Lake Texoma water temperature is at 82� and falling with the cooler weather we have been having. The elevation is just below normal at 617.83. The days are getting shorter and fall is quickly approaching. The fishing is still hot and cold but the slow days are a lot more productive than they were a couple of weeks ago. We�ve been catching 15-20 fish when it is slow and 50-100 fish when the action is hot. The constantly changing weather patterns have kept the fish on the move and I�m having to relocate them on a daily basis. I have fished in a different spot everyday for the last week. The last few days, the bite seems like it has been later in the morning, most likely due to the full moon, and the peak bite seems to be from around 8:00 � 9:30, or perhaps it�s just taking me that long to find the fish. In the evening, the last hour of daylight is still the best fishing. The only pattern that has developed is that I�m catching most all of my fish using live bait on anchor in 30-45ft of water on or near a ledge.

Saturday I had one fisherman. The fishing was slower than it had been, most likely due to the traffic and the changing winds. He caught 8 fish in the 5-6 lb range and a few small fish on topwater. All the big fish came off of bait. Every time it looked as if we were going to get them going, the wind would shift and blow me off of my ledge and we would loose our bite. It was nice and cool and a real nice day to be out on the water.

Sunday I had an evening trip with 4 guys. We went out at 5:30 and I tried several anchors and tried a few slabs but the fish were not cooperating. Most of the fish I was finding were catfish that were killing my bait. By 7:45 I had about 7 fish in the box and was starting to think they were not going to go for the evening. I drove around the lake searching for the spot where they were going to come up on top. I didn�t a single blow up in all the normal spots. Finally I gave up on the topwater search and decided to throw an anchor on a flat where I marked a few fish. We dropped some bait down and I looked back at the graph�BLACK OUT!! Fast and furious action until I ran out of bait right as the sun dropped below the horizon. I kicked a last minute field goal to pull that one off 

Monday I had 2 fishermen. The fish were not in the spots that I had caught them the past few days so off to new territory to search for fish. I found some good fish blowing up on top and we were wearing them out for 5 minutes until we were discovered by the other boats. The fish immediately went down when the boats arrived. I drove out and dropped anchor over a the ledge they started at. The other boats left and here come the fish, right under my boat!! We tore them up for a while and they quit. I moved down the ledge a little more and got right back on them. We caught them until we ran out of bait. I was able to keep a limit for the first time in a couple of weeks. More box fish and less 20� fish so we could put fish in the box before the big fish ate up all of our bait.

Tuesday I had 4 fishermen. It was windy and I couldn�t fish where I caught them on Monday because it was too rough. We tried a lot of different anchors trying to stay out of the rough water and I finally hit them, fast action with a lot of big fish in the 4-8 lb range. The fish quit biting around 10:00 � 10:30 or so and we went in with 24 keepers and threw back around 10 fish that were too big.

Fall fishing is AWESOME on Texoma and now is the time to book your trip, especially if you want to fish on a Saturday because my schedule will fill up fast. My schedule for next week was originally blocked off of the calendar to take a class to get my coast guard license. I found a way to take it online so now all of next week is open to anyone who wants to go fishing at the last minute. My rates are $125/person, children 12 and under as well as active military are � price when accompanied with 2 full price adults. You can book your trip online at www.stripersinc.com or you can call me anytime at (903)815-1609 and I will get you set up.













Good Luck to All,
Brian Prichard

Thanks for the report Brian. Gonna try to make it up in a couple weeks for the day. Sounds like bait is the ticket again if you want to fill the cooler. Guess I need to fix or replace my aerator.

Brian,

Thanks for the report!

Looks like even though the fish are movin' on ya'...your still finding' them!!!!!!

Keep it up!

J.J.

Thanks guys,
Bait is definatly the ticket. We caught our limit on bait this morning. We had all of our overs but there were a lot of small ones that have moved in where I was catching ALL big fish. And again, I fished a different spot form the last place I had caught them. There were small topwater fish everywhere. We caught a few of them on topwaters and cohoes before we decided to go in. Nice and cool this morning and great day out on the water.
Brian

what ledges are you fishing?

