Lake Texoma Striper Fishing Blog

It's springtime here on Lake Texoma and that means fishing is fantastic, I'm happy to report this year that the seasonal expectations we have are proving to be 1. Last year we were flooded out with a muddy lake and we missed our springtime fishing of easy limits of fish. This year however, we have been catching 100's of fish on most trips using slabs and topwaters. Though I admit most of the fish we have been catching are tiny. We are having to pick through a lot of small fish to keep the bigger ones but most trips we are still coming in with a good box of fish with our limit of big ones. It is just a sign o f how healthy our lake is right now. It is typical after a flood to have an over abundance small fish. The flood means a successful spawn for the stripers as well as having thousands of acres of flooded shoreline for fry to hide in. This increases the success rate of reaching adulthood for fish of all species. The future sure looks good for Texoma in the coming years, even by this fall, all of those those small fish should be plenty big enough to keep and limits will come easier for all of us.

We have had a great spring slab and topwater bite going. A lot of mornings I have been able to catch all of our overs on topwater and then switch to slabs to pick through small fish for some nice box fish. I did hit a hiccup on this past Saturday though, I only put 2 fish in the box for the whole trip, winds were blowing 20 mpg, there were lots of boats where I wanted to fish, and the fish were not in a good mood. It was probably the worst day I have had since the flood last year which means I was due for good dose of humility, we all get a portion of it from time to time. The day before on Friday we did great on our lures catching and releasing a lot of big fish. This abrupt change I'm afraid means the arrival of bait season. For a lot of guides, bait season is all year long but for me it only lasts about a month and a half. For whatever reason, this time of year the lure bite can get really tough and the bait bite is as good as it gets. I'm not one to fight it just to maintain the position of a purest, at least not for my clients. I'll do what it takes to put fish in the boat and this time of year that means using live bait. Don't get me wrong though, if you are one of my lure clients and you want to go out and catch fish on lures we will do so and can still be successful, especially fishing during the week. I just want to have the option of having live bait available for those of you who just want to catch fish.

We should be able to hang the bait rods back up by July and using bait will no longer be an option on my boat until next spring. In the coming weeks as the water continues to warm, the fish will move deep, a lot of fish will even lay on the bottom in 80 foot to enjoy the cool water. You can catch those fish with live bait but not with lures. As the nights continue to get warmer, eventually the surface temperature never cools enough to sink to the bottom of the lake, this creates a seal of sorts called the thermocline and oxygen doesn't get mixed into the cooler depths at the bottom of the lake, as this seal begins to set you will notice your bait dying when drop it past the thermocline attempting to catch these stripers lounging in the cool water. Its probably why they won't hit lures as they are more dormant in the lower oxygen levels. Eventually they can't stay down there any longer or they die so they come back into the upper water column, by this time it is July and all of the shad spawn have hatched out and are milling around all surface all over the lake thus triggering the beginning of our topwater and slab season and some of the most exciting fishing of the year.

Surfacing fish are easy for everyone to find which means to have a successful topwater trip it is highly recommended to book your trip duing the week in the months of July and August. As the lake gets crowded in the summer weekends get tough. We will have great trips all week long then it seems every weekend we struggle to catch fish in the heavy boat traffic. This means if your priorities are in the right order you will want to take off work to improve your chances to get involved in a Texoma feeding frenzy. You can book your trip online or give me a call 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!

Your Lake Texoma Fishing Guide,
Brian Prichard

Stripers Inc.

www.stripersinccom

(903)815-1609