Striper on Texoma

Fished last weekend with Josh Sutton from Southern Wind guide service, he uses my thumper so he spent some time showing me how he uses his. Last weekend was awesome and this weekend was epic! The fish were super responsive to the thumper and stayed under the boat! Josh had double limits and a really nice over, Tyler had 30 and Ivan and I caught 18! With the temperature dropping the fish are really responding!

https://youtu.be/kmyj0aROPDo

Solid post and sold fish. Good job.

Tyler caught more fish this morning trolling to find active schools and then thumping and slabbing to catch them!

Can't wait for the water temps to drop a little more. It's gonna be a blast the next few weeks.

How is the afternoon and evening bite now.?

I would try swimbaits along the edges of flats or Tyler was trolling a hellbender pet spoon combination and dropping slabs on the school when he hooked up. That worked for him all weekend.

Hey Eric, this is Tylers buddy Travis. We were fishing my boat that weekend and had great success with the Hell bender pet spoon combo like you said. Fishing in 20-30ft of water. Most of the fish seemed to be on the smaller side that time and we had trouble getting deeper down to target the larger fish. Couldn't drop the spoon down fast enough on them. Have you been having luck catching live bait lately? Im used to finding them in the platter flatts area in the spring but haven't searched for them since then. The thumper is a great addition to the fishing arsenal. Highly recommend.

Hey Travis, the Striper are pushing the shad into the coves pretty shallow. I have been able to catch them when I see them flickering on top. You have to weed through the extra large ones to get the 4” fish that I was getting the most bites on.

Has Texoma turned over?

We went this morning, got on a bunch of them stacked up by the BC sign at Briar Creek, in about 35 foot of water. Looked like an exploding volcano underwater on the fish finder. We had caught some dinks, and 4 good box Sandies earlier. But trolled through this stack and pulled a couple 7 pounders and a 9 pounder out.

Turnover is over. Fishing was great today my arms are sore from catching so many!!

Ok, good to know. I am thinking about heading up Weds morning.

what size pet spoon new to stripper fishing ,

Wind was tough today so found them in Creek branches off the main lake. We caught them on smaller shad and lucked out and caught a nice box and some sandbass during some mid afternoon topwater action.

I will ask Tyler what size he uses. I troll with Captain Mack’s A rigs...

This is the picture Tyler sent me. He uses the biggest one he can find!

Well done!

Thanks!

Thumpers and live shad are continuing to produce! Take good care of your bait and the bites will come. Ernesto caught a limit of Striper, 11 catfish and this nice over...

Nice! I went yesterday (Monday) when the clouds were covering and temps were around 57, fished from 0700 until 1300 all on the flats by the white cross. Fished moved fast, plenty of schools and thousands of birds all day. Fishing was epic for me. Most of my fish were 24 inches to 20 inches. Kept my two overs and 10 unders. All caught mostly on a 2oz slab, some on top. I had a rather big over break my line at the boat as I tried to scope it up. Took off with my $16.00 Whopper Plopper!!!

Awesome except for the whopper plopped loss! Looks like the birds are back in force and will find the schools! Ernesto had a big one break his line Monday as well! With all the bait out there, should be some fat line breaking and maybe even lake record breaking fish!

Tyler was thumping them up today. He said you could catch them until your arm fell off. Kyle had a nice cooler full as well this morning! Check out the latest video from last weekend! https://youtu.be/dXMEhTNlE94

Looks like my live well today. Lots of box fish.

Great stuff

Got a nice report from Jake today, looks like Striper are responding well to the thumper!

This weekend was awesome! I fished with a buddy boat Saturday... birds were working from Mack Creek across to Wachita and just outside of Lakeside. My fishing buddy wanted to catch shad and try out his thumper. We caught bait and headed out to the main lake just outside of lakeside. Only marked a few fish but turned in the thumper to see what would happen. The fish came in a few at a time and we usually caught 1 out of every school that passed through. We ended up with 10 box and 2 overs before we ran out of small shad. Alex caught 7 and lost a big fish when it ran into the trolling motor. We saw guide boats coming back super early so I am sure there was action under the birds.

Ed trolled that afternoon and caught 28 but he cheats and catches them 3-5 at a time on the A rig!

Josh (Southern Wind) crushed them as usual and has his limits pretty early...

Did a video from last weekends trip

https://youtu.be/yf2oc31AfU0

Kyle crushed them today throwing swimbaits...

After Kyle and his buddies did do well on swimbaits, Several of us fished yesterday. I tried artificials and A rigs under the birds, then thumped with shad along the edges. Fish keyed in on the smaller shad which are harder to catch than the 5-6” variety. We caught about a dozen altogether with most being on the shad and one over on the A Rig. I had a YouTube subscriber buddy boat with me. They tied off behind me and caught a few fish as well including a first Striper for this young man!

Tyler did well using the Hellpet (crank bait/ spoon)combination. Tyler trolls until he gets bit by the right size fish, then he slabs that active school. He showed George that technique and George caught a nice box full as well...

Ernesto caught a nice box of fish thumping with shad.

Ed caught 18 on A rigs along the edges including a nice triple hook up and a 6lb over.






Yesterday was an awesome day to fish and it seemed like every technique was effective!

The wind was rough this weekend so I waited until this afternoon to go fishing. Left Highport about 3 and ran into birds by the island. Picked up 6 box on A rigs and Hellpets using a #12 Tony Acetta. First time afternoon fishing and first time just trolling but didn’t have much time to fish and didn’t want to chase bait. Was fun trip!

I did a video of last weeks trip! Was pretty fun following the birds...

https://youtu.be/h0EMOLm0ZBM

Several of us fished today using thumpers and splashers with shad and slabs. Plenty of nice box fish and Ed found one 8lb over. Fish were everywhere and hungry!



I had Mike and Mike with me and little Mike outfished both of us. He put 6 of the 16 fish in the boat before we ran out of bait and called it a day!

I did a video from last weeks trip. I had taken the hammer out of my thumper and forgotten to put it back so didn't have my thumper but used the splasher and my friends thumper to call in fish. Bait depth control and fresh bait were critical to success. We easily missed as many fish as we caught but Mike and Mike had a great time...

https://youtu.be/gy0DlaQtzYY

I fished Wednesday with Ed. Had an epic trolling trip catching big Striper on A rigs! Was finally able to put the video together!

https://youtu.be/BLHohXJWark

Fished Saturday with Clif and the kids but only managed a couple in the wind!

Congrats

This was Ed’s graph today. I think he caught 40. We have been trolling and thumping with shad or artificials...

https://youtu.be/BLHohXJWark

This weekend was awesome with good fish caught via trolling and Justin and his friends catching a really nice one catching a really nice one with slabs and thumper!

John drifted today with A rigs under the birds and did pretty good...

