Just thought I would like to introduce myself. I hail from the land of the cold or better known as Central Minnesota. A Striper-O-Holic I am NOT, in fact I have never caught one in my life! However for many years I have been fascinated by this species and hope to learn a thing or two after I get a few trips under my belt. Up here the Striper isn�t a species that swims in these waters. I do spend many of my springs here on the Mississippi and St. Croix River chasing skinny water White Bass. I know they are not a Striper, but from everything I have read they share many commonalities.

Truth be told I spend the 90% of my open water season chasing water Smallmouth Bass with my RiverPro jet boat. The biggest reason that brings me to these forums is my opportunity to fish stripers is finally staring me in the face now that part of my family moved to North Texas. So I�m hoping to do a couple trips a year on the Red River with my jet boat. I don�t come here try to steal anyone�s spots! I�m just hoping that from time to time someone can help me learn from the occasional mistake I may make on my annual trips and it return I hope I can offer any advice on River Smallmouth or White Bass. Truth be told half of the reason I fish is for the chase. I appreciate the opportunity to fall flat on my face with the hope at the end of the day I may have learned something to correct my mistakes.

I�m a river rat at heart think that I figure em� out on the Red River. Up here I tend to use small swimbaits and blade baits for White Bass in the spring when water temps range from 45F-60F. Seems like once the temps rise they move into the deeper areas to summer. This usually falls around the end of May up here. Then after that it�s all Smallmouth Bass for me! 95% of my fishing is catch and release, except when I stumble upon the occasional walleye

When I�m not fishing open water I�m crafting my own tackle for the upcoming year. I detest ice fishing with a passion! I think ice is best served with Rum! If anyone ever heads up north for world class smallie action look me up as I will help the best I can.

Texas is a great place to fish year round. I m originaly from northeast iowa so im also used to smallmouth and walleye fishing. In iowa when the white bass would run up the rivers and we caught them all we knew to call them were stripers lol. But when i came to texas i found out the difference between them. We also used to fish ole miss for them around the dams pretty much whenever it wasnt frozen. The thing about lake fishing for the white bass here they tend to school in huge numbers so catching them is fairly easy. The stripers are the same to an extent but im in no way an expert on striper fishing. Here around dallas you have Lake Towokini which is a great lake for stripers. If you want to run the red river then up by Texoma you can fish the lake which is huge or the red river below it. I have seen boats up by the dam but i have no idea where they launch at. There is a guide on this forum that fished the red river every winter for the catfish and stripers. I cant recall his name thou.
Good luck on your fishing when you come to texas. Dont let Texas fool you it has some huge smallmouth down here as well. They are not everywhere like up north every river has them but at one time Lake whitney had the record at over 8lbs and if im not mistaken lake meridith has the record now.
take care and stay warm i know its cold up there and i never cared for ice fishing myself since in the winter i hunted then jan till the thaw not much to do
mark

Welcome to the Forum, Alvin!
smallmouth are definately trophy's around here, as Tx waters are not exactly conducive to brownie's! but you've got the right idea fishing the red. Brazos is good, too. I'd concentrate on stripers if you want quality, sandies if you want quantity.
I'm an old river rat myself! if you want in on the river action, there's only 1 guy I can recommend- Shane Davies.
YaknYota on this forum.
Welcome to Texas, yankee!

Welcome to the Forum and a great first post!

I've been doing some homework and researching the flows on the Red River below the Dennison Dam. On average it's kicking out about 400CFS. I've ran similar rivers in my area such as the Rum River that have a slightly narrower channel and flow about 400CFS. I've been doing that without issues. I see a few areas with wide expansive sand flats. But other than that it does look "jettable", if anyone has any warnings to heed me that would be greatly appreciated. Not to be over confident, but everything I have seen from an arial perspective makes me believe it's very runnable. Now all I need is a UMHW wear ring for all of that sand your river has!

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/tx/nwis/uv/?site_no=07331600&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060

Welcome to the TFF, enjoyed reading your post.

Welcome aboard!



I would recommend a sacrificial anode as well if you are running an aluminum boat with the jet motor and intend to put it on the Red River. The red has a pretty high salinity as well which is why Lake Texoma has naturally reproducing striper.

I grew up in North Dakota and lived in MN. I did a lot of Walleye fishing. I loved it. The fishing is great in Texas. I went fishing below the dam of Texoma with Captain Steve barns on his air boat. I had a great time. 12 lb striper - released and our limit. We went back the next week when the water was not flowing out of the dam and fished from shore. This is what is in the water in front of the dam. Be careful.

welcome to TFF

Wowsers does that water get low when they aren't running water through the dam. It looks like the water comes up darn near 5-6ft in the evenings. I will be sure to not fish that area during the hours they aren't running it with a boat, thanks for the pictures! Thanks! 2 degrees here currently, 14 degrees for a high on Sunday and I will still be going Smallmouth fishing on the river. Nobody ever accused me of being intelligent though....