Keep'em coming Carey! Love the way you keep the "haters" so jealous they can't stand it...lol

I had similar experience with top water earli in the morning this time of year. Best lake for it if you ask me.

Still fishing 5-25 ft.

All same baits with the sassy shad starting to pick at them more and more.

Slab bite is usually good all day if you locate a school deep.






( Pierce's 16th Birthday limit of Stripers with a couple overs, and a 35 lb Blue Cat at the dock )

My table shots look just like everyone else's. No need to clutter.

Bald Eagles showing up. Overs are getting aggressive. Left overs biting a couple days ago. Clients arms were sore.

Having a time of my life.

Great report. Wish I had time to get on the water

wow! How big is this one?

Wacking the fish pretty much every day weather permitting. And, it's big fish time obviously. Only thing I'm throwing is sassy shad. 10-30 ft depths. Some days the birds help ya out all day and sometimes we have to go hunt for them. Almost everyday we set a new personal best on the boat. Clients have even caught bigger fish than I have! Lots of 8-15 lb fish being landed. Fun times out on Lake Texoma. To tired to post all the time.

Jackson with a PB 15.02 pound Lake Texoma Striper.



Mom wanted pic too.

Man, these fish are fun! At one point yesterday, I had Jackson and his dad only for round two. Mom stayed home. Dead sticking and had four fish on at the same time. Dad and Jackson got all 4 Overs in the boat. It was absolute chaos. Lines crossing everyone yelling, fish blowing up all around the boat, shad flying out of the water, absolutely-awesomeness. It's going to be very difficult for me to switch back over to white bass or Crappie. Yesterday, while we were in the school of overs blowing up next to the boat, one of the overs came up crushed a gizzard shad next to the boat and actually splashed us. Dead sticking flukes or throwing sassy shads all day. Chartreuse flukes and glow white sassy shad from Moes Tackle Shop. All depths. I have learned that these striper go wherever they feel like going whenever they feel like going somewhere. The thrill of the hunt and the excitement is just crazy.

Super cool.

I fish for stripers for so many years, I am hooked long long time ago. White bass and crappie fishing is winter break for me for all these year. I prefer to fish stripers below the dam, have better chance to catch a 20#, and the fish fights harder in the current.

Its definitely BIG fish time on the big lake right now. Unders/box fish are kind of hard to find. Mainly we are landing 8-15 lb fish. Its not a numbers game right now. Just trophy striper time. Some days we land 8-10 and some days we land 20-30+ monsters. It all depends on the day and what the fish want to do. Some days the fish will nail a certain color, then the next day they want a totally different color and different presentation. And, like I said before, the pattern seems to be different on a daily basis. Today my fish came from the river channel 45 ft deep dead sticking a chart/white fluke. Caught a couple throwing sassy's in white ice and natural bait color in 15-30 ft. Also, running a sassy through the school of bait and slowly dragging it back to the boat while maintaining as 1-2 ft depth off the bottom. The birds have not helped me one bit in over three-four weeks now. One stop I made today was on a small flock of cormorant's that surfaced all at once, about 15 of them. So I stopped on the spot they popped up at, and there were a bunch of fish there. Landed 3-4 within 20 mins from 8-11 lbs. So I started following around the cormorant's that were diving under the water. They mainly only dive when there is bait around and every stop produced some fish under the cormorants. So that was a nice help.



Structure seems to be key right now. Humps, ridges, shelves, points, and submerged structure like trees, stumps, rock piles. Most fish are no more than 3-5 ft off the bottom.



I had a couple issues of fishing to fast, so I had to slow myself down and fish way slower, to boat the fish. If your not patient right now, your going to have a bad trip there. The bite, 70% of the time, is like a blue gill or crappie bite. You feel 2 thumps. If you feel the 2nd thump, your to late, they spit it. The first thump is the fish sucking in the lure. The second thump is spitting out the lure. Its pretty fast to, so you always, always -have to be ready thinking your going to get a bite any second, the whole trip. Once you loose concentration and start dilly dallying on the boat, you miss fish. Your looking for 10-15 bites a day and you never know when that bite is going to be next. Again, the 10-15 bites are going to be huge fish, not many box fish swimming around the area right now.



Some days they want smaller flukes too. One day I was on fish, and the graph was lit up with fish streaking under the boat eating shad. We sent down every color I had in the boat with no progress. I took a full size fluke and bit it in half and before it got half way down, I got hammered. Switched all the rods to that and we ended up murdering them with over 50 huge fish. Its almost like Black Bass fishing, constantly changing colors and presentation. Once you land the 2nd to 3rd fish, you should have a pattern that will work throughout the whole lake that day.