Drifting not driving will keep the school in tact.

Those are solid fish.

Guys fished yesterday using thumpers with live bait and slabs, sassy shad and trolling and caught fish all ways. They CPR’d a nice 31” over!

Healthy side liners and a 31 incher , very nice !!!

WOW. Nice!

WHAT KIND OF A-RIGS DO YOU USE FOR THIS TECHNIQUE ?

I use Captain Mack’s A rigs

https://youtu.be/BLHohXJWark

I didn’t fish these weekend but some of my friends did, they caught fish deadsticking and slabbing using RSR slabs!

Had a great day fishing yesterday with Brad (Circle B Guide Service) and Jerry (Jerry’s Guide Service). We were fishing a minor cold front and wanted to try using the thumper with deadsticking and bait. We hit several spots and thumped in lots of fish at each spot, but the fish had lockjaw… We ended up catching 8 striper and about 8 nice sandbass. The striper were all fat and healthy and already carrying eggs! We probably caught half of the fish on deadstick and half of the fish on bait. As the water temperature cools and the bait slows down, the thumping and deadsticking is only going to get better and better! If you are looking for some guides to put you on fish while deadsticking, give these guys a call!

Giant

I prefished with Captain Josh from Southern Wind Guode service today. Fish were up north so we caught bait and started Deadsticking. We caught three on the first drift (I should say he since he caught them all). We then decided to check a few spots for bait fishing. Each spot we caught a few fish including this one which is the biggest i have caught in a while.
The thumper was calling the fish in and a few were hungry. Right about 11 the wind died and the deadstick bite became real tough.

Thanks for the help catching bait this morning Eric. I'll be glad when is not below freezing in the mornings. That icy deck and throwing a net is no fun. The afternoon went pretty well with bait, but the dead stick bite was not as good as this morning. Fish are still relating to the creek chanels and ledges but the muddy water has pushed them a little further West. One thing I have noticed the last few times out is I have to be a little more patient when I spot lock with bait. Sometimes it's 15 minutes or more before the school will lock under the boat.

Ed caught about 30 today deadsticking and thumping! Lots of overs full of eggs released to fight again!

We done well yesterday as well. Lots of overs went back for us as too.

The deadstick bite is still hot, On good days, Ed is catching 40. On slow days, he is catching 10. He is using his thumper and deadsticking...

Ed fished with a buddy today and kept a few more. He has been throwing back the bigger females unless they are hooked deep...

That is one helluva large sand bass.

Be there again tomorrow for sure again very few non limit trips here.

Adding for pre mentioned trip 1 sand bass and 3 limits of stripers had 3 fisherman 2 other friends called wishing to help us if we were struggling but stayed put all 3 boats did limits yesterday Thursday. Most all in 40' water suspended at 30 about, all I caught were on pink plastics..

Most of the sandbass and the Striper are super fat! We have been catching sandbass mixed in with Striper and they have been xtra large for sure!

We fished with Cody Mullenix and did pretty well. COLD!

I fished Saturday in the crazy wind just to see how the new boat ran. It was pretty awesome to be able to fish on a day when I normally have to stay home! We only caught 2 on deadsticking because my one drift sock only kept us down to 1.2 and the bite was at about .7. It you went too fast or too slow, no bites!

Brad and Josh and some of the other guys all crushed fish as usual! My drift sock is on order!

It’s also a good time to do a jug line





and Striper trip and drop juglines for catfish!

Thumping and deadsticking continues to be off the charts! Ed is catching 20-30 quality fish a day he send me these pictures today! If you haven’t tried this yet, you need to!

Man that white has been at the feed bucket!!!

The sand bass looks as if someone put an air hose in its mouth, pure fatness.

He caught this one on an earlier trip! To say the fish are fat and healthy this year is an understatement!

Deadsticking has been interesting the past few days. There are fish everywhere and when you find the hungry ones the action is intense! Here are some pictures from Ed’s trip today... Deadsticking has been a challenge! You have to find the hungry fish but when you do the action is intense! @musseredward has been catching plenty! If you want to book a trip with him, reach out to him at +1 (903) 647-5102! Our monthly giveaway is exactly what he is using to catch these fish while using his thumper! Check out our monthly giveaways and get your own thumper at www.thumpemupfishing.com!

Fat healthy stripers.

The fish that we are catching this year are amazing! There is so much bait everywhere so they are well fed!

I fished texoma yesterday, thumping and using tandem rigged Deadsticking flukes. I caught 2 but marked fish and bait... my Buddy Ed fished today thumping and slow rolling swim baits. He caught 7 with 3 over 20”... fishing is getting better and better! It’s not quite where it was before SNOVID, but we are still marking bait and catching a few
fish which is a good sign!

Still lots of fun.

Texoma has been interesting the past few days Ed has been alternating between thumping and throwing paddle tail swimbaits shallow on cloudy days and thumping and deadsticking on sunny days. Yesterday was a Sonny day and he and Aaron got on a nice school of overs Deadsticking... these fish liked the thumper and stuck underneath his boat enabling them to catch several nice ones!

Fishing is definitely getting better if you can find the active fish! If you do the fishing is downright epic. Ed is alternating between Zoom Swimmin Superfluke and deadsticking based on whether it’s cloudy or sunny. He is still putting good fish in the boat although box fish are becoming scarcer as the fish fatten up for spawn. I am running a giveaway this month on my website for some Deadsticking tackle so check it out and enter the contest!

Striper have been interesting. Huge schools of fish in most of the usual spots, but they are not always hungry. Each spot seems to be hit or miss, 40 fish one day 8 the next and another spot has 8 the first day and 40 the next. I fished Saturday with Jacob from Keepin it Reel Guide Service and we threw on some Captain Mack's A rigs to cover lots of water and find some hungry fish... We ended up catching several striper including 2 nice ones on A rigs!

nice catch

Was finally able to put together a video of the trip! It's worth reviewing just to check out the amazing boat that he has!

https://youtu.be/K8LQ0iptOQ4

Ed from Ed’s Guide service and Aaron put 20 in the boat today trolling A rigs... if you are looking for a trolling trip, give Ed a call, +1 (903) 647-5102

Fat healthy fish !!

No doubt, these are monsters!

My friends and I fished with Ed from Ed’s Guide Service Sunday... we left Little Mineral and found a fast moving school of Striper working outside the marina but they disappeared before we could get the A rigs down. We then hit the edges of the river channel and picked up a double of overs on our first rig and then overs on the next run. It took all of 30 seconds to hook up once we started trolling. After that bite slowed we did some precision trolling by reeling up over the points and dropping down deeper on the other side. We caught about 12 overs 2 larger box fish and some smaller box fish that we released to fight again. The fish I kept and cleaned were all males. Once the spawn is over it’s going to get epic!

