Lake Texoma in November

[ollie]

Headed over to Texoma to visit with family that will be coming up from southern Texas. Going to stay at a VRBO on the lake or I should say a block away from the lake. Either way access will be easy enough. I hear the striper bit is pretty good in the fall down there but have no idea where to begin other than where we will be. I will probably bring the yak along so I can go out when the wife wants to hit the flea market booths. Anyone fish Texoma before? If so how would you describe it? Might actually hire a guide this time around. I have never used a guide before and never thought I really needed one until now. Only because the lake is pretty good sized from what I remember when I did see it several years back. We are staying over by Juniper Point if that helps. Thanks

[Flysmallie]

Huge water, but not a deep lake. Most of the striper fishing I have done on that lake was trolling. Boring as heck but a fun fish to catch. White bass, or sand bass down there, are abundant and will get up on top in the afternoons. Usually some small stripers mixed in with them. 
 

A guide for a day would be a good idea. 

[ollie]

I had heard it was fairly shallow and a lot of timber I thought. I have hooked onto a couple of wipers down on Grand while fishing for whites and man they can fight hard! That is what I am looking for down there. I know I am going to keep an eye out for gulls as well.

[Flysmallie]

Not much timber in the areas we used to fish. But we mostly stayed on the Oklahoma side around the Caney Creek area and around the dam. 

[Gumboot]

Many years ago a friend and I hired a guide for a weekend down there.  Stripers on Saturday and smallmouth on Sunday.  

He had a big bait tank with fresh shad that he'd caught that morning, he knew about where the schools were.  We'd motor around find a school, get up wind and drift a live shiner through the school.  We caught a bunch, but nothing big.  We also caught several catfish that were in with the stripers.

The smallmouth was live bait as well.  We'd motor into a cove and throw a live shad to cover, watch your line.  No wt, just tight lining.  Wasn't the most fun fishing, but we sure caught some nice smallies.  We pulled into one cove with a really nice BIG house and boat dock that he said belong to Ross Perot.  He dipped out a few shad and would throw them, in a high arc, towards the dock, they would get hammered as soon as they hit the water.  He said he was feeding his pets.  We caught several pushing 4 lbs.

[Lowe 17]

I fish Texoma regularly. A few options, vertical fish with live bait & circle hooks / jig with a spoon or troll A-rigs. If the birds are actively hitting the water, the action will be fast. You can throw a silver spoon - sassy shad - top water.  It is a deep water reservoir , take a rain suit for the spray. It can be very dangerous if you aren’t in a Deep V due to the high rollers. Wind is brutal there and can make it impossible to fish. I used Sparkys guide service once. 
 

bigger fish were caught trolling. Use 30# braid for this. Good luck!

[ollie]

Well. well. It was a trip for the books for sure. The drive down there on Sunday sucked really bad, I won't lie. Heavy rain and lightning all around us as I was driving. Surprised we didn't see a tornado drop down in front of us on the way down there! So, Sunday and Monday sucked as far as the weather goes, but Tuesday it warmed up a little and by the time Wednesday rolled around we were good to go with the fishing. I tried a little fishing from the shore on Tuesday, but didn't catch a thing. Although the local guy down there told me that was a good spot to fish, and he caught several the day before of course. I wasn't so sure of his advice, but he somewhat seemed to know what he was talking about. Wednesday morning got up real early since we had to drive almost an hour to the dock form where we were. Got there on time and we headed out at daybreak to the first fishing spot. We pulled up on a flat about 8-9' in depth and started throwing big old pencil poppers in white and red. Guide had one on right away and passed the rod to the guy I was with. The other guy I was with had never really been fishing before, so I think the guide wanted to make sure he got one reeled in. Didn't matter though since the very next fish was caught by the new guy! It never fails, the new guy either catches the first fish, biggest fish, or the most when going out with me. It is just the way the karma works with me and fishing. So now 2 pretty nice stripers have hit the boat, and I don't have one yet. That changed pretty quickly when I started to actually fish the popper right and started to burn that speed back to the boat. They liked the lure moving super-fast for that top water bite I found out. First fish on for me and it was double with the other guy in the boat. Both fish and the other ones we had caught so far were all in the 20" + range so it was looking like a good day. Then it hit, my biggest of the day and biggest striper for me. 28" to the tape and about 10 pounds. That fish was heading out to deep water and making that drag sing I little. Great feeling to have! Caught another one right after that one and it went about 25" to the tape. So now we are reeling in and going elsewhere since the school had moved on. We spent a LOT of time chasing fish and not actually catching any. When we did find them, it was fast and furious for about 5-10 minutes and then it was over with. Back out chasing again. I think we spent the last hour basically sight seeing since the guide wasn't finding any fish on the sonar. Good time though and I would probably do it again at some point. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, later in the day we went back out to the shoreline by the cabin and caught some more fish. The local guy was spot on his advice. Threw out as far as you can and reel back in as fast as you can! I found out just about anything with a spinner blade will work in that instance.

[BilletHead]

29 minutes ago, ollie said:

Well. well. It was a trip for the books for sure. The drive down there on Sunday sucked really bad, I won't lie. Heavy rain and lightning all around us as I was driving. Surprised we didn't see a tornado drop down in front of us on the way down there! So, Sunday and Monday sucked as far as the weather goes, but Tuesday it warmed up a little and by the time Wednesday rolled around we were good to go with the fishing. I tried a little fishing from the shore on Tuesday, but didn't catch a thing. Although the local guy down there told me that was a good spot to fish, and he caught several the day before of course. I wasn't so sure of his advice, but he somewhat seemed to know what he was talking about. Wednesday morning got up real early since we had to drive almost an hour to the dock form where we were. Got there on time and we headed out at daybreak to the first fishing spot. We pulled up on a flat about 8-9' in depth and started throwing big old pencil poppers in white and red. Guide had one on right away and passed the rod to the guy I was with. The other guy I was with had never really been fishing before, so I think the guide wanted to make sure he got one reeled in. Didn't matter though since the very next fish was caught by the new guy! It never fails, the new guy either catches the first fish, biggest fish, or the most when going out with me. It is just the way the karma works with me and fishing. So now 2 pretty nice stripers have hit the boat, and I don't have one yet. That changed pretty quickly when I started to actually fish the popper right and started to burn that speed back to the boat. They liked the lure moving super-fast for that top water bite I found out. First fish on for me and it was double with the other guy in the boat. Both fish and the other ones we had caught so far were all in the 20" + range so it was looking like a good day. Then it hit, my biggest of the day and biggest striper for me. 28" to the tape and about 10 pounds. That fish was heading out to deep water and making that drag sing I little. Great feeling to have! Caught another one right after that one and it went about 25" to the tape. So now we are reeling in and going elsewhere since the school had moved on. We spent a LOT of time chasing fish and not actually catching any. When we did find them, it was fast and furious for about 5-10 minutes and then it was over with. Back out chasing again. I think we spent the last hour basically sight seeing since the guide wasn't finding any fish on the sonar. Good time though and I would probably do it again at some point. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, later in the day we went back out to the shoreline by the cabin and caught some more fish. The local guy was spot on his advice. Threw out as far as you can and reel back in as fast as you can! I found out just about anything with a spinner blade will work in that instance.

                 Great report Ollie and thanks for sharing. Really good to see you overcame the inclement weather with that nice day.

[bfishn]

Cool! Hearing that drag sing is some pretty music for sure!