Texoma trip this weekend

Looks like, as usual, the weather is gonna take a dump on my Texoma trip this weekend. That being said, nothing can stop me from the land of the giants!

I have a few problems though. I've read tons of threads on here about Texoma and, after doing some research, I'm really confused. I've heard a few people on here say that you can use white bass for bait but....

It is unlawfull to:
Possess a game fish, hybrid striped bass or flathead catfish that has been filleted or had its head or tail removed while actively engaging in fishing.

And this is what is listed under gamefish:

Game Fish
Largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass; black and white crappie; rainbow and brown trout; sauger, saugeye and walleye; white and striped bass; blue and channel catfish. Species not listed are nongame fish.

This is straight from the Oklahoma Wildlife Department's website. Also, I decided to look even harder at another activity I will definitely be doing and.....

with regard to cast nets:
Cast nets shall have a mesh size no greater than 3/8 inch square.

Could someone shed a light for me. I'm no Einstein by any means so I may be misunderstanding these. Help me out someone!

Texoma has its own set of regulations which differs from both Texas and Oklahoma. With regards to bait it is legal to use any gamefish which is caught by legal means out of Texoma. Bass, Striper, Sandbass, Crappie all legal if you caught it out of Texoma by legal means. If you caught it legally then it counts against that species daily bag limit and can be used as bait. As far as cast net Oklahoma will allow a larger cast net than Texas but don’t know about mesh size. My guess is you can use a larger net like Oklahoma regulation and a larger mesh like Texas regulation. Have never had my nets checked except at the coast so I wouldn’t worry about the net. You are not allowed to bring gamefish from other fisheries so you best have your story straight in the event that you run into a game warden

That lake has some monsters but it's so huge when the wind picks up it will spit you out in a second.

There is a deep creek channel by the dam that we spotted some big fish last time I was there, but the way it's warming up they could be shallow by the weekend.

If it's windy Eisenhower state park is a good place to launch.

Good luck my friend!

Yeah, we got a report that there were some good fish being caught up by the oil rigs in the Washita arm which works out well with a north wind. I'm thinking they may be right on the edges of deep water and shallow water. There are some spots up there with 5 feet of water right next to 35 feet. We'll probably anchor fish on Saturday in the shallows and then drift on Sunday. Depends on where we mark fish. We'll let you know what happens.

I have only fished Texoma in the winter a couple times. We had very good luck way up the west end towards the red river inlet. Very shallow and stumpy up there. If you go that way, be careful. We caught good fish up to 52 pounds in about 3 feet of water...

Thank you Tim and Chris. We're fishing Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I believe Friday we're going to focus on shallow flats. We're probably going to anchor fish and then Saturday we may be spot locking over ledges just out from those areas. All just depends on what we see on the side scan. Bob, I'm going to put Henry to the test. He has a sixth sense for these whiskered tugboats, so we'll see. He doesn't really rely on his graph as much as I do though. Old versus new LOL. I was looking for some info and stumbled across this video from Catfish Edge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqcD7adDvKs

If there's any nooby's here that need help with scanning this is pretty good. I've found side scan to be paramount to my success. I'm like Chris, I'll spend up to a couple of hours scanning if I have to. Once you start figuring out the difference between gar, carp and catfish it makes a real difference. They don't always bite once I locate them, but it takes a lot of dead water out of the picture.

Hopefully we'll have some good pics and some fresh info on the shallow bite. I hear that there's a number of guys starting to catch fish in skinny water especially after a warm up.

Regarding side scan, I got to see Tim use his in the shallows yesterday and oh man, what a huge difference!

We were motoring slow in less than 6 feet of water and the narrow down 'beam' on the fish finder was as good as useless. Tim showed me his side scan and 'boom', we spotted a bunch of decent sized fish off to the side. Tim tied up the boat to the timbers and we spread out 6 rods. A couple of bites but no fish, and of course your thinking carp/turtles/who knows, but regardless the side scanner made a big difference.

Hey Geno, if anyone can hunt down those big cats it's 'cat whisperer' Henry!

Good luck my friend and say hi to Henry from me.

We almost decided to go to Texoma this weekend but slow reports turned me off. I’d be up in that area Tim has circled 100% if I was going. Be careful getting up in there and stay far away from the mouth of the Red as it is silted in and you will get stranded if you don’t know where the channel is currently. Even mud motor boats get stuck up there. Topo maps are not accurate as that area is ever changing with each rain. Also lots of giant stumps that have washed into that area so go slow. If y’all decide to fish the Red then give me a shout Geno and I will send you some pins of that area.

