2012 Trips

Greg drove down from Tuttle with his dad and JR. Shortly after daybreak we headed south from Catfish Bay and it was a beautiful morning as the sun was coming up, very little wind and smooth waters. We stopped outside Lakeside and started to fish. We soon caught our first striper and that was followed by several others, including several long fish. Five-year-old JR was killing them, never missing a fish. When things slowed down we headed west towards Mac Creek to find some action for JR. However, we had very little luck there and managed only one or two fish. We then decided to work our way south towards Texas and along the way we stopped the a few spots and always manage to pick up at least one fish per stop.
We again put down anchor but this time we were in 70' deep waters. It started slow here but soon the action really, really heated up! JR along with his dad helping him manage to catch and reel in several long fish from deep waters and finally a monster. This girl tipped the scales at about 10 pounds, Heck of fish JR! Soon we had our limit of long fish and were forced to leave this hot spot and try to find areas where we could catch some small fish, so we headed back to the area where we first started fishing this morning. Not much happening here, though Jim did manage to catch the last fish and a nice big fish it was. We then headed to the fish cleaning station and I was put to work filleting a full ice chest of big stripers and catfish. We arrived back at the boat ramp around 2:30. Once again, it was another great day on Lake Texoma. Perfect weather, lots of nice fish with some good fishermen, but JR was clearly the best fishermen and also the best dressed. Greg, enjoy those tasty fillets and don't forget to try some of the fish recipes on my website.

Ron brought his family & Bernie down from the city for their fishing with me on Lake Texoma again. These guys come down here every year and we have a great time and usually catch a bunch of fish. This time, they were joined by some family members that came in from Colorado. We had the get a second boat to help so we split our fishing party into two groups easier to manage. I drew Mike, Ron JR. and was forced to take Bernie. Ron SR captained the other 3-man crew in Craig's boat. We then departed Alberta Creek heading south to fish. The weather was overcast but at least it wasn't raining and the winds were mild.

We soon dropped an anchor and started to fish & Bernie won the bet of the first fish in the boat, a great big fat drum Soon, Mike and Ron were both catching stripers. We were also catching catfish and landed several flatheads along with a couple small blue or channel cat fish. Before noon, we had our limits of long fish and were trying to catch some smaller box fish. We even tied up to the other boat so the family could compare fish and see each other. Ron senior's brother also caught a nice fish.

With a possible storm approaching, we soon headed to the fish cleaning station and proceeded to bag up lots of tasty fish fillets for the guys to take home for the fish Fry and Bernie he was happy he got the rocks from several drum fishes heads.

Two fellows from NW OK drove down this AM to fish Texoma for the 1st time. Damp, overcast, drizzly morning as we headed south at daybreak and we went less than a mile before we sell some fish and stopped. James & Mike managed to catch a couple small stripers with artificial fishing lures before we continued south and started bait fishing. We tried numerous locations, constantly catching fish, but none were real large.
We soon headed to the fish cleaning station with limits of tasty stripers. we were feeling pretty good at that time with our days catch, until another boat came in and started cleaning a bunch of bigger fish. I then realized, that we didn't try hit all the right locations at the right time.
At the end of the day, James and Mike headed back towards Woodward after having a pretty good day on Lake Texoma, weather wasn't the greatest but it could've been much much worse.

Nine fellows from a Plano business either skipped work or are going to be working tonight to make up for time lost while fighting wind, waves and water for some frisky stripers today. The north wind that rolled in has brought colder temps along with a change in fishing patterns.

We headed to where all the nice fish have been recently, only to find very few fish and rough seas that kept my anchor from holding when I did manage to find some fish. Looking for some fish and also hoping to find a calmer place to fish, we headed to Little Mineral. That was a rough & bumpy ride and nobody stayed dry. Not me with my waterproof bibs, nor Mike who wore shorts. We managed a few fish and then decided to cross the big water to the Okie shore knowing that it would be calmer there and also because we had to do it eventually to get home. We spotted a big bunch of fish and set anchor up in Mac Creek. It wasn't long before we had fish on multiple rods. Weren't big, but there sure were a lot and it was just what we needed.

By the time we approached our limit and Mike wanted to head back, A-Rod's blue cat was our big fish, beating out a largemouth that we landed a bit later by either Jason or Crocket. It ended up being another great day on Texoma. We didn't get the big fish and we didn't stay dry, but the guys had a great time and took back a bunch of striper for a company fish fry this week.