Posted a video from the trip this weekend with Ed! If you watch it, please like and comment! It will help me a ton! https://youtu.be/NsOo_c8ZdQw

Looks like fishing is going from good to epic. Lots of people are catching fish! Ed is still trolling but other people are catching easy quick multi-person limits with live shad!

Fishing has been amazing recently. Ed from Ed’s Guide Service is still catching nice fish trolling and Josh from Southern Wind Guide Service and Brad from Circle B have also been catching them on cut bait using splashers and / or thumpers... with summer starting it’s going to get really busy on Texoma, but the fishing is amazing!

Fishing has been epic on Texoma! Ed from Ed’s Guide Service has been using his splasher and/or thumper and catching tons of fish! He caught 32 overs today and kept the biggest 4...

Fishing continues to be epic! Aaron fished with Ed’s guide service and picked up another nice fish!

Fishing was pretty epic today! I met up with Windtalker from the TFF and we met up with Ed from Ed’s Guide Service who was on a hot bite. His thumper had them stirred up and all three boats were able to catch fish. Ed and I headed in and I had to pick up the family. We returned about 40 min later and turned on my thumper and the fish fired up again. We caught about 20 before the kids were tired and we headed in. The live bait bite is amazing right now!

Fishing is still off the charts! Cut bait or live bait results in instant bites! Some really nice fish getting caught as well. Ed did some prefishing today and caught a nice 12lb fish on cut bait… his customers have caught nice fish and easy limits on recent trips as well!

Nice.

Striper fishing remains awesome! Trolling has picked back up with Ed from Ed’s guide service picking up some nice fish on Captain Mack’s A rigs. Bait fishing has also been awesome with multiple guides reporting limits, sometimes the limits are fast and other times they have to grind it out…

Did a quick video from last weeks trip. This is how I use my thumper to attract fish. I probably have about 12 spots on the lake that I prefer to fish and normally only have to hit 2-4 to draw in fish with the thumper. This was the first stop I fished at and the same spot I have fished for the past two weekends. As you can imagine, fishing conditions change constantly but I always manage to catch a few...

https://youtu.be/ujguo-5x6iw

In one word, EPIC. Striper are feeding on shad in deep water 70’ . You can thump and catch them on bait in 40’ of water but right now, they push a few shad to the top and the topwater bite is on fire! Ed is trolling and catching three at a time and others are throwing topwater and catching 30+ 20” fish! If you want to book a guide for this hot bite


tomorrow give me a call 972 689-4245! This is a truly epic bite!

I live bait fish most of the time but every once in a while I like to break out the Captain Mack’s A Rigs and catch them up! I fished with Ed from Ed’s Guide Service today and we caught 15 fish today but only 2 box fish! Make sure you remember to squeeze the tail and push on the fish when you measure it! We caught lots of 19” fish that stretch to 20 1/4”! Thumpers will help you catch more fish! Get your own thumper at www.thumpemupfishing.com! Want to book a trip with Ed or another guide for this hot bite, give me a call 972 689-4245!

Had a last minute cancellation for Sunday so if you want to take advantage of an epic bite on Texoma give me a call 972 689-4245!

Saturday I fished with a group of friends in my boat and several other friends on the water. We planned to hit the dam for some topwater action and then head to some other spots and use our thumper. There was a huge boat show at the dam but we didn’t see much action so took off in different directions. We stopped at Colbert then headed to Mac Creek. We picked up a couple of small box fish and catfish then chased topwater from Oil well point to soldier creek but they were all 4" striper. Got a report that there were a few fish near the islands so we headed over there. We saw a ton of boats and 1-2 fish scattered on the graph. We had three fish on the graph and a troller near us hooked up so we decided to stop and turn on the thumper. The graph lit up and the fish stayed under us for about 30 minutes until we ran out of bait and called it a day. Was a great trip!

Fishing has shifted a little from deep water ledges to shallower flats. Ed from Ed’s Guide Service caught these today using slabs and live bait. If you thump in shallow water, slow your speed down dramatically to just put a few vibrations in the water!

Striper have been changing patterns somewhat, sometimes feeding shallow and sometimes feeding deep, Kamil caught these in 50’ of water using his thumper and silver slabs… September fishing should be epic as they start to settle into their fall patterns! Please contact me if you need a guide!

We fished multiple spots today and found fish at several spots. The morning bite was very sporadic with a few fish at each spot. Later in the morning we stopped on the flats west of Wachita point and made one long drift using shad and slabs. The four of us finished catching our overs and picked up a few box fish as well. It ended up being a pretty epic day. The fish really responded to the thumper and stuck with us for the entire 45 minute drift.

I was able to shoot a video of the last trip we took. It was pretty epic. I was able to look at the graph times and we had fish under us for over an hour. I used every trick in the book to keep them there (changing speed, chum etc.) This should be a really helpful video on how to catch fish using a thumper...

Striper have either been bunching up or remaining scattered. We have been catching them trolling when scattered or using the thumper to bring them in and catch them!



We have some weekend spots available so call me if you want to catch some nice Texoma striper!

With some blues and a smallie

9/25/2021. Thought I would get skunked but picked up two on the way in.

Awesome those were nice! How did you catch them?

I catch them with a slab and a fly tied above. Caught the big one on the fly

Nice!

Fishing has been good using thumpers with bait or slabs! Josh from Southern Wind Guide Service , Brad from Circle B Guide Service and Ed from Ed’s Guide Service have been catching limits…

Our Saturday and
Sunday trip just cancelled. Have trip available for $150 per person two person minimum. Let us know if you are interested, fishing is good!

We fished last weekend and caught them on deep structure, on the flats and trolling. We even hit some topwater action but the lures were bigger than the fish...

https://youtu.be/R9rAdecM3ss

John and his wife caught 45 fish and 25 overs on a whopper plopper today! I consider that to be epic!

Awesome thread!

Fishing is still off the charts! Ed from Ed’s Guide Service, Brad from Circle B Guide Service and Josh from Southern Wind Guide Service are all catching limits thumping and slabbing or thumping with bait! Additionally Brad is starting the jug line/ striper combo trips and catching some nice cats in addition to striper limits!

Let me know if you need a thumper or a guide!

Those are some giant stripers. I plan to book a trip next year. I gotta experience that for myself. Great posts and congrats on the recent success.

Those are some fat healthy stripes in the cleaning trough .

The birds are back! This is always a fun time to throw topwater, live bait or slab with a thumper or one of the most productive techniques is trolling! Ed sent these over today! We shot this video last year but it is still one of my favorites!

https://youtu.be/BLHohXJWark

The fish are really looking healthy this year with plenty of bait in the water. Deadsticking this winter can break some arms!

A.M. or P.M. bite?

Both!

