait and this would be my first trip using Black Salties though I had caught some fish with them earlier in the week while scouting. Table Top was our first stop and it produced some fish. Looking around, there were boats in all directions as the fish were scattered everywhere and don’t appear to be schooling up yet. It wasn’t long till Dave and Paul were landing box fish, Tony was feeding fish and Gus sat there patiently without any action. Soon Gus and Tony caught their first fish and were wanting more. We were impatient with temps predicted to climb over 100 today and so we moved west to deeper waters as it warmed up. Our next spot was in 63 foot deep water and we started catching nice sized box fish as soon as the baits got near the bottom. We pulled the plug around 1020 as the sun was starting to get to Gus and headed to the cleaning station at Alberta. It was a great day for fishing. We started early, finished early with about 30 nice fish for their family’s surf & turf dinner planned for later tonight in Norman. Everyone had a great time and I met Gus, a native Pennsylvanian like myself.
Memorial Day, May 31, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010 Robert got together with his son this holiday weekend for some camping and fishing on something bigger than ponds. These guys were ready to go and got to the launch site ½ hour early and that was good as I once again awoke to a bunch of dead bait. With Jeff & Robert watching my gear, I borrowed a friend’s truck and high-tailed it to Texoma Tackle for replacement baits. We actually departed the ramp only 10 minutes later than I had planned and headed north. Again, I dropped anchor, beat the water, lowered 4 rods that were baited with medium shiners and big “black salties” and started pulling fish. Today’s fishing was slower than earlier in the week and the fish seemed a bit smaller, but it was still some pretty good fishing. I think today’s tougher bite may have been due to the number of boats fishing this area plus the trollers running around us. We easily caught limits and did a little C & R before heading to the cleaning station. If you smell any fish cooking at the CF Bay campgrounds tonight, stop by; These guys have plenty fried striper & potatoes and a extras bonus of a bucket full of fish heads that Robert wanted saved. Another great May striper fishing trip on Lake Texoma. We caught lots of fish, missed a lot but in the end Jeff whipped his dad.
Friday, May 28, 2010 I fished with a threesome that drove down from Liberal, KS for some Lake Texoma striper action. Co-workers Mike and Joe brought with them an up & coming bass fisherman, Isaac. Having spent the night at Alberta Creek, they were ready to go, bright & early this morning. With a clear sky and a slight NE wind, we headed to the same place that we killed them on Wednesday. I set the anchor in about 50 feet, baited up some rods with medium shiners, beat the water and Isaac started catching. The action was steady, often leaving us without any rods in the water to entice the roaming stripers. After getting an early limit of good eaters including 3 long fish, we switched over to catch & release fishing that also included a couple little blue cats for the last hour before heading to the cleaning station. This great May fishing allowed these guys to get in a good fishing trip that produced a bunch of good eating and also allowed them to get off the water early and start the long drive home without being too worn out. Lot of good fish for these guys from National Beef.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010 We had another typical, great May striper fishing trip on Lake Texoma. There may be a lack of Threadfin shad on Texoma but there sure isn’t a lack of hungry stripers looking for an easy meal. Right now, it happens to be store bought shiners and sometimes a gizzard shad or two. In addition, we had perfect fishing weather with the exception of an East wind that didn’t seem to hinder the bite. Mark brought along his son that was visiting from the Fort Drum, NY area and his girlfriend, Amy, that’s an Army MP just back from Iraq for some family time. Everyone caught lots of fish and Gene now owes Amy a lunch. We got a very early starts above the car bridge fishing shiners and really got onto fish once we went to deeper water and sat off the channel where the Washita bent, allowing us to anchor into the wind. We beat the water and had a steady stream of fish coming through at various depths. By 9AM we were doing C & R to healthy stripers while keeping only injured fish and by 10AM we headed to the cleaning station as we had our limits and were unable to continue Catch & Release fishing. It was a super fishing trip with three wonderful and helpful folks that ended with Mark treating everyone to some big, tasty Alberta Creek Red Creek burgers.