Sunday afternoon I got to spend some time on Lake Texoma with one of my favorite fishing buddies — my mom.
Despite temperatures hovering around 40 degrees and a pretty good wind, we decided to head up from Dallas and meet guide Chris Carey from Striper Express Guide Service at the Mill Creek Marina.
By 2:30 p.m. we had lines in the water looking for big stripers as they schooled for an afternoon bite.
I got the action started with a small striper, followed by mom catching a pair of the biggest white bass I’ve ever seen — both around 18 inches and more than 2 pounds.
We were fishing with large jig heads and plastics, and Chris isn’t the kind of guide to sit patiently and wait for the fish to come to him. If the fish finder wasn’t marking fish and we weren’t getting bites, he was on the move — my kind of guide.
It wasn’t long before we noticed birds beginning to congregate along a rocky shoreline. Chris motored to a spot upwind from where the birds were dive-bombing into the water after baitfish pushed to the surface by hungry stripers below.
Working in depths between 45 and 15 feet, we had a nice run of big fish during the few hours before dark.
The fish didn’t stay schooled for very long, so we had to hunt them. We picked up one or two at almost every spot where Chris stopped.
Mom outfished both boys in the boat, and it was fun to see her reaction when she first saw her first big striper surface on the end of her line. She hadn’t come prepared to catch a fish that big! We caught more than a dozen stripers between 25 and 28 inches. Those are the types of fish that Texoma is famous for.
There certainly are bigger fish in the lake, but for a day with tough conditions, the fishing was steady and fun.
By dark, we had caught several fish that reached 28 inches; they will be great to eat later this week.
Mom and I had a blast, and it was good to spend some time on the water with her. We don’t get to do it often enough these days.
Thanks again to Chris Carey for finding fish on a day with less than ideal conditions. If hunting for fish instead of dead-sticking with live bait is your kind of fishing, check him out at striperexpress.com for a fun day.