I took two friends and their sons out Sunday for a father son trip, we saw a few birds working and spotlocked under them. They quickly moved on and dispersed so we decided to turn on the thumper and see what would happen. We had fish drifting under us for a couple of hours, they were never really sticky but they were hungry and we had fish biting frequently. We ended up having to stop and catch bait and came back ans. Set up near the first spot and picked up where we left off. We ended up with 40 fish and the kids had a blast! I really like using the thumper with kids because we didn’t have to look for fish either time, we were able to get plenty of fish without running all over the lake!

I created a video of our trip last weekend. It was pretty chaotic because there was a pretty constant bite!

Enjoyed the video. Always love seeing the kiddos taking part in fishing. Good job.

We caught a nice catfish and a mess of striper on Friday using the thumper and shad but I think Josh from Southern Wind Guide Service has us slightly beat.

[video:youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/y6d9GMG09AQ?feature=share[/video]

Lots of action which is the best and only way to keep kids interested ! Nice work, you have the patience of Job .

I took some of my coworkers and one of their husbands fishing. This was their first time really fishing and they were super excited and had a blast. Erin wanted to catch a catfish so she got to fight with a big blue! It’s really fun to take new people fishing and show them the amazing sport that we all love, no matter if they are kids or grownups!

Deadsticking has officially begun! It’s still a little warm from a water temperature standpoint but Ed from Ed’s Guide Service tried anyway with this result! If you want to brave the cold give me a call to take advantage of the hot fishing!

Texoma is on fire! Fished 2 weeks ago with Ed from Ed’s guide service and fished today with friends with same result. Hit 1-2 spots and thumped in a few fish then kept looking and found lots of hungry fish. This was the maiden voyage of my new boat and we were able to thump up a four person limit and some overs plus a few other species. The water was a little warm for Deadsticking so we used bait I stead..

Upgrade! Nice ride man!

Thanks Chris! I really like this boat great for fishing or dragging kids around the lake! Plus the trolling motor batteries and the thumper are in the console so keeps the noise down!

This trip was an exciting trip since it was the first trip in my new Sea Hunt Ultra 229 that I bought from Greg Walker at Coastline marine! I am still rigging up the boat to get it the way I want it but will shoot a video when I get it all set up! Striper are still feeding heavily to put on weight for the winter and everything is catching fish right now! We started off fishing structure with our thumper and put several fish in the boat then I received a report from Ed that the birds were working across the lake. By the time we made it there… no birds. We started looking for fish on structure and found a big school. We spotlocked, dropped baits, hit the thumper and it was on! The fish stayed under the boat the whole time and we picked up an easy limit of box fish and a couple of nice overs and were done by 11… There were no finicky fish today, they hit hard and we probably landed 50% or more of the bites.
Special thanks to Ed from Ed’s guide service for the intel on the birds! Contact Ed Musser- (903) 647-5102 if you want to book a trip with him Want to get your own thumper, check out www.thumpemupfishing.com

Want to book a guided trip on Texoma with one of the great guides from my videos? Give me a call/text me at 972-689-4245!

Pretty cool to see a video of some of Ed’s customers from Ed’s Guide Service posting some great videos on YouTube! Check it out!

Nice one from today! Thanks to Captain Ed and Jacob from Keeping it Reel!

Does anyone go this Friday? It is windy and I don't have much experience at Texoma lake. Do any suggestions, please?

Isaacfisher, first and foremost there is a high north wind on Friday (19mph) which means several parts of the lake will be incredibly dangerous. You have to have the right boat for those conditions! I have a 22ft center console for that reason. Depending on where you launch from there are some parts of the lake that will be safe to fish on the north shore. If you still plan to go, give me a call 972 689 4245 and I can let you know what I know as of today.

Yesterday I was running across the lake to a spot when I saw a cluster of red dots on my graph. I stopped the boat and there were tons of fish I. The main channel. We started thumping and fishing and kept fish under us and were able to limit out in about 90 min. All 30 were solid fish with a few overs mixed in. You have to check a few spots to find ones that want to feed but when you do fishing is amazing! Here are some picks from today thanks to Ed from Ed’s Guide Service! We are letting the big overs go! They need to spawn! If you need a guide this weekend give me a call! 972 689-4245!

Here is the video from Thursday's trip! The monsters are out there but we were happy catching quality box fish on the river edges!

Kamil caught some nice fish today thumping and deadsticking and throwing swim baits!

Do you only use live bait?

Notaguide, no, I prefer to use live bait since it makes it easier to fish multiple rods. I also use topwater, swimbaits, slabs, deadsticking and trolling to catch striper.

Just curious. I prefer live bait as well but maybe it’s easier to get on Texoma

Depends on the time of year for sure! Right now they are in the coves so 1-2 throws and we are done…. Once they move into the deep water then it’s a 2-4 hour ordeal to catch them…

The bait that was shallow had disappeared and are suspended in the deep water. Fortunately Deadsticking and thumping is working! Ed from Ed’s Guide Service caught these!

Healthy Stripes, love seeing those dead stick catches.

The fish are super healthy and fat this year! The shad and the striper rebounded from the cold spell and shad kill!

Ed has been catching fish with bait and deadsticking but more and more fish deadsticking. They are starting to stack up!

Look at the girth and colors of that fattie !!

Ed from Ed’s Guide Service caught and released a really nice striper today on Texoma thumping with bait

I spent the weekend building thumpers and living vicariously through my friends… some epic fishing this weekend with great reports of fish caught thumping and deadsticking! Ed from Ed’s Guide Service caught the biggest one but Brandon had a nice one as well! Giants were released to catch again!

Wow what a weekend deadsticking on Texoma! Ed and I tried N on Saturday however there was not much wind in the areas we fished. The thumper brought them in they just didn’t bite aggressively! We managed about 7 and a nice blue cat! I used a tandem tig with a 1/2 oz jighead on a dropper loop and a 1.5 oz jighead on the bottom. Caught mine on bubblegum and pearl zoom flicks dipped in Chartreuse Spike it! Matt limited out west also using pearl with chartreuse! Justin and Doug landed some nice ones as well…. From Justin “A bit of a learning curve with dead sticking. What we finally found that worked for us were pink flukes, drop them down to the bottom and slowly slowly reel them up a few reels and drop back down”

Ed went west and found them today!

Nice ketch, any Hybrids in the mix ?

There's always a few mixed in. We never really differentiate on Texoma since they are naturally occuring... We have also been catching some magnum sandbass...

This was our last live bait trip of the year! With the weather and water temperatures getting colder, we are switching to blended trips deadsticking with artificial lures and also mixing in live bait as well. When live bait fishing, we attempt to spotlock and use our thumper to bring fish to our boat. Once the fish start showing on our graph, we will cut shad to get the fish fired up and ready to feed! In our first spot, we brought fish into the boat and had a few fire up, but we were not getting anywhere near the number of bites we should have. We switched to our second spot, spotlocked for a few minutes and then released the spotlock and started drifting. That little extra movement on the baits enticed more bites. We use Reaction Tackle indicator braid to show our exact depth and 2 oz weights to hold the bait at that exact depth. The thumper is critical to getting fish to investigate and come to your boat!