Wayne left his Dad home this time and instead brought his son to Griffin to try his luck catching Texoma stripers. After meeting me at 0545, we headed south to where the fish have been. Looked like a beautiful morning to fish with only a light wind with a slight chop to the water as we headed to Texas. We were one of the 1st boats there and had fish on before we had all the rods baited and down.
Griffin doesn't fish much but he soon caught on to setting the hook just like his Dad.

These early fish were box fish and we soon started getting some big girls to chase our bait while we sat in 81 feet of water. Wayne got the big fish and Griffin soon followed with one of his own. We added some more box and long fish to the ice chests before Wayne wanted to start home.
It was a great day to be on Texoma with some great fishing with a great guy and his son that we taught how to fish, set a hook, lip a striper but couldn't get him to eat a shad.

WOW! Been waiting for these kind of days since June 2011.

Two friends joined me for a long, rough, early boat ride down towards the dam. After nearly 30 minutes of not even a nibble, we started catching fish. Not quantity, but quality stripers from deep water. All 3 of us had a big fish on. Steve landed his, John's broke the line and mine just got off. Sometimes getting a good hook set when the fish is 70 feet deep is difficult. We ended the day by 1000 after we put our 6th long fish into the box with 1 "normal" box fish as we weren't able to do any catch & release as all these fish were worn out being pulling from deep waters. Especially the bigger ones that took quite a while to land. Steve's fish was nearly dead when we got her up & she measured 34.5 inches at about 16 lbs.

I sure hope that this is the beginning of a great summer of striper fishing.

I headed out this morning looking for topwater fish first, then any other fish returning from spawning upstream. I went north. BIG MISTAKE! There was nothing up there except for a couple light taps on my spook. I then tried near the RR bridge before working my way south to Texas waters. I got down by the Butterfly Coves around 0800 after squandering 2 hours up north.

I immediately picked up several fish but I could tell from the radio chatter that I may have arrived a little to late. I'll be here early Friday.

Clint got together a fishing trip for his soon to be married brother and 3 other guys. It was still windy, but I headed south below the RR bridge as I needed fish badly.

First we anchored on a ledge and started pulling fish, not big fish, but fish. Tony got my boat's 1st over in ages it seems and after the guys started changing seating, they all were catching fish.
We moved around looking for better fish but we never found them or any working birds. After a day of struggling with the anchor in the wind, we ended the day at the cleaning station watching Chaney catch a monster carp???? I ended cleaning about 42 stripers, 1 catfish and we released a bunch of smaller catfish, some small stripers & drum and one big ol' carp.

Great guys........enjoy your last 6 days of freedom Chaney & CONGRATULATIONS!

Tomas came up from below Waco to Texoma with 4 of his friends today. High winds kept us fishing north. We caught some small fish early then everything stopped after a big cat stuck his barb into my stomach. It took a pretty good yank to get it out & reminded me of the Crocodile Hunter and the fatal sting ray barb to his heart.

These guys were patient & hung in there, but we just couldn't find any biting fish after 0930. We did do better than some as we encountered an abandoned & overturned boat that appeared to be anchored just outside Catfish bay

Charles and John came south from Kansas to fish after stopping along the way for a pig hunt. Strong south & west winds kept us fishing above Washita Point today, but fish, while small had been everywhere.

Things sure changed today. Fish were hard to find and once we found them, they disappeared. We hit numerous spots, anchoring and drifting when the strong winds let up a bit. Usually the same results with maybe a nibble or two, except for the time I couldn't pull my anchor and had to cut it off. I HATE THAT!

After a long day we headed in only about 1/2 dozen stripers and several cats with one channel being a real nice size. We threw back some small stripers, lots of 10" catfish and at least 6 big drum. Probably my worst fishing day since February, but whenever the wind died down, it was a great day to be on the lake.

Today I fished with a couple of Kansas guys, Roger & Daryl. We left the dock about 0615 heading for some topwater fishing on a calm morning after I had earlier loaded the boat with bait by 0415.

The topwater action we had hoped for was non-exist ant and I'm still waiting for the 1st springtime topwater bite up here when the big stripers return to the main lake after their up-river spawn. We tried several locations and cruised the shoreline looking for some action, nada! Giving up on topwaters, we started baiting above the Roosevelt. We soon started pulling the smaller fish pretty constantly. As the wind picked up, e worked our way from above Bridgeview down to Burns Run then nearly over to Mac Creek before again returning to above the Roosevelt. Same story at every stop.....lots of smaller fish.

