Not a lot of traffic at the lake at all lately. Or this year for that matter. So it makes the lake a beautiful place to be. The monarch migration I think is done. They were not as thick as last year. White Pelican have been showing up for the last two weeks. The geese really never left. But new one are arriving everyday. Every weekend someone ends up beaching thier boat on Sandbass Pass's sandbar. The lake won't stop turning over, keeping it a sandy light green color. I'm sure the rotting vegetation from the flood is not helping the oxygen levels. Water stained bad from flooding near 377 out west. Water temps now are averaging 70 degrees give or take 2-3 degrees. Weather is cooling off finally. With all this negative stuff happening, we are still catching fish! Not limiting everyday, but catching.


(This one we had to throw back. )

Right now, every morning, I am throwing 7 inch pencil poppers at the bank. Sometimes aggressively popping it back to the boat, or walking the dog as fast as possible- with the slowest retrieve possible. Hope that makes sense.
As soon as the sun comes up over the hills, top water comes to a halt and the monsters go back to 17-30 ft depths. Then we switch to slabs.



We are catching keeper Striper. Once the lake settles down for the winter, these fish should start to group up as they have already started bigger groups. Some days we get a lot of keepers, some days we wonder why we even woke up to go fishing. What keeps me going, is there are still lots of big fish left. Remember, you may keep 10 fish of any size, with only two Striper over 20 inches. Some days we get fish sticks, some days we get steaks.



The amount of bait in the water is mind baffling sometimes. The Striper don't have to work hard at all to eat. So sending down live bait or a lure, and competing with a billion other shad is sometimes difficult.


( gizzard shad steaks, yum)

A lot of North American Log Fish are being caught as well. As my client demonstrates a 18 incher below.



Don't eat the log fish. But definitely look at them. You might find some interesting critters living on it.



Like small crabs. Invasive little critters, but the smallmouth and the drum love them.

David had never landed a gar on the fly rod. At the dock we have a ecosystem under the dock. Blue gills catfish gar drum bass crappie......ect. I handed him a 4 inch piece of frayed nylon rope and told him to tie it to his leader line. He casted to the gars head and immediately got a strike and the gar got tangled up with nylon its teeth. Pain in the butt to get untangled. But make sure u get it all out so the fish can open his mouth to feed again. Even one small thread can impair the fishes jaw from opening. But be very carful while doing so.



Be very carful of thier teeth. Can't say that enough. Thier teeth hang out the sides too. Just them slashing thier beaks mouth closed can severely cut you.



Drifting while schools of Striper are moving under the boat. Yellow squiggly lines are them. Top right is a school of shad.



They are definitely starting to group up. Love seeing that on the graph.



During the flood, one of the lakes that dumps into the rivers upstream of the lake, dumped a bunch of Sandies into the lake. And there are some monsters in there. Some days they get schooled up and have shad blowing out of the water in a frenzy.



Some days we kill them.



Some days we pick at them.

I drive an hour everyday to Texoma. I go because I know, one of these casts, is going to be a fish of a lifetime.



I go, because I'm addicted.



We are not limiting, but we are having fun catching.



Every morning we get 1-10 blow ups on the topwater plugs.



After a fish blows up on your topwater, do not set the hook.



The initial first strike is usually to kill/ stun.



After the first blowup, the fish will turn around and come back and eat the plug.



When you feel the fish in the rod tip, polling, thin set the hook!



Is very hard not to set the hook when you get a blowup. Seeing that fish come straight out of the water like a dolphin is just pure amazement.





When slabbing, Pay attention to your electronics and make sure your lure is it least passing the fish. If they aren't 25 foot make sure your slab is in 25 foot.



Try and stay in contact with the bottom. Lift your rod tip and let the Slab pull your rod tip down till it hits the bottom. That way you will feel the fish hit while the Luber is fluttering back to the bottom.

At the current moment I am using 15 to 17 pound mono.




Hopefully these fish bunch up even more, and limits start to go to the cutting board. I am Perfectly happy getting blowups in the morning and seeing fish on the graph pretty much all day. I can't wait for the cold to get here fast enough.

Have fun and pay attention to your electronics. There are sandbars under the water surface. Be safe

Very nice report!!!

Good to hear fishing is getting better for you guys at Striper Express!

Nice report. Best report on Texoma yet. hard to believe you are catching fish on lures with all that bait, but the pics don't lie. I've had to switch to live shad at PK to catch anything.

Nice!

Nice report Carey. Hope that it continues to improve. When the going gets tough the tough get going and it sounds like that is exactly what you are doing. Well done!

Good stuff! Nice pics!$

Awesome post. Good job.

Great report Carey.....keep up the good work!

Super report! No gloom and doom! Luv the reference to the North American Log Fish.

That IS a REPORT right there!
Very cool Guide

Question? Shouldn't there be zebra mussels on that log? It was my understanding that they were on everything?

GMB