Great informative video, scubaarchery! The latest one above, and all the others posted on this thread and eslewhere! Got me all fired up to finally make the trip up to Texoma the week of the 7th!

Join our Facebook group, Thump’em Up Fishing! You will get the latest reports from the guys I fish with! Or give me a call! 972 689-4245. It’s an amazing fishery!

I'll be there tomorrow for 3 days. Can't wait!

Josh from Southern Wind Guide Service and Brad from Circle B Guide service have been catching them North and Ed from Ed’s Guide service has been catching them West!

Wow! That's a nice bunch of fish! Being new to the Texoma lingo, what is considered the reference point(s) of where "North" and "West" begin. Is there a "mid-lake"?

I launch at Little Mineral so to me, North is Alberta Creek or Further North and West is West of Juniper Point...

Deadsticking is very frustrating to me because the fishing varies in some cases hour by hour not to mention day by day. Ed from Ed’s Guide Service fishes every day and loves deadsticking. He uses a thumper, a two jig combo with flukes and garlic and tries to drift at .7 MPH. Yesterday he found a school, drifted across them and caught nothing even though the fish piled under his boat. He tried a different spot for an hour, came back, repeated his drift and caught these including a 34” fish…. Sometimes it’s all about patience and perseverance!

I had a thumper customer call me looking for a guide on Texoma! I fish with Ed’s Guide Service, Circle B Guide Service and Southern Wind Gide Service every chance I get! Fortunately Brad was available and was able to get them on some fish using his thumper in deep water! On bluebird sky and low wind days the striper seem to move to deeper water…

Josh from Southern Wind Guide Service and Brad from Circle B Guide Service have been catching striper deadsticking and thumping and also catching some nice bonus catfish! Check out our Facebook page to learn more about thumping!

Ed is out for a few weeks and I sat out the wind today but the fishing was pretty good mid lake! Got some reports from other guides that they were catching fish mid lake which is awesome! Ready for the shad spawn to get them fired up!

Fish are moving away from the ends of the lake. JD caught these trolling mid lake today!

I for one appreciate your diligence in keeping the TFF 'ers posted with reference to big T fishing reports. Fat, fat, and real fat Stripes.

Thanks for the update Eric.

I am just a reader here on TFF, but I'd like to say thank you for all the great information that you relay back to us here. Some nice looking fish also.

Thanks! I fell in love with Texoma! It’s such an amazing lake! I wish I could fish everyday but have to deal with that 4 letter word that takes up my weekdays and then have kids stuff on the weekends. I know people that can and do fish almost every day and are willing to share information with me and don’t mind me sharing it with you all! Hopefully it helps anyone making a long trip (or even a short trip) to fish Texoma! Between my thumper business, the occasional guided trips that I run (mostly instructional trips on how to use thumpers) and a lifetime of fishing memories, anything I can do to give back is worth it!

Thank you for reading it!

Thanks! I hope its helpful to you!

Fishing on Texoma has been hit or miss in March! Fish are spawning and even when you thump in a school they are lock-jawed and it’s hard to get bites. They are either hungry and willing to hit deadsticked lures and bait or not. We have been trolling Thundersticks 200’ back or Captain Mack’s and JD and Ed have been catching them either way! Can’t wait for the spawn to finish and the striper to focus on feeding! There are plenty of healthy fish!

Since the striper fishing is a little hit and miss, Josh Sutton from Southern Wind Guide service offers jugline and striper fishing trips. I fished with Josh and clients Friday and we caught 4 over 40” with the biggest going 48” and 57 pounds. We kept 30 catfish to fillet for a Homeless No More Church in Fort Worth catfish fry!

[video:youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/7gkToB0xL00?feature=share[/video]

Striper action was better this afternoon and Brad from Circle B guide service thumped in a bunch in 17’ of water! Thumpers do work in shallow water!




It’s about to get crazy! The striper will spawn and be hungry!

Fishing has been much better! Ed from Ed's Guide Service caught these using bait and trolling! Can't wait until they start to school!

Ryan was coming to Texoma and wanted to know how to catch fish without bait. I let him know we have been catching them North and West trolling thundersticks. He caught a few nice ones!

And full of eggs ??

it certainly looks that way

Fun to catch, just wish they tasted better.

. Try this cleaning technique and recipe (starts at 4:40. My 7 year old and 9 year old daughters absolutely love them!





The water temperature has been right around 60 degrees so they should be spawning! Last trip all the big ones like this were males!

The saying remains intact, if one doesn't like the way stripers taste, its the cook !!

Lol cooked plenty of fish, just prefer others. I'll let yall have em!

Right there with you. They taste like dirt to me even if its fried. I fill my freezer with red snapper in June andJuly and leave the stripers for whoever else wants to eat them.

Any good bank fishing opportunities for these awesome fish?

There are a bunch of places to bank fish! I think most people fish Dennison dam and I have seen people at Fobb Bottom on the last trip we took

Was able to finish the striper/catfish video with Josh Sutton from Southern Wind Guide Service! More catfish than striper this time and I missed a few nice striper but the catfishing was amazing!


Striper fishing is really heating up! Ed caught 5 at the same time today!

My buddy Ed from Ed's guide service fishes almost every day. He normally bait fishes with shad but if he catches a sunfish he hangs onto it. We were in a pretty constant bite on Sunday when he pulled a sunfish out of the bait tank. He cut off the dorsal and decided to give it a shot. We knew it would take a while to get bit and it did but it was the best fish of the day! He let the fish play with it until it finally buried the rod...

I was finally able to put together the full video of the last trip! You have to love spring fishing! The fish are hungry, super responsive to thumping and easy to catch! These fish didn't tap the bait, they slammed it! This is my favorite time of year for fishing!

Not sure if the fishing is epic-er or epic-est but essentially the pattern is the same, go to the ledges, drop bait, turn on the thumper, catch a limit in an hour then go troll for a bit to try to pick up a couple of bigger overs. The fishing is fast and furious and about as good as it gets!

Nice bunch of fish!

I wonder if fish are being caught in the main part of the lake yet? Little Mineral area.

Thanks for the update!

They have moved from the rivers to the main lake so you can pretty much find them anywhere!

Stellar !!!

