I have dragged my boat to Texoma twice now and fished the Platter Flats area. Three weeks ago, under cloudy conditions, we had under fish all day long hitting the surface. Last Saturday, clear skies, it hard to get a bite before the wind pushed us off the lake. We are using artificals, no bait. So, my question is, where do we need to go to find some fish? We are driving from Dallas / The Colony area.

If you have not fished Texoma very much. I would recommend getting a guide. You will learn enough in one trip to justify the money spent. Striper Express / Chris Carey does lure trips and will show you how it�s done on Texoma. You�ll be surprised at where Chris finds the fish sometimes.

thanks sbt4u

"You�ll be surprised at where Chris finds the fish sometimes".
I can vouch for that, Monday we fished in a place no one would fish for stripers, but we caught them and they were good size, actually too big, had to throw 21 fish back. Smallest was 17" and the largest was my new pb of 14 lb, 33".

sbt4u everytime I try to pull up your website I get some kind of search engine?
Gene

If your gonna look for a guide try JD Lyle. He'll fish lures or bait and is the best on the lake without a doubt.
www.texomaguide.com

As far as your question, Where to find the stripers? As mentioned in my reports, the little fish are all over the lake under the birds. Today the bigger fish 18-22" moved out into 30ft of water which is the deepest I have seen them in a month. You are throwing lures so you will want to stay shallow. Look for shallow flats, 5ft. and less, that are wind blown and throw pencil poppers, 4" glow sassys, and queen cohoes at day break. Later in the morning the fish will move out into 8-15ft of water so abandond the topwaters and use strictly soft plastics. Vary your speed until find what they want. Platter is a good area. I'm assuming that you were not fishing shallow enough, Washataw point is also a good spot, and also the islands area has a lot of shallow water that is holding fish also. If you want to catch a lot of fish and don't mind the little fellers then use slabs under the birds around Rock Creek and Mac Flats. I've had the best success using slabs bouncing them off the bottom in 20-30ft but I haven't pulled a bigger fish off a slab yet, there all small.

Good Luck,
Brian

By the way Brian thanks for the great birthday outing for my girlfriend.........

Dan, PM sent.

Thanks! I'd had a great time too.

It is pretty difficult not to catch fish this time of year!

Find birds, find fish.

cast and reel in...

Coho, or sassy...Or a topwater lure...

Hope to get out there soon...lookin' at a blast and cast this weekend!

J.J.

thanks to all that have sound advice! I don't get up there often, and I'm not familiar with the lake, so the platter area is all I know. The islands are around the Platter area are the referred to?

fisherman dan, get on the water and follow guide boats just dont get too close, then you will have found fish.

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.
Hire a "teaching" guide that will show you how to find fish on your own daily. Some guides will even let you go with them to catch bait and learn all there is to know about that also.
Following guides is NOT a way to find fish. If you follow guides using baits and you are using lures, you will be frustrated.
Bait boats on anchor get schools of fish bunch up so tight under them that boats 40 ft away won't catch a single fish out of that school. (You also don't want to get within 40ft of an anchored boat that is fishing, guide or not) OK. law is that you can't get within 150 feet of an anchored boat, if you are going faster than idle speed. That is a good distance for any speed or reason in my book and what I try to do for others on anchor. I've seen the noise from big motors run fish off when they were even that far away. It is all about respect.
Right now, birds are working daily. Birds are feeding on shad that Stripers push to the surface. Get in front of the directions the birds are moving and use your lures as you drift through the moving school of fish. Keep leap frogging that school.
Platter area is holding as many fish right now as it ever does. There is no reason to leave that area right now. Fish are everywhere. Fish the wind blown shoreline with pencil poppers or really, any top water lure. Sassys and Cohohoes are working along the shores also right now. You might not see fish on the surface but work the area anyway. Right now go the easy route and look for birds.
If you can get bait, even better. Get out of the wind. Drop an anchor and drop baits to the bottom. Come up 3 feet and hang on.
Right now, it really is as easy as that.

Fisherman Dan, Another thing that you might try, while fishing wind blown points and flats next to the river channel, is to use 2 oz.slabs. Hang around a while after the birds leave and fish your slab with a cast, drop, reel, drop, reel method. This will often get your bait into the comfort zone of the bigger fish. When it hits bottom bring it up then crank 4or5 times and let it drop. Then repeat.