We finally pulled the plug around 1400 as even the little guys quit biting. Final count was 1 long fish, a nice big channel cat and around 15 bleeders as we only kept injured fish and returned more than we kept.

Three generations got together to come to Texoma and fish with me today with Randall flying in from Georgia. After coming that far, he deserved the 1st striper and he caught it. We met up early just as most of the predawn lightning stopped and the winds shifted out of the north and brought some windy & cold weather. At 3AM getting bait, it was 65 degrees with only slight rain & with mild southerly winds. This change in the weather changed all the fishing patterns and forced us to head south out of some of the wind.

We started drifting up on Platter Flats and caught some small fish. Periodically we we move to another spot but usually with the same results. We eventually made it to Table Top but found very little there and began working our way north. Once we hit Washita Point the waves got much bigger & rougher so I decided to hide behind the RR riprap. Again, we caught fish here but most were small with no overs. Shane did manage a fat 16 pound blue cat with everyone getting their share, even though Mathew was a "fish hog" at times and Jake misses a chance for the "big fish" while napping but still managed a bunch.

Overall, it was a great trip and these guys were fun and even brought some grub for Capt. Wayne. We caught a bunch of small fish that supplied a big bag of fillets as the big ones still appear to be up river spawning. With Randall being the catfish expert, Shane talked him into filleting it as there weren't any trees handy to nail it to for skinning. We even filleted a drum as they wanted to try it. I wonder if it will be on their fish-fry menu this weekend along with the striper, sand bass and blue cat? Shane, I'm sure we'll get some bigger fish for you later this summer if you make back.

The fishing on Lake Texoma is still good and appears to be getting better. I've been out with friends twice this week and while we have found small fish everywhere, we have also found some bigger ones too. While only keeping a few of these, all appeared to have spawned. Good news as maybe the remaining spawning fish will soon be returning down stream & heading to the main lake body.
I'm still not having any luck with early topwater fishing but I am seeing some shad looking like they are spawning along the shorelines at daybreak.

Lynn brought Cheryl down for their anniversary to catch some stripers even knowing the striper spawn was taking place on the upper part of the lake and the big fish were temporarily missing.

We met shortly before dawn and headed north looking for either topwater action or working birds which had been up there the past couple days. Today nothing!
We then headed south for some cleaner water and soon found and caught lots of fish. By the end of the day, we had covered lots of miles, fished a lot of water, tried numerous spots and all held fish, small fish. We ran out of bait about 2PM and headed in to clean the fish.

Overall, it it was a enjoyable trip. While most fish were small, we were all kept busy catching them and hoping that the next hard pulling striper was a big fish. We ended up with 30 stripers and some sandies in the box, none were "overs" while several were good boxfish and the rest the smaller guys. We released just as many uninjured stripers as we caught while keeping all the injured fish along with our bigger ones.
Today's weather was nearly perfect and Cheryl and Lynn were great company & fishermen. I imagine that when they return in October, big & hungry stripers will again be roaming Texoma.

I spent the past 2 days checking out the boat after having it in the shop for several days this week with starting problems. Looks like it's fixed. I've also spent time while on the water getting used to & setting up some new electronics gear. I'm ready to get back to fishing.

Four fellows from west of Lawton joined me to catch some stripers this AM. It was a bachlor party outting for Claye and the guys were pretty ragged when they joined me before 7AM to go fishing after a late night. While Robert, Nathan and Claye were in decent shape , Cowboy's fan Jeremy wasn't at first.
We headed south looking for clean water and our first stop was just below the RR bridge. We found lots of fish, all pretty small and stayed there a while, keeping some and releasing others. Throughout the day from Alberta to Tabletop nearly to Mac Creek and back up to the Roosevelt and down to Lakeside, we found plenty of fish but most were small box fish.

Overall, it was a great day. After some rain & lightning about 0330 while getting bait, the weather turned perfect with only light wind. These guys were a great group to fish with and while we didn't get any big fish, we got a bunch. I cleaned 44 and we released another 20 but while these fish were all fat & healthy, wish they were bigger.

Still lots of bait out there but you can only find them in clear or stained waters, not that muddy crap coming down the Washita. I'm also finding lots of them with eggs which means they should be spawning soon. For me, spawning shad typically means great TOPWATER STRIPER fishing.

