Been two weeks since the last trip, fishing. Texasfivegun, my buddy Bart, my 11 yr old nephew Paul and myself decided to hit the lake on Saturday morning and get off before too many pleasure boaters and day sailers took over.
Stopped at Dave's beer , bait, tackle, black powder and sandwich shop at 7:30 to get Bart a license. Talking to the folks there I discovered that there was a rumor the COE had issued yet another, blue green algi warning, just in time for Labor Day.
Well, true or not, I just do not concern myself with it and we chose to put life and limb at great risk and fish Texoma anyway.
Put on at Ike state park and headed out. The table top area is always a first stop for us and we got there and set out our spread. Running downriggers at 30' and running extra weight on our 1/2 oz white road runners. Got the first if four lines out and it immediately hit. Ol Bart grabbed it and valiantly fought this fish like and old woman, to finnaly get it to the boat. Now, I use U-rigs so my chances are that you'll pick up a double or even a triple on one pole, that's what was on Bart's pole. A 11 lb'er. A6 lb'er and an under.
Reset and worked the area with a full spread and picked up a couple more overs but nothing too big. So we decided to ease over to the other side of the river channel and ended up on the Oklahoma bank, working along the drop in 35' of water we started picking up good fish. Lots of overs and some big ones. After just a little while the port downrigger went off and Texasfivegun grabbed it. A line pulling, drag burning monster fish! Got her to the net after a few minutes and she weighed around 12 lbs.
We stayed in the area, CPR fishing, until the bite started subsiding and eased back over towards the texas side. Around 11:30 we were hot and hungry so went to Little Mineral to get a good burger.
When we got done with lunch, back to table top area. Set out the spread again and picked up a decent over at 8 lbs and that gave us 7 total overs and one under.
It was getting unbearable hot and we were cooking. The bite had slowed down pretty good and we were trolling the edge, thinking seriously about calling it a day when the port long line went screaming off. My nephew, Paul struggled to get the rod out of the holder and when he did he was hollering we were hung up. About that time the hang up took a hard left turn. Lol.
This kid is an angler like no other kid I know. He is 11 yrs old and has skills and strength to land good fish and he fought this fish like a pro. (It's not easy either. Our u-rig rods are Okuma Clarion line counters. In the 20 lb class with short Tiger Sticks.) He fought through the heat for fifteen minutes probably getting the fish to the boat. Ol Bart netted her and brought her aboard. Dang! Nice fish!
A little history: On the Saturday of Father's Day weekend, Paul had caught a good 10.56 lb fish and at that time, I think the Jr Angler for Texoma was at 5.03 lbs. We contacted the state park and sent in that fish to TPWD for jr angler. After about six weeks we got a certificate for outstanding catch but another fish had been entered that was 10.76 lbs that same weekend. Beating out Paul by a little bit.
This fish was bigger by a long shot! We weighed her on board our boat and she went over 14 lbs. at that point we called the state park and told them we were coming in with it.
Clearing the gear, I put Redemption on plane and headed in. Getting loaded up and up to Park headquarters within 30 min.
We walk in and although busy, the park people just were so nice. They got ahold of Ranger Paul the park police and he was just awesome to my nephew Paul. He made the weighing and measuring and certifying a pleasure. Really giving this kid praise for his catch and just making this accomplishment the experience of a child's life.
The big girl weighed officially at 14.08 lbs. the length was 32 3/4" and the girth was 19 1/2"
I want to personally thank Ranger Paul and his staff at Ike State Park for the time and attention they gave to us and my nephew. And TPWD for helping kids get hooked on fishing.
Great way to end the summer season! Of course we ain't even close to being done. It's just fixin to get good!
Nice Fish and Congratulations to the young man on his record fish. Good job. 