Thanks for the info guys, unfortunately it looks like we got sidelined due to an unforeseen work issue. I will be fishing Lavon today with Blue Cat Bob though. Hopefully I won't need an interpreter LOL. We'll definitely be fishing shallow today to start. I'm looking forward to seeing what changes are taking place with the warm weather.

Chris, I think by not going to Texoma this weekend we actually dodged a bullet. Most lakes around here are tough with a 25 mph wind but Texoma is an unforgiving *%*@# with anything over 20. I would definitely want to be in the War Machine up there!

We'll keep everyone updated on what we find today. Not sure that the two of us won't just be like two blind mice trying to find a bit of cheese out there though. I was hoping Tim was gonna be on the water so I could just follow him around! He doesn't know it but I had Bob secretly place a GPS tracker on his boat so we always know where he's fishing!!

Haha!

I put my Navionics app tracker on when we go out together.

Last trip he spotted fish with minutes and I’m thinking [censored], I was in the same spot yesterday and saw nothing! Turns out the devil is in the details. I was indeed in the same area but not the same position. Tim was on a structure (creek bed) and I wasn't. Dang, it’s always something!

The other thing Tim showed me was when they are rummaging around in the mud they just look like the bottom on my fish finder.

Cat’n R hard!!!

Praying for tight lines today.

Regardless we’ll have some fun, I know that.

Good call Geno! That lake gets oceanic when the wind is over 15. We were planning on travel fishing somewhere this weekend but with the front hitting Saturday I figured Sunday the fish will be scattered and confused so we’re going to stay on Lewisville and see if we can find a few fish. Wish we were fishing today as I know I could find some in 2-3 ft.

OK so, yesterday I met up with Blue Cat Bob around 8:30 am. I was out there at day break but, you know, I guess these Brits do things a little different. I was figuring on heading way up the north end of Lavon and getting in some really shallow water because of the temps the last few days. He says, "lets go over by the island and drift deep water". I didn't say anything. I figured we'd waste an hour and then go with my plan. Well, it's a good thing we went with BCB's plan. We only had four rods set up and I was working on the fifth when Bob did this....



I forgot to change the batteries in my scale so we think his fish went about 24 or 25. Within about 5 or 10 minutes, I got what we guessed to be around 30...



We didn't land another toad the rest of the day but did manage to catch a half dozen other dinks. We did have a great time though. Bob is funny fellow. He's witty and a bit cheeky (I hope that slang term was used properly Bob!) but a really great guy. I really enjoyed the conversations we had.

As far as the fishing goes, here's the info. When I arrived at day break, the water temp was 44. By the time the day ended it had risen to 48 with the backwater temps approaching 53. I'm sure somewhere there was water in the mid fifties. Things are definitely about to change. We anchor fished in the shallows (5-10') and managed a few dinks. Our best fishing was in water 30-40 feet deep. I was able to catch some shad after wading through a mountain of those tiny little threadfins but our big fish came on other non-gamefish chunks. I think we still have a bit of deep water action to go before the shallow bite really kicks in. Thanks to my guide, BCB we were able to put a couple of good fish in the boat!

Thanks for taking me out on your boat, Geno. A great day! Fishing, catching, sunning ourselves in 70F temps wearing T shirts, and putting the world to rights in no less than 10 hours in the boat.

First time I have even been in a fast fiberglass bass boat, and what a hoot!!



You had told me it ran smooth, but I didn't believe you until we were skipping along in chop at 40+ mph and it was smoooooth as silk.

The reason I suggested the deep water to start was two fold. Firstly the temp had dropped another 2F from my last visit (I was surprised), and secondly I thought it would give the shallows a chance to warm up. It turned out a good plan (amazing for me).

I lost a huge fish on the second drift, when he threw the hook after a couple fo minutes of battle. You know it's a biggun when he wont budge and rips drag. Argh! Oh well.

Other big baits were the order of the day again, but did manage some dinks on fresh thread fin.

One thing to note, the temp raised up to 51F in the shallow creek ends, and we spotted large shoals of shad bunched in them but spotted no bigger fish.....yet.

This trip confirmed my worse fears, that a side scanner is essential to spot fish in the shallows. Urgh. $$$$.

I am absolutely sure Geno's toad was over 30 pounds. I estimate 32-34 pounds, and Catfish Tim will testify I can estimate weight pretty good.

To add, at the end of the day Geno caught a tiny dink per below:



I told him its all about perspective, so I took another shot of the same fish, et voila!



Oooh, what big hands you have! lol



A very good day!

Geno and Bob,
Nice post, nice pics and good work!
Only 1 finger wrapped in a bandaid... good day Geno! LOL
Hope to see you guys soon.

Ken