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 Fished a friend for a couple hours today. We got a little late start and missed topwater action if there was any. We dropped down bait at 3 spots and got some nice fish at each. Off the water by about 9AM to do some chores and fillet a couple nice box fish for supper. Saturday, May 22, 2010 We left the ramp about 0630 & proceeded directly south looking for some stripers that we could get to bite on our store bought shiners. We had some of the last big ones available in the area and topped off the bait tank with some smaller ones. Anchoring just off a ledge, we put down some bait, beat the water and started catching some fish. Not sure who scored first, but I do know Homer pulled our 2 biggest fish while we were at our first spot. Jeremy and even Terry soon started catching them but it seemed the starboard side was producing more and better fish. As the sun rose, we slid back off the ledge into deeper water of about 60’ as that’s where the fish seemed to have moved to. By 0930 we had all our long fish and most of our box fish as well. About 1030 things just died where we were and we headed south towards Texas waters. In the next several hours, we set anchor about a half dozen times and picked up a fish here and there and by about 1300 we decided to call it quits as the bite had died for the day and also some of the guys had a long drive home. Saturday was a great day on the water. Not too hot, not too windy, no many jet skies, only one stupid & rude cruiser, hungry fish and a great crew. We ended up with only a couple small injured fish we had too keep, all our long fish and a boxful of nice box fish that were mostly in the ideal 18” to 19” range. All the fish were healthy & feisty, slightly skinny, with empty bellies except for Homer’s big girl that had a stomach full of a digesting meal and nice fillets.
Thursday, May 13, 2010 Wayne came down from OKC with his father to also try some topwater fishing. The heavy downpour, lightning and gusty west wind that I encountered when launching had just about disappeared when Wayne and Robert got to the dock at 0545. We headed to the same area that I had been getting topwater fish for the past several weeks and were hoping for the same results. NOT! The best spots produced nothing on the big striper catching lures we were using. Since the wind had died and there was no wave action on the shoreline, I downsized all the topwater lures and we started getting hits. In nearly 2 hours, we managed to land only 4 of the smaller box fish until the bright sun broke through the cloud cover. With the water as calm as I had seen it all week, we headed out to deep water above the Roosevelt Bridge looking for some stripers that we could feed our store bought shiners to. Finding them on the river channel edge, we set the anchor, put out the rods, beat the water and started pulling in fish. Earlier in the week, the best fish came on topwater lures but today, the live beat easily out produced artificials. In less than 2 hours we had reached our limit and were releasing uninjured boxfish. Today ended up being a great fishing day squeezed in between some nasty weather and if Wayne was as good as his Dad was at the end of the trip, I would have gotten home dry! Enjoy the fish-fry and I hope you guys return this summer with the kids. Today ended a string of 4 very good fishing days in a row with some great fishermen and one fisherwoman. But again, this is MAY and the best striper fishing time of the year on Lake Texoma.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 With Mom back home working hard to support their fishing trip, Annie and Ricky decided to stay a extra day just for some more of the top-water fishing. We decided that we would get an early start and fish till the sun drove the stripers to deeper waters. We landed our first fish at 0601 and had a steady bunch of hits while landing quite a few till about 0640 when it pretty much shut down. After trying several more spots and only getting a fish or two, we called it quits a little after 0800 with a dozen fish in the box, three of those being over 20”. Ricky had honors on Tuesday but Annie showed her Dad how it's done & easily landed the biggest top-water fish today. This concludes 3 good days of top-water fishing. There was a pretty good southerly wind all 3 days creating lots of surf that held lots of stripers that really liked all our big, splashing lures. Usually, the biggest fish were caught first and as the morning progressed, the fish became smaller.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 Ricky brought his daughter down from OKC to also try some early top-water fishing before switching over to bait. Those two boated about 12 of these in about 2 hours with Dad slightly edging Annie’s big fish with a female that went 25 inches. Big chug bugs and pencil poppers once again worked the best in these windy conditions as wind continued to blow pretty hard from the south. Once the sun began to peak through the cloud cover, we headed out to the main river channel. Once we found some fish, we set the anchor; beat the water and started filling the ice chest while tossing back some of the uninjured fish.
