# Lake Texoma Guide Report ( BIG FISH TIME )



## Guide Carey Thorn (Sep 30, 2009)

Lake Texoma striper fishing is at its best right this instant! Everyday we are boating beautiful fat healthy striper. They are gorging themselves for their annual spawning run up the Red River. Striper from 7-15 lbs on average right now. A few 18-20' pounders thrown in. We just boated the new Lake Record for Lake Texoma just over 27 pounds!



And, just a couple days ago, one of my Jr angler clients, hooked a beast of a Flathead Catfish just over 35 pounds dead sticking a fluke. Took him 15 mins to battle the beast to the surface. He now holds the Jr. Lake Texoma Flathead Catfish Record



Report: Water temps are 46-48 and going to drop a little more with the cold fronts that have been moving in. That's going to push the bait deep and into coves. Right now I am fishing in 27-30 ft in creeks and river channel ledges. The birds are finally starting to work the schools of striper pushing bait to the surface. Most of the schooling fish have been 7-14 lbs mixed. We are throwing chart or pearl white sassy shad 3 inch. Also dead sticking if the fish are holding at a certain depth.


( Striper school following the river channel eating gizzard shad, drum, and catfish)

I have been pulling out some impressive sized bait from the stomachs of the bigger striper. I pulled out a 8 inch drum and the striper still had another 8 inch gizzard shad and a few thread fins. Amazing he was even hungry enough to take fluke. But again, the fish are fattening up for the spawn.












The fish are literally biting like a blue gill or crappie. Tap-Tap gone. The first tap is the bait being sucked in their mouth. The second tap is them spitting it out. Got to be fast and ready at all times. Most days we go out and the first spot gets the limit in the boat. Then we CPR the rest of the trip. Trips are 5-6 hours or till you are to tired to reel another one in.

You are allowed 2 fish over 20 inches. We recommend you release the 15 pound plus class of stripers. Those are our main breeders. 7-12 lb fish is plenty of meat. Your allowed 10 fish total with only 2 being over 20 inches.

In the early morning, look for the birds diving. also the evening. Sometimes they are going all day long.:dance:

Capt. Carey Thorn

StriperExpress.com

903-327-2009


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## Guide Carey Thorn (Sep 30, 2009)




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## Lake Livingston Adventures (Mar 15, 2013)

Nice BIG striper. I wish we had more big girls like those on Livingston. I'm hauling my boat up there to fish that tournament at the end of the month and can't wait!


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## CarolinaPartimer (Mar 22, 2013)

Those are some NICE fish. Thanks for posting!


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## brucevannguyen (Oct 21, 2012)

Lake Livingston Adventures said:


> Nice BIG striper. I wish we had more big girls like those on Livingston. I'm hauling my boat up there to fish that tournament at the end of the month and can't wait!


Mike need a deck hand let me know.


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## big D. (Apr 10, 2010)

I need to make a run up there and soon!

The big fish pics are killing me!

Looks like it would be worth the 5-6hr drive!


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## Danny O (Apr 14, 2010)

Excellent display...fish, bait, instruction. Thanks for the report.


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## Lake Livingston Adventures (Mar 15, 2013)

Mike's going to be booked up that weekend. I'm hitting the tourney and have a boat full for this one, but I'd be interested in putting a Houston team together for another one!

Chris


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## Watersoul (Feb 15, 2013)

Holy ****. Nice catches


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## big D. (Apr 10, 2010)

Heck yeah Chris! Looks like they have several coming up. Put me down for the Houston team!


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## Guide Carey Thorn (Sep 30, 2009)

Bring a good pair of binoculars! The bird's should be in full force by then! And again, Im not kidding, the fishing is off the chain. If you can bare the cold, the rewards blow the coldness out of the water! I cant wait for topwater season!


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## Guide Carey Thorn (Sep 30, 2009)

Its definitely BIG fish time on the big lake right now. Unders/box fish are kind of hard to find. Mainly we are landing 8-15 lb fish. Its not a numbers game right now. Just trophy striper time. Some days we land 8-10 and some days we land 20-30+ monsters. It all depends on the day and what the fish want to do. Some days the fish will nail a certain color, then the next day they want a totally different color and different presentation. And, like I said before, the pattern seems to be different on a daily basis. Today my fish came from the river channel 45 ft deep dead sticking a chart/white fluke. Caught a couple throwing sassy's in white ice and natural bait color in 15-30 ft. Also, running a sassy through the school of bait and slowly dragging it back to the boat while maintaining as 1-2 ft depth off the bottom. The birds have not helped me one bit in over three-four weeks now. One stop I made today was on a small flock of cormorant's that surfaced all at once, about 15 of them. So I stopped on the spot they popped up at, and there were a bunch of fish there. Landed 3-4 within 20 mins from 8-11 lbs. So I started following around the cormorant's that were diving under the water. They mainly only dive when there is bait around and every stop produced some fish under the cormorants. So that was a nice help.

Structure seems to be key right now. Humps, ridges, shelves, points, and submerged structure like trees, stumps, rock piles. Most fish are no more than 3-5 ft off the bottom. 