Any tips for this evening or tomorrow morning? Got some unexpected time off and made a last minute trip to meet my brother here at Texoma for his birthday tomorrow. Last year same dates we wore them out throwing topwater on banks/points of the main lake(little mineral area). That wasn’t the bite for us last night or this morning. We caught 4 striper between 4 people then one more slabbing the river channel edge. I was expecting the topwater/slab bite to happen so I didn’t bring a cast net or a bait tank, but I’m willing to buy a cheaper one if I absolutely had to have live bait. Any tips appreciated. Thanks

There are plenty of guides who just fish artificials so hopefully Chris will chime in. If you see any topwater action, take advantage of it with topwater or sassy shad. Look N of the islands in the 15’ flats and deeper off of the points and try sassy shad deeper off the points. We have been catching them in the 30-40’ range using bait so you can vertically slab there as well. Most of us use thumpers and some have thumpers and splashers to hold them under your boat. You can also troll along the river channel edge and catch some that way!

Awesome thread!

Fishing is beyond epic! Many limits are being caught in less than an hour! Limits in minutes…

Wow…thanks for posting.

Fishing is still good but a super early bite! Striper are stacking up on spawning shad early then shutting down after that. Ed from Ed’s guide service Is finding them super early! They are hungry and you can get multiple fish hooked at the same time! Book a trip now if you want fast and furious action and don’t mind getting up early!

I just started back fishing the lake. The early bite has been good from 6:30-7:15 using top waters. The fish are all over so no magical spot. Go fish your favorites!

Looks like the rain slowed the early bite. Hopefully the early morning topwater bite isn't over for the season.... Only caught 1 this morning. Others I spoke to had the same luck. Guides were moving spots early so I assume they transitioned to the deep fish early. Any reports are appreciated.

Yeah yesterday was not good where I was. No topwater bite and I saw several guides resort to trolling.

Striper we’re on the flats yesterday in 15-30 feet of water. People either spotlocked and let the schools come to them or drifted across the flats. We drug shad or cut shad along the bottom. Yesterday my bait died for some reason so we used shad fillets and caught them with those. I saw no topwater anywhere and the striper were stuck to the bottom.

Guys fishing the deep ledges with thumpers and bait are also doing well but you need to be there at 5:30 and be done at 7.

I probably saw the most beautiful sunrise i have ever seen!

Yessir, that is a sunrise worthy of praise !

Nice update. Thanks.

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one having a hard time catching them lately. Not only that, but shad have been hard to catch as well. Usually I can go out in the middle of the day and find a few for the castnet but yesterday i must have thrown the thing about a hundred times and only caught 3 shad. The wind is sure making it tough.

Shad are in the back of the coves however they are big gizzard Shad vs threadfin. They are also there one day and gone the next so you need to have a few options to find them!

Anyone having any luck lately? My dad is in town and I'd like to take him out on the lake tomorrow.

We have been following the same pattern, go to the ledges on the main river channel and thump with live shad to catch them. It’s a sunrise bite! I took a group of people out Sunday and we caught striper and a few catfish! Loads of fun for the kids!

I got up early as heck to find shad but we had a lot of fun and caught a limit of 50.

That’s awesome! Find the shad, find the school find limits! If you want that many!

Fished with a buddy today. Most of the day was running and gunning small schools surfacing on the main lake. Great top water action and a couple limits. Fun day for sure.

So hopefully wrapping up an unexpected midsummer move and home renovation and soon back to the serious fun of fishing! Have been keeping up with the reports! Ed, Josh, Brad and the other guides have had some great days fishing Texoma…. They have been catching big fish on bait with some trolling mixed in.

Also had a brand new thumper customer try out his thumper and catch his personal best 14lb striper!

I caught a few trolling. I prefer to slab but didn’t find any fish bunched up

I am new to striper fishing, can someone describe what "thumper" fishing is? Sounds cool but I have no idea.

Thanks

There are two types of devices that help bring fish to your boat, a splasher (trolling motor with propeller) that imitates fish feeding on top and a thumper which essentially creates vibrations by tapping on your hull. This simulates fish feeding under water. You don’t have to have either to catch fish but they are incredibly useful tools to have in your tool box…

I have a YouTube channel with about 100 videos about it…

https://youtube.com/c/Thump%E2%80%99emupFishingchannel

Not gimmicks to further line ones pockets ! These devices truly work in the most adverse conditions. Been thumping for over 10 years . An angler can set up on fish, bait, an ambush spot etc and thump . If no fish respond within 10 minutes, pack up and go to next spot . A savvy angler can hang his/her hat on the results.

Ed had a fun trip with these two! Using thumper and live bait on the river channels in the morning!

I caught a couple on down riggers then 6 on slabs 8/12

Awesome! What slabs did you use?

Butter knife and flutter spoon slab from MT Pockets…

https://stores.mtpocketstackle.com/butter-knife-1/

Thanks! I never have much luck with slabs but don’t use them very often either…

I fished with a guide on Conroe that took a broom handle and used it as a thumper. It worked. When he started thumping, the hybrids started to hit.

I call those generation one thumpers. They work good and are cheap but they are a pain to use especially if you are thumping and fishing at the same time!

8/16/22. Left them biting big time

I need a bigger cutting board

Nice haul. I haven't been put after stripers on Texoma on a month. Hope to get out Friday or Saturday. They in the main lake towards the dam?

Awesome! Heading out Friday as well…

RDA, I was out there by the dam on Tuesday evening. The bite was very slow for me and I had to work for the few I got. I managed eight with two overs.

Good luck and let us know how you do.

Friday

You are on a solid pattern !

We headed out Friday as well. Went north between the bridges and marked plenty of fish but they seemed to be hitting really light. Found a few that buried the rod but either they weren’t super hungry or there were a bunch of cats mixed in. Headed towards the islands and picked up a couple at another spot then ran into some small fish hitting on top. Didn’t bring my topwater rods so just drifted I. The middle of them with the thumper and shad and caught a few more. Ended up with 10 with one over.

Fried Striper, Hybrids, Sandbass and Crappie are always top notch for me. Even while viewing at 7 am.

My kids love the “yummy fried fish”…. Eating them is almost as fun as catching them…. Almost…

I saw the post asking for reports and the pattern has been pretty consistent. The fish have been biting early on the edges of the river channel and feeder creeks. Guides have also been catching them shallow on top water. Thumpers and splashers a lot both are effective to bring them to you. Here are a few pictures from Ed’s Guide Service!

Small stripers from last Friday 8/23

Was able to take my friend and his wife out Sunday. We caught shad in the coves and found fish on the ledges along the main river channel and in Mack Creek. Used the thumper to bring them into the boat. Natalia was able to catch several fish! Her smile says it all!

And she is dressed for the part was well. Wondered where you have been !!

I coach soccer for both of my girls and keep running into Saturday and Sunday games…. The season is coming to a close soon so getting a few more days to fish!

I have no idea where Mack Creek is but thanks for posting.