Monday, May 10, 2010 I awoke Monday to discover the serious wind that was forecast never arrived so I met with 4 fellows from NE Oklahoma and we tried some topwater fishing. One of the very first pencil poppers thrown was ate by a NICE striper before he broke off the line and escaped. But his buddy’s weren’t so fortunate. Some lightning managed to temporarily interrupt our fishing, but after a short time ashore, we were back to out “hot spot”. We caught a bunch of them, maybe 15 in a couple of hours and this included 4 of our long fish. When the top-water bite slowed, we headed out into the main lake to try some bait-fishing. However, the rough water prevented us from getting a good anchor set and sea sickness had someone hanging over the gunwales. That would have made for a grusome I managed to find some calmer waters inside Little Glasses to calm the stomach and set a anchor where we were soon rewarded with lots of stripers. Overall, it was a good trip with a bunch of good fishermen that Ron Sr. got together and the trip turned out much, much better than I anticipated. For a land lubber, B.R. does a pretty good job handling the anchor.
early May Once again I was grounded as I picked up a leg infection from a minor scratch and the doc put me on antibiotics with instructions to stay off my feet. However, I got the ok to fish after Mother’s Day and even with the nasty Oklahoma weather, we’ve been killing em’ since then. I have a ton of photos and reports that I’m just to worn out to post and it’s about time to get the gear ready for hopefully some more great fishing Thursday. But I will catch up this weekend pics from 4 trips this week. Saturday, April 24, 2010 I got out early for some top water action with four guys from the Tulsa area yesterday. It was raining, windy, miserable but the action was great. We pulled about a dozen topwater stripers in about 90 minutes. That included 5 long fish and the biggest was a female that had to be over 10 pounds. As the topwater action stopped, we began looking for stripers to catch using those 10 dozen minnows I bought for bait as threadfin shad are still non-existent in lake Texoma currently. Along with 28 sandies we that we kept as these guys like sandies, we pulled another 2 dozen plus stripers and a channel cat to put in the ice chest, while tossing back some smaller fish and a large mouth that wandered our direction. The weather today was pretty miserable today but bearable once we got some sun around lunch time but the wind and rough water never stopped.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010 Fishing is still getting better. I bait fished the past two days and got up early today to try some topwater. It was fantastic for about an hour on 2 of the 4 spots I hit. The stripers ate the spooks and slammed the pencil poppers. I headed below Washita Point & switched over to bait fishing for a couple hours . I tried 3 different areas and all produced lots of fish, but much smaller than this mornings or those I caught earlier in the week. I'll be fishing my first trip of 2010 Saturday and hopefully, get some fish and a few pictures to post.
Monday, April 19, 2010
I was able to get out on Texoma and do some practice fishing as I really haven’t done much so far this year. The fishing has been good and is really getting good. Baitfish is and will be a serious problem until our remaining threadfin shad spawn and the little guys grow up. I have been buying shiners/minnows and they seem to be working well. However, I keep hearing rumors of bait dealers running out. That’s going to pose a serious problem at some point. Friday, April 9, 2010 Hey guys & gals, I'm back to serious fishing. I have been in limbo while my application for my USCG OUPV License has bounced around and I wasn't 100% sure if I could or could not take out paying customers. This meant at times that I may have turned you down recently, gave some lame excuse or even failed to respond to phone calls or e-mails. But, that's all over and I apologize! I have just received word from the USCG that my OUPV License application has been approved and in the mail. That means we can go find then catch some stripers. Monday, March 29, 2010 I’ve finally decided to post something for 2010. The lack of posts at the beginning of the year was because of a broken computer, but for the past month it has been due to poor fishing on Lake Texoma. The fishing has been so bad that I have been reluctant to book trips till later in April as limits of stripers caught are few and fat fish are even fewer. The blame seems to point at cold winter water temperatures that caused a huge threadfin shad kill. These baitfish are the stripers primary food source. One good springtime spawn in late April by the surviving shad or those that the OK & TX game commissions are thinking of importing to Texoma should make things normal. I am hoping that fishing during May and throughout the rest of the summer will be normal, which means some great striper action. Of course, I am taking currently reservations for those periods and will keep everyone updated on any changes in the fishing action.  |
