WEll, NONE IN THE LAKES!

There are stripers in the Mississippi that have probably infiltrated the Red, along with those that are lost through the gates at Texoma over time.

I would highly doubt...because of the damming of rivers...that there is a single striper in the state of Texas that has ever breathed salt water from the gulf..naturally there were a strain of andronomous(spelling is wrong) stripers that frequented the whole gulf coast but were pretty much gone by the 1960s due to dams blocking their freshwater spawning grounds...these natural fish can still be caught in some of the rivers of the Florida Panhandle like the yellow...sorry for the book report...my $0.02.

That is such a shame cause the andronomous stripers can get really big...check out this page - the striper on the wall is 92 pounds - caught by Maryland DNR in a net...

http://www.arkansasstripers.com/world-record-striped-bass-possibly-caught-lake-ouachita.htm

I know where I'm going on my next vacation.

I went to see a customer today that had 2 stripers mounted - a 28 lber & 26 lber. Maybe that's where all of the big stripers are at - on walls!

I prefer to bass fish and maybe the stripers have gone the way the Giant Bass of the early 90's have gone. Most have been caught or have died.

Who knows!

-Alton

I haven't had a lot of luck fishing for stripers,and the one time I caught a decent one I kept it and the guy next to me was giving me a hard time about it. I told him that it wasn't really a trophy fish,it was only an 11 pounder caught below the Cordova bend dam last year. I can only dream about a 20 # or a 30 #,and since I can't catch them very often I don't think I'm hurting the population, lol.

They are out there. It's just that the guys that know where, how, when and what baits are not talking. If they did, they would be even fewer. I agree that there are probably less big fish throughout the state. I believe your chance of catching a trohy hybrid or striper is about the same as catching a trophy largemouth.
There was and still may be a webpage af the 50 largest stripers caught on TPWD site. Of the first 15, 11 or 12 were caught in below the main lake.
If I were going to target a lake, it would be Texoma. I'd throw to points next to deep water and flat. Big baits, rainbow redfins, pencil poppers, the new expensive shad swim baits, 1oz traps, 1oz bucktails with 6" trailer. AN hour before sunrise or till an hour after are the best times. Be prepared to make hundreds if not thousands of casts and if you do hook up be prepared to chase the striper as the first run can test your line capacity and your equipment.
Spring and fall are probably the best months. The best bet is probanly to travel out of state to some big striper lakes which other TFF'ers know more about.

mdtxhybrid,

There is some evidence, anecdotal perhaps, that Stripers move from the Coast up the Trinity river to the dam at Livingston. I've caught them in both places, i.e. in Trinity Bay and below the dam at Livingston, and assume it is certainly possible, if not probable that some of those fish have moved back and forth from the Coast to the dam.

Its kind of amazing to view pictures of dozens and dozens of relatively small fish, nice fish but certainly not trophies, right in the middle of a discussion of where have the large fish gone. Am I missing something?

I submit, no one, no one needs that many fish as pictured whether legal or not. Just because we can doesn't mean we should. And some wonder where have all the large fish have gone?

http://s289.photobucket.com/albums/ll221/hentze27/
Here is a link to two some pics. one is a 11 plus lb hybrid caught last spring on Palestine, the other is pure 29.9 lb striper caught at Canyon Lake about 5 years ago. Maybe someone smarter than me can post them the right way.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/programs/fishrecords/freshwater/top50_striped.phtml
Top 50 Stripers Link

You caught striper in Trinity Bay? That's interesting...I wonder if maybe they migrated from the Lake down...did you catch them on the coast or further out on the ocean?
Yeah, keeping all the fish for yourself over time can really have an effect on the population...especially during the spawn. I wish striper were a little harder to catch, for their sakes. One time, I saw a couple guys get busted at Denison Dam for having a cardboard box full (about 50-60) of 10-12" striper. He had no license either and was placed under arrest...I'd hate to see his fine...

You are right.

I do know where they are..............

All but the 17.97# Hybrid and the kayak stringer shots were released to fight another day. I have always CPR'd 90% of our big fish since the early 1990's.