Macglaughlin creek, east of soldier creek…

Hit the lake this weekend and fished tabletop, platter and inside Little mineral! Lots of hungry box fish every! Can’t wait for the fall feed!

Here's a good link for a informative map of Lake Texoma.

http://www.tourism-tools.com/denisonltamap/page9/laketexomamap-lg.jpg

Some good maps on the Six Old geezers site. Scroll down to maps

Six Old Geezers

Those are great maps and how I learned the lake when I first started fishing there! Thanks for sharing!

Birds everywhere but mostly small fish Friday 10/21

We had an epic trip this time a couple of years ago…. Ed from Ed’s Guide Service and I trolled A rigs under the birds and killed the striper!

Great video. Lots of good info. Thanks!

Thanks fishrdude! I just finished this one…. Had a pretty cool trip fishing Lake Texoma recently! Found some small fish on top but targeted the bigger fish underneath!

https://youtu.be/WLSyFFXntN8

What size are the shad currently? 3 inches maybe? I will be lure fishing and so I’m thinking I need to match the lure size with the size of the shad. Thanks

2 3/4 - 3” with a few bigger ones sprinkled in

Thank you very much! I’m taking my 75-year-old cousin from Colorado fishing this next Saturday and Sunday and it looks like the weather is going to cooperate.

What makes you decide to change the tempo of the thumper sometimes?

Good luck! I plan to fish Saturday morning as well!

Generally three things:
1. The water temperature, I run the thumper slower in the winter…. Typically 20 bpm with my thumper.
2. The water depth, if 30’ I might run 40-50 bpm. If fishing deeper I may go as high as 8 bpm
3. Sometimes when you are fishing, you can adjust the tempo a little and trigger bites

I posted a video on YouTube about how I rig my shad. There are tons of options out there, how do you rig yours?

https://youtube.com/shorts/PEeQH_c3DJQ?feature=share

I do about the same but you use a #6? I've never used that small of a hook for stripers.

I use a number 6 and tie a loop knot to give the shad the most natural appearance and ability to move. I do bend hooks sometimes but they are easy to replace…

I fished this weekend along the edge of Preston point. Shad was hard to find but caught a few in12’ of water. Hit one spot on the NW side of Preston and caught a few fish there then moved a little south under the birds and caught a bunch more. Good to see the birds flocking!

I can't catch threadfin to save my life. Just huge gizzard shad.

I caught mostly gizzards this time as well. They were in deeper water and traveling fast. We were using the Panoptix to pinpoint the school but was hard to stay on them! We caught plenty of 6” shad but there were smaller ones mixed in

I did well yesterday. Fished from about 7:30 until 10:15 am. The bite was very good for the first hour then died down after that. I decided to head home and do chores instead of motoring around the lake looking for birds because the wind was picking up pretty high.

One fish had some broken lines on one side but perfect stripes on the other

My buddy Ed from Ed’s Guide Service’s customers cancelled last minute so we decided not to disappoint the bait…since it was super windy we just stayed near our marina. Caught plenty of fish then headed in.

Nice!👍

Heading up on Saturday (even though it is going to be super cold) but curious if anyone knows where to get the shad during this time of cold weather?

Best to catch them before the sun comes up but that is super dangerous due to the ice build up on your deck! Don’t fish solo! Last time I caught some in Macglaughlin creek in 12’ of water.

Yea am def not going up solo. But yea that is my worry as well.
I was thinking up by Mac creek as well depending on wind direction. Or go to grand pappys area and try in those coves.
Appreciate it.

With the heavy north winds today and north wind again tomorrow, I'd think the southern coves would be the best for shad in the morning.

Sometimes I found shad at Eisenhower in the cove by the boatramp and the third cove on the south side between Eisenhower and the dam…

I don't believe in wasting my mornings getting shad this time of year.

How are you fishing right now?

I’m not quite sure how to answer that question

Some of the guides I know are switching from bait to sassy shad but haven’t started deadsticking yet. Was just curious if you were slabbing, throwing sassy shad or deadsticking…

The fish have been glued to the bottom. I have been using a carolina rig setup

Carolina rig what? A swimbait?

Have seen some reports of a few caught on deadstick…

I can confirm those reports. Nothing I got in the boat was over 19” though.

Deadsticking is definitely on. I caught a 12 pounder today.

Nice! Post a picture!

[img]https://flic.kr/p/2o1cWWa[/img]

I have no idea how to.

Nice fish!

Thanks for posting that for me.

Awesome! Nice fish! My buddy Ed caught 50 today! He only kept his limit! Heading out tomorrow!

That is great! Was Ed deadsticking?

Nice fish beginning to fatten up. Are those bait hooks hanging out of their mouths ???

He caught most on bait, he only caught a couple deadsticking…

. No that’s just stuff on the boat from catching shad. He was bait fishing but didn’t cut the line…

Today was an epic day. Ed had some leftover bait so we caught a few more and headed to the edge of the river channel. We marked some fish in 70’ so stopped at the edge in 40. We turned on the thumper and within 5 minutes they were piled under the boat. We used 4-6” shad and caught plenty of nice fish with a few overs mixed in. We caught 28 and then some smaller fish showed up so we headed towards the cross and started deadsticking. We caught 6-8 on pink and silver dipped in Spike It. We kept 2 nice fish then headed in. It was a great trip! Not sure I was able to film with all the chaos but hope I have some footage!

Nice catch, good work ! Most anglers haven't a clue to the amount of work that went in to your catch !

Fishing today wasn’t as easy the birds were working but were moving super fast. We found some small fish in the deep water and some bigger fish in 35-45’ the thumper really helped school them under the boat…. If it could only make them bite!

Nice job, fish size as shown will put on 2 lbs in. two months

It should be an epic winter fishing season!

Fishing has been awesome! Most guys are using bait or deadsticking but the trolling bite is starting to heat up as well. Ed from Ed’s guide service posted these today…

Now those are some fatties !

I just put together a video of a recent trip and the fish were just fantastic! big fat overs and nice box fish! The fish are fat andw healthy this year!

Awesome!

Fishing continues to be amazing! Friday Josh from Southern Wind Guide Service ran a catfish and striper trip for some friends of mine and caught plenty of both species! Ed and I trolled Captain Mack’s Umbrella rigs and caught 36 fish. Then Josh got on the big ones today and caught a really nice box of fish! Thumpers are helping catch fish so if you don’t have one, get one!

Video from our trolling trip…

You have to love wintertime fishing! It can be hot, it can be cold but the one thing that’s consistent is that the fish are big! Ed caught fish trolling and deadsticking today including this 15lb beauty…. Or beast!

Solid !

Weather is looking good tomorrow - may try to take my kid (and boat) up there and put her on some big fish!

We fished today and caught a bunch of nice overs!