I've just returned home after spending some time on the lake this morning. My new side imaging fish finder that I installed a couple days ago works great as does the GPS portion after I installed the Lakemaster chip yesterday.
Getting bait at 3AM was easy today and some of the shad appeared to be full of eggs which indicate an early shad spawn. For me, this typically means great striper top-water fishing.
The lake still is pretty muddy north of the Roosevelt but it clears up as you travel south. I fished this AM for a couple hours and while I kept some injured stripers for dinner, I wasn't able to locate any long fish. This years Wildlife Dept. gill net survey proves that those long fish are here, you just have to find them.

I committed several days to boat maintenance and installing a new hi-tech side scanning fish finder while allowing the muddy waters to clear a bit. With this nice weather, I almost regret it but I should be back out on the water by Tuesday and ready to fish.

Wes took advantage of my "Hot Fishing Deal" and came fishing today with his Dad, Mike. We were planning to fish Tuesday, but I called him to cancel after sitting at the boat ramp for over 3 hours Tuesday morning waiting for the lightning to stop. While Wednesday's weather was much better, the conditions were horrible. Catfish Bay was very muddy with lots of floating debris. Bait which had been there all year were now gone to clear water and much harder to catch. Over 3 hours searching for bait in cleaner, deep main lake water produced only 73 Threadfin shad.
We left the marina and headed north, finding only really muddy water where there had been fish. We then worked are way south while periodically stopping and fishing where I "thought" we marked fish. No takers! Maybe it just submerged debris I was marking. We finally fish some fish and drifted. Mike pulled a fat 8+ pound striper while Wes had 2 break off. That's discouraging, especially when fishing is rough and there are lots of lite hits and lots of small fish. We ran out of bait around 2PM & headed to the cleaning station before a possible storm. Mike did manage another long fish that had already spawned and we got a bunch of small fish and some sandies as well.
I think fishing and navigating will be tough the upcoming week & have rescheduled this weekends trips for a later date.

Mike's 8 pound striper

Another bunch of Texans came to Texoma from the pan handle this AM for some striper fishing. Tammy & Brent brought Justin & Jason fishing while leaving Casper & the little poodle to guard their truck.
I had planned a long run west this AM to begin with, but both the breezy AM & stormy afternoon weather forecast made me reconsider so I again headed north to start the day's fishing. I seemed to mark fish but catching was way more difficult as we kept trying many different locations before finding a few scattered fish.
It was quite a few hours till we finally located some hungry fish and we were fortunate that these guys liked sandbass. There was a huge school of sandies, most nice sized and some really big plus a rare striper. Everybody was catching, but I think Jason caught the most and Tammy definitely caught the smallest. We even managed to tangle 4 lines with 1 fish and later had a triple as these fish were hungry.We finally pulled the plug with the fish still biting when we ran out of my 200 shad.

While not the stripers we wanted, it was a great day with a great family and lots of fishing action and even the weather was good as the storms stayed away. We threw back a bunch of small sandies, a couple small stripers and even a catfish while we end cleaning nearly 40 fish.

I hit the lake about 0315 this morning for bait. It's great to be out there early when the wind isn't blowing and when the temps are around 60. Seemed the only drawback this AM was the noisy quacking ducks trying to out quack each other.
Dan and Mike came down from Purcell and we headed north. Action was slow, but Dan managed to land a feisty 10.5 pound striper that I was afraid would pull him into the lake.
After a couple slow hours of fishing, we headed 17 miles west as I was told that fish were biting there. We began a drift once we got to the cross and started pulling stripers. We finally had some action, but while there were some nice box fish and also another long fish, most were small. The predicted wind picked up, fishing slowed and after a couple hours we headed east into some bumpy waters.
We again fished northern waters but fishing was quite a bit slower. We soon quit after a typical March day. It was windy and fishing erratic and somewhat slow. It was the 28"+ fish that helped make this a great day for Mike, Dan and myself.

Mark brought his 5 year old grandson down to Texoma today for some striper fishing. All I can say is Carter should have skipped day school & been here last week. We had a rough day like most on the others fishing today. Have the big fish moved upstream to spawn? All we can do is fish, who knows, fishing may turn on as fast as it turned off. However, there still are big fish out there as I had a buddy in another part of the lake catch a monster.
At the end of the day, these guys went home with some tasty stripers, but not as many as we all hoped.
Carter was a real trooper as they arrived at the ramp before 6AM after a several hour drive, fished for over 6 hours and then began the drive home.
I did manage a photo of Mark and even Carter holding up some fish but somehow it got erased, sorry guys!