The ones with fish on them If you noticed in my report they are not in the same place on a day to day basis. If you mark fish on the ledge in 30-40ft, throw an anchor and dropp down some bait. If nothing happens then pull anchor and go to the next ledge. If there are topwater fish schooling over the ledge then you know you've got them. You are better off anchoring over the schooling fish and using live bait than you are using topwaters because the bigger fish will be at the bottom of the school.

Good Luck,
Brian

Thanks for the good report. I am heading there probably Sat. morning before sunrise. Could you give me some pointers on catching shad, such as the type of areas to catch them (i.e. boat docks, under light or at sunrise)? I'm doing something wrong and don't have a clue because I can never catch any. Thanks for any help.

If you have a boat slip to put out a light over night then that would be a good idea. There is a lot of competition between guides for the lights in the marinas. I put out my own lights (not public marina lights) and most of the guides respect them so I can sleep a little later and usually catch enough bait just under the lights I put out for myself which is about 5 of them. Sometimes If they are not under my lights then I will venture out in the open water and hang a light out over the side of my boat and drift along in the wind throwing my net every 5 minutes or so to collect the bait attracted by the light. If you do this then try to be in water where your net will reach the bottom because most of the bait seems to be hugging the bottom. You should be able to catch as many little baits as you want, larger baits are harder to come by. The little baits are working just not as well as the larger ones.

Good Luck,
Brian

Thanks! Never thought about a drop light. Use them for crappie all the time to attract small shad at Ray Roberts. Thanks for the help, I'll give it a shot.

Hey Brian,

Dad and I had a great time Thursday morning!! Looking forward to going out again in Sep/Oct...We'll be in touch.

Here's a couple of pics.

I had a great time yall too! I'm looking forward to our next trip
Thanks,
Brian

I�ve been off the past couple of days and have been working on my online cost guard class, how exciting!! I had trips the past Thursday � Sunday and the fishing has been good. I have started catching good box fish again and I�ve been able to but limits in the cooler instead of having to throw them all back because there too big. Its fascinating to me how different sizes of fish will feed on different days. One day its small fish feeding and every one on the lake seems to be catching mostly small fish. The next day the larger fish are feeding and it is hard to but a limit in the box because everything is over 20�. Here the past few days it has been a good mix of fish with all sizes. I haven�t caught a 10+ lb fish in a couple of weeks but we�re still getting lots of 20� fish to 5-6 lbs and some good box fish to fill the cooler. I have also started seeing some skinny 20� fish which is normal this time of year as the deeper water heats up.

I have been fishing predominantly on anchor using bait in 30ft of water. The fish are easy to find right now on the ledges and on the flats. There are huge schools of fish concentrated in depths of 15-30 ft. Some days they feed better than others but on the bad days we�re still catching limits or at least coming within a couple of fish shy. On the good days you can catch them until you run out of bait. When the fishing is slower I have to stay on the move. I�ll throw an anchor and start catching fish right away thinking �here we go, this is going to be easy�. After about 3-5 fish they quit biting, not that they move, they are still under the boat, they just quit biting. I�ll move a hundred yards and throw another anchor and repeat until we finally get the fish we need. It�s a lot of work but its been putting fish in the box. I�ve tried drifting, but it is not working as well for me where I�m fishing as throwing an anchor. The last time I tried, I was steadily marking a lot of fish for 15-20 minutes without a bite. With out reeling the rods in, I threw an anchor and as soon as the boat stopped we started catching fish. The reports from out west say that drifting has been good. Its not the first time that I�ve noticed that different methods are producing better on different ends of the lake, most likely due to differences in water temperature. The west is shallower and gets the influx of water from the Red.

The fishing will only get better from here as the days continue to get shorter and the water continues to cool. I have a few openings available for next week and then I�m taking off the last week in August to go to Colorado trout fishing. And yes, I am taking off work from fishing, to go fishing. I admit, I do have an addiction, but at least it�s a good one









Good Luck to All,
Brian Prichard

Thanks for the tips Brian. Hope to see ya Friday!

nice fish!

WOW, that is awesome catch ... Stripers still look skinny ....
Well done there Sir,