We fished Sunday. I had a thumper customer who wanted to learn how to catch fish in the winter. I fished with Ed from Ed’s Guide service and I will put a video together this week but here is what we did:
1. Fish had been deeper. The water warmed and the fish and bait moved shallower. We caught bait in coves in the morning.
2. First we started with umbrella rigs. We caught fish trolling A rigs in 20’ of water. We looked for humps on the bottom then trolled over them. We ran our rigs 3mph 140-150’ back and hooked up 10 seconds after we passed over the fish usually on both rods.
3. We had bait and deadstick so went to show them how to use those techniques…. We used a thumper to create several schools. If no bites in 10 min we moved.
4. We tried drifting .3 since we had bait but no luck. We had to use the trolling motor to drift about .7 to get bites and when we did it was fast and furious.
5. The 2oz jighead got the most bites and bubblegum and shad were the hot colors.
6. We tandem rigged smaller jig heads and dropped them further back to get bites.
7. We caught 8 overs on deadstick and 2 on bait…

Will post a video in the next few days!

Thanks for the report!

Winter time fishing can be a blessing and a curse…. Some days you crush the fish and the next day you do the same thing and can’t get a bite. I had Michael and Kimberly, a new thumper customer do a teaching trip with Ed from Ed’s Guide Service and myself to learn about wintertime fishing. We started off trolling umbrella rigs then went west and tried bait and deadstick. We hit several spots with promising marks but had to move shallow and use the trolling motor to get bites. Hopefully this will help people learn more about deadsticking. Speed is key, use drift socks if going too fast and your trolling motor if going too slow!

Was finally able to get out a bit on Sunday with Ed from Ed’s Guide Servise and Steve from Ford’s Guide service and the fishing was awesome! Saw a few birds working several places but they were moving pretty fast so we decided to thump up some fish instead. We were able to bring in fish most stops but initially they weren’t super aggressive (maybe due to the full moon) and hit like crappie…. Later in the morning we found some that wanted to bite and picked up a few then about 9:30 we found some birds working and caught several on A rigs and by slow reeling deadstick flukes. We also picked up a few deadsticking. About 10:00 they got super aggressive and really started biting. We had to leave at 10:30 so left them biting. Fish are everywhere and super healthy! I shot a short video of the graph and what we were doing!

https://youtube.com/shorts/g3Qjc16df0k?feature=share

Ed did a short trip yesterday before the wind kicked up. He trolled and only caught a few fish but they were really nice fish! Hitting the main river channels and trolling the deep schools with Captain Mack’s Umbrella rigs is another effective winter technique!

Those are some. tanks . Well over 10 lbs. Shallow and in the bends of the river or creek ?

He caught those in the main river channel

Great thread! Thanks for starting and keeping up with the TONS of great Texoma information shared within, Scubaarchery! Always good to see your posts and replies by fellow TFF'ers.

I live vicariously through my friends who get to fish more than I do! There are always plenty of folks driving long distances to fish so just trying to provide insight when I can! The tank war continued today! Ed caught 4 and you can see what the biggest weighed! All released to grow some more!

Great commentary, "The tank war" as shown 14.30 no flies on that !

Nice fish

Oh YEAH!!!

Bait fishing, trolling umbrellas and thundersticks and casting sassy shad all seem to be working right now! Biggest challenge is the wind, but if you can get out there the fish are plentiful and big! Here are a few pics from recent trips with striper-guides.com!

Second pic, the fish on our right looks to have been blown up via air gun. One super fat female about to pop with roe !

This fish are definitely fat and healthy! Those prespawn fish are giants!

Was finally able to make it out on Monday. I fished with Steve Ford from Ford's Guide Service and ran into Josh Sutton from Southern Wind Guide Service when we were at the ramp. Steve and I hit a couple of spots and found fish but they didn't want to bite or were small. We had just moved behind the islands and had just put a decent fish in the box when Josh called and said he had found some fish. We moved up there and it was on. We hit the thumper and dropped shad and started hooking up immediately. Josh limited out in about an hour and took off but we stayed and released all of the ones that were not deep hooked. We probably caught 30-40 fish as well. At one point all five rods were out of the water because we could not bait fast enough.

Ed from Ed's Guide service has been trolling as well as using bait and has been picking up some big fish as he is trolling. Here are a few pictures of the catches.

If you are heading to Texoma, you can find shad in the back of the coves now. The water has warmed and the shad are there. We are finding the striper along the main river channels where small feeder creeks tie into the channel. We are also trolling the edge of the channels or across the flats in 30' of water.



Fishing is amazing right now, so if you are thinking of going to Texoma do it!

https://youtube.com/shorts/CL-vv6YAxxU?feature=share

Sweet ! The floor pad under bait tank keep tank from slipping or moving around while boat is in transit or on water bouncing etc ??

it definitely helps for sure. I don't have one under mine and it can definitely slide even when its full. Plan to add one to my boat! Here is one more short with a double hook up while we still had one on the deck... Striper fishing is amazing when the bite is hot like that!


https://youtube.com/shorts/Ld7fz0WE4Dc?feature=share

I finally put together a full video of the trip and also tried out some new Striper Rods from Catch the Fever. They are pretty amazing from a sensitivity standpoint. Does anyone use them?

Good " fire drill " action ! Tossing the bait away from the boat worked well !

Awesome thread!

I changed my setup to a light weight on the front 1/4 oz, then 2 2oz weights then a freeline off the back. Will see if that makes a difference!

Thank you! Trying to help people that come in from out of town to fish!

Got an over today on a slab. I have a homemade splasher prop that helped.

Fishing is really good right now. It takes longer to catch bait than limits! Try along the main river channel on the edge of the flats and look for suspended fish in 30 - 40’. We are using our thumper or thumper and splasher to keep them under the boat!

I know the water is still a little warm but has anyone been catching fish deadsticking yet? Looking forward to some afternoon fishing this year!

Wondered where you have been Scuba !

I have two girls playing soccer on multiple teams and help coach one of the teams so it has been crazy busy for me! Trying to get out and fish more, Josh, Steve and Ed are all crushing fish right now so have been missing out!

You will flat line the curve in no time.

Do you guys drift or spot lock for deadsticking?

In my experiences, it seems a slow drift is best. If I spot lock, I will typically pitch out and let the bait slowly drift back to the boat. I did this last Friday on a ledge, and while the fish were finicky, I was still able to get bites. I was using a thumper also.

We always drift. Make sure you get yourself a couple of good drift socks so you can really control your speed.

I am with you on this! My daughters are on soccer teams as well. It's every weekend Oct-Nov. The weekends are back open, but I need a new impeller on my 150. It's always something with a boat. Looking forward to some deadsticking this year. I got my driftsocks ready!

. We normally drift around .07 mph. Use the trolling motor if the wind is too slow or socks if it’s too fast!