Anyone know how far fish will travel upstream during extended periods of high water? For example, if you live on a river 100 miles upstream from Lake Texoma, will catfish travel that far during floods? Someone said this was covered a few weeks ago, but I must have missed it.

uncle, back when the stripers were introduced into Texoma, the Okla. wildlife people stated that Texoma's ability for the Red River to flow for extended periods allowed them to feel the fish had an excellent future to spawn and replenish the lake as has been proven over time. They had a calculated distance required in miles for the fish to swim upstream, spawn and produce eggs, then the flow a certain distance at a certain speed would allow the eggs to produce.
Back when I still farmed in SW Okla. south of Altus, there was a producing sandpit lake on my property about a 1/4 mile off of Salt Fork of Red River. The hand that operated the pump floating on the old lake dredging the sand would fish off the barge during lunch and when screens had to be changed or cleaned at the pit since he was stuck out there until the crew at the pit came out on a boat to relieve him. Well one afternoon after wheat harvest, I was plowing wheat stubble just east of the pit, when one of the sandpit trucks came over to the fence near where I was and waited until I worked my way to the fence. I crawled out of the John Deere, met "Joe" at the fence and he asked me since I was a "pro" fisherman and all, could I tell him if maybe he had a world record fish. I said sure and crawled over the fence. He had a fish wrapped in cotton seed cake sacks in the back of the company truck and he was hoping maybe he had a world record sand bass...well you can see where this is going. He unwrapped the sacks, and there it was, about a 17 or 18 lb striper. I told him what was going on, sorry it was no record, but a big ol' striper that had come up Red and then Salt Fork when the river ran for a long enough period when it flooded in the spring. 2 years earlier, the Red flooded seriously which pushed water back up the Salt Fork which backed into the sand pit for 3 or 4 days. As the crow flies, it's pushing 200 miles from the 377 bridge to the mouth of Salt Fork that fish traveled. Those guys eventually caught 15 or 20 stripers over the years.

Well uncle... I have a different story from Okalee's about stripers.... mine is about yellow and bluecats. Several years ago before my Dad passed away, he and my brother and I put out pole lines along the banks of the Leon River about two miles below Proctor Dam. This was in June. Some other folks we knew also hung lines just downstream from our location. We were baiting with live perch (bluegill and green sunfish), while they were baiting with goldfish and small carp or suckers up to about 8 or 10 inches long. We caught a few yellow cat and one blue cat ranging in size from 12 to 24 pounds. Those other folks didn't keep up with the number of fish each night, but rather talked in terms of pounds of live fish each night. It generally ranged from 150 pounds up to 350 pounds each night. Unbelievable... I know... but I did see some of their fish and some were in the 50 pound range!!! Now, I believe most of those yellow cat and blue cat fish came up out of Belton Lake about 100 miles downstream from Proctor Dam. That was a wet spring and the river was running bank full due to flood releases out of Proctor lake. In a normal year, the Leon doesn't run very much water between Proctor and Belton, and the holes which don't dry up in the river between Proctor and Hamilton get harvested pretty thoroughly each summer by the locals. This is why I think those yellow cat and blue cat in those apparent large numbers traveled all the way from Belton up to Proctor Dam.

My uncle was one of the biologists who put stripers in texoma. He ended up becoming the director of fisheries for Texomas and now has retired and become a fishing guide. I would bet he is one of the best and most unknown guides on the lake by the general public.

One more story about the stripers & Okla. In springs when the Texas panhandle & western Okla. get plenty of rain. The Bureau of Reclamation sometimes has to open the gates at the dam at Lugert north of Altus. When this happens the water gets dumped in the North Fork of Red. Water in Red can stay up all spring into June. The Tipton bridge on No. 5 highway over Northfork has a deep hole about 2 miles S of the bridge. The locals over there catch stripers for 2 or 3 months in the spring into summer until the river dries up or the heat over there makes the water so hot the fish run out of oxygen in the dead water.

We don't target stripers but we do catch them on fresh shad a lot....I know from coming to Texoma to fish for 20 years that those dudes go way up both rivers not just the Red ...the Washita as well........big blues and stripers......Weve caught and hung a few dandies that got away a time or two........