Mainly we locate the fish and set up a drift. When we hook up, I spot lock the trolling motor and the fish usually hang out for a bit under the boat. Some days they stay under the boat, and some days you catch 2-3 and have to re drift through them.



One of my trips, we set a new Jr. Lake Record. I fishing a concrete block that was part of a bridge or road in 27 ft of water right near the river channel. We were steadily landing 2 fish every 15 mins, big ones at that.





Before I pulled up to the spot, I side scanned it, and saw a bunch of striper on and around the structure. There was one fish hugging the bottom and I froze the screen to show my group how the fish were stacked on the block of concrete. At the base of the structure, I pointed out to the group a huge fish, and I stated that had to be a big catfish. one hour and 15-20 striper, my 14 yr old client yells, " Capt. Carey, I think I have big one!" meanwhile his drag is just steadily peeling off his reel. At first I thought we had a monster striper over 20 lbs. Then the fish sat on the floor of the lake, My client had the rod doubled over, but the fish wouldn't budge for 5 mins. We thought he has wrapped us around something. I spot locked the trolling motor and had him just keeping the rod doubled over till something happened. 15 mins later the fish finally came up to the surface. Monster Flathead Cat Fish. I told the group, lets fill the cooler with water and get some good pics and a weight after we r done with the stripers. We went back to the structure we were fishing and immediately started to boat more monster stripers. As they were having their fun, I looked up the Jr. Records for Texoma. After I scrolled through the records, I went to the back of the boat and shook the kids hand and said, " Congratulation's kid, you now own the Jr. Lake Record for Lake Texoma." His smile said it all right there. His parents said, the 14 yr old said before the trip, that he was going to catch a state record fish and would need 2 hands to hold the fish up. LOL, he was almost right on!

New Jr. Lake Texoma Record Flathead Catfish.



You cant sit in one spot to long usually, you have to go hunt for them. Find the bait, and you should find some fish right in them or near them.



(Photos are in random order.)

Those are a few pics from the last month or so I took with the phone. All the good ones are on the camera that is dead and charging.



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Some days when the fish pile up, they get thick! This day it was 28 degrees with a 15-20 mile an hour North wind. Got to the spot you see above, and hammered them till my guys couldn't take the cold anymore. Remember, over dress for the lake. You can always peel off cloths later as the temps rise. Its awful out there if you get cold. Just because its nice and warm in your backyard, doesn't mean the lake is the same temp. Its always cooler on the lake, especially if there is some wind.



Peeps need to be carful when your around Big Mineral or traveling through the island cuts. There is some really shallow water if you are not carful, you will beach the boat.



Remember, you are only allowed 2 big fish per person. 20 inches or greater. 10 fish total with only 2 over 20 inches. We recommend that you release any fish bigger than 15 lbs. Now, its your choice if you want to keep it. Those monsters are our main breeders, and it would be nice to get their genes spread though out the lake. I would hate to clean fish that big if I didn't have to. But again, its your call what to do with your fish.



Again, this is trophy season. Not big numbers at all. You might catch 1 or you might catch 20. But they are all big fish and get MAD AS A BULL when they feel a hook rip into their face, peeling line off the reels and making runs, battling the whole way back to the boat. When you think the fight is almost done, the fish sees the boat and rips line back off the rod for another deep diving run. -CRAZY



Like sand bass fishing, sometimes I'll tie on a smaller jig above the fluke while dead sticking. And, sometimes it produces 2 striper on one drop.



If the lake is glass calm, the fishing is going to be slow, or even just terribly dead. We had a 6-9 mph wind this morning. I didn't get a pattern for about 1-2 hours and then finally we found them. For 3 hours we steadily brought in a fish every 10-15 mins. Then, the lake went glass calm. Beautiful, yes, but terrible for the fishing. About 4 pm, the fish started biting again when the wind came back.



Its amazing what these striper will eat. In the picture above, that's a 12 lb striper that ate a 13 inch freshwater drum. In its stomach, you can see another fish. That fish in its stomach is a 13 inch gizzard shad and also 6 thread fin shad in there too! What really baffled me one day, was finding a couple of my striper throughout the week, had baby channel catfish in their gut.






All flukes and sassys we used, and have been using are found here: https://moestackleshop.com/shop/dead-assassin-flukes-flukes-jerk-shad/dead-assassin-fluke/

Also a must have, "White Ice" color "Squirmin" Shad from Bass Pro Shops. Call them before you go and get some, I usually wipe out the Garland store when I go re-up, lol. http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Squirmin-Shad/product/15634/ White Ice

Maybe the best report I've seen in a long time. Really appreciate your time and help.

Man, it's good to see your reports again!
Gotta get up there before summer.

Carey's report always good. Tons information, learning great deal from Carey's post.

Very nice man. You are tearing them up