Wow! Things sure have changed for the worse all of a sudden. It seems the big fish, medium fish & most of the small fish have disappeared. I've been out for several hours with friends each of the past 2 days. Monday we got skunked, today we caught some stripers, though not the big ones. We did run into a bunch of big sandbass which kept us busy and were fun to catch,
Lots of spring break trips the next 2 weeks so I hope the stripers start feeding again.

Got up at 0230 today to do some fishing but the wind & rain sent me back to bed. The weather forecast also forced me to reschedule a trip planned this weekend. Hopefully, the nice weather will return in time for some trips next week. I sure hate to cancel or reschedule when fishing is as good as it is right now. But I guess that is the way march weather is.

I've been out fishing twice this week and Tuesday was GREAT but today was AWESOME!!! Two of my neighbors went with me today to fish. These guys aren't "real" fishermen as they didn't want to get up at 0230 to help catch bait but preferred to sleep in and met me at the ramp at 0715.
We headed north to the area that I've been fishing and started to drift bait across a very windy lake. Weather wise, things were looking up as it was sunny with temps already in the upper 40's at daybreak. That sure beat the upper 20's last week.
It wasn't long before we landed our 1st fish. It was a small box that would have been a really nice fish 6 months ago, but I had hopes for some bigger fish today so we released it. During the next 3 hours we were continuously rewarded with some big fat fish for supper. The guys missed some, but did a good job with these feisty, fat stripers that made us work up a sweat getting them into the boat.
We ended up keeping our 6 fish limit of long fish and 2 smaller box fish. Since most of the fish were caught in fairly shallow cold water and lip hooked without injuries, we were able to C & R quite a few. I imagine we released about 20 fish with most between 23 to 26 inches and all very fat. I've probably said this before, but these are the healthiest fish I've seen on Texoma for several years at least and I'm really looking forward to the fishing the remainder of the year.

Here it is only March 1st & after checking my notes & trip reports from March 2011, I think we caught more pounds of fish yesterday than I did the entire month of March 2011.

I spent several hours this morning fishing up north. Bait was fairly easy and I did manage to find some nice, fat and hungrey stripers for dinner tonight. I quit after throwing my 2nd injured long fish into the ice chest after previously releasing several uninjured long fish. These 2 kept another 6 box fish company on the way to the fish cleaning station. Didn't see any eagles today, just fish.

We have had some decent weather so I decided to try heading north looking for some hungry fish.
Big mistake. I couldn't find any fish, hungry or not. Later this week I will try mid-lake as that is where I have heard the stripers are. I was just hoping to find fish north to serve as a closeby back-up location to fish when the weather gets bad.

However, I did manage to shoot a short video of four beautiful Bald Eagles inside Little Glasses. I stuck them on youtube and you can see them at the following link

It seems winter has returned to Texoma after some nice weather the past week or so. Temperatures in the mid 20's along with 25 MPH winds forced me to cancel a couple trips this weekend and will probably keep me off the water for several more days.

First off, the lake has leveled off at nearly 616 feet after that very much needed rain last week.
I went out this morning looking for supper and I found it but only after spending about 90 minutes getting bait before daylight. Last Wednesday I fished for about half a day only using artificial lures and managed only 1 fish. So today I decided to fish a different part of the lake using only live bait.
Found lots of fat stripers in deep water at nearly every location I stopped from the Roosevelt Bridge to Table Top. I ended up quitting at around 11 AM with a limit of stripers and also released several long fish. The biggest I let go went slightly over 10 lbs.
I even caught & kept a big drum as several of us have been talking about if they are edible and curious how they taste. Everyone just throws them back, but for some reason there has been a lot of them caught in the past year. Anyway, I filleted it today and will cook it tomorrow. It was a big fish, with a big head, big scales, tough skin but not much meat.

We have received 6 inches of rain the past few days which has raised lake levels 18 inches and more continues to flow in from the Red & Washita river systems. At 614.99 feet, many of the ramps and boat docked that were unusable can now again be safely used.
In addition, the current blue-green algae problem that we have had since August is nearly gone. More information on this can be found on my home page as well as the links to the Corps of Engineers sites and complete, current algae testing results.
I�m currently catching up on boat repairs and maintenance, but plan to be out fishing next week��stay tuned.

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