I had a couple issues of fishing to fast, so I had to slow myself down and fish way slower, to boat the fish. If your not patient right now, your going to have a bad trip there. The bite, 70% of the time, is like a blue gill or crappie bite. You feel 2 thumps. If you feel the 2nd thump, your to late, they spit it. The first thump is the fish sucking in the lure. The second thump is spitting out the lure. Its pretty fast to, so you always, always -have to be ready thinking your going to get a bite any second, the whole trip. Once you loose concentration and start dilly dallying on the boat, you miss fish. Your looking for 10-15 bites a day and you never know when that bite is going to be next. Again, the 10-15 bites are going to be huge fish, not many box fish swimming around the area right now.

Some days they want smaller flukes too. One day I was on fish, and the graph was lit up with fish streaking under the boat eating shad. We sent down every color I had in the boat with no progress. I took a full size fluke and bit it in half and before it got half way down, I got hammered. Switched all the rods to that and we ended up murdering them with over 50 huge fish. Its almost like Black Bass fishing, constantly changing colors and presentation. Once you land the 2nd to 3rd fish, you should have a pattern that will work throughout the whole lake that day. 

Mainly we locate the fish and set up a drift. When we hook up, I spot lock the trolling motor and the fish usually hang out for a bit under the boat. Some days they stay under the boat, and some days you catch 2-3 and have to re drift through them.

One of my trips, we set a new Jr. Lake Record. I fishing a concrete block that was part of a bridge or road in 27 ft of water right near the river channel. We were steadily landing 2 fish every 15 mins, big ones at that.


Before I pulled up to the spot, I side scanned it, and saw a bunch of striper on and around the structure. There was one fish hugging the bottom and I froze the screen to show my group how the fish were stacked on the block of concrete. At the base of the structure, I pointed out to the group a huge fish, and I stated that had to be a big catfish. one hour and 15-20 striper, my 14 yr old client yells, " Capt. Carey, I think I have big one!" meanwhile his drag is just steadily peeling off his reel. At first I thought we had a monster striper over 20 lbs. Then the fish sat on the floor of the lake, My client had the rod doubled over, but the fish wouldn't budge for 5 mins. We thought he has wrapped us around something. I spot locked the trolling motor and had him just keeping the rod doubled over till something happened. 15 mins later the fish finally came up to the surface. Monster Flathead Cat Fish. I told the group, lets fill the cooler with water and get some good pics and a weight after we r done with the stripers. We went back to the structure we were fishing and immediately started to boat more monster stripers. As they were having their fun, I looked up the Jr. Records for Texoma. After I scrolled through the records, I went to the back of the boat and shook the kids hand and said, " Congratulation's kid, you now own the Jr. Lake Record for Lake Texoma." His smile said it all right there. His parents said, the 14 yr old said before the trip, that he was going to catch a state record fish and would need 2 hands to hold the fish up. LOL, he was almost right on!
New Jr. Lake Texoma Record Flathead Catfish.

You cant sit in one spot to long usually, you have to go hunt for them. Find the bait, and you should find some fish right in them or near them.

(Photos are in random order.)
Those are a few pics from the last month or so I took with the phone. All the good ones are on the camera that is dead and charging.

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## Guide Carey Thorn (Sep 30, 2009)

Some days when the fish pile up, they get thick! This day it was 28 degrees with a 15-20 mile an hour North wind. Got to the spot you see above, and hammered them till my guys couldn't take the cold anymore. Remember, over dress for the lake. You can always peel off cloths later as the temps rise. Its awful out there if you get cold. Just because its nice and warm in your backyard, doesn't mean the lake is the same temp. Its always cooler on the lake, especially if there is some wind.

Peeps need to be carful when your around Big Mineral or traveling through the island cuts. There is some really shallow water if you are not carful, you will beach the boat.

Remember, you are only allowed 2 big fish per person. 20 inches or greater. 10 fish total with only 2 over 20 inches. We recommend that you release any fish bigger than 15 lbs. Now, its your choice if you want to keep it. Those monsters are our main breeders, and it would be nice to get their genes spread though out the lake. I would hate to clean fish that big if I didn't have to. But again, its your call what to do with your fish.

Again, this is trophy season. Not big numbers at all. You might catch 1 or you might catch 20. But they are all big fish and get MAD AS A BULL when they feel a hook rip into their face, peeling line off the reels and making runs, battling the whole way back to the boat. When you think the fight is almost done, the fish sees the boat and rips line back off the rod for another deep diving run. -CRAZY 

Like sand bass fishing, sometimes I'll tie on a smaller jig above the fluke while dead sticking. And, sometimes it produces 2 striper on one drop.

If the lake is glass calm, the fishing is going to be slow, or even just terribly dead. We had a 6-9 mph wind this morning. I didn't get a pattern for about 1-2 hours and then finally we found them. For 3 hours we steadily brought in a fish every 10-15 mins. Then, the lake went glass calm. Beautiful, yes, but terrible for the fishing. About 4 pm, the fish started biting again when the wind came back.

Its amazing what these striper will eat. In the picture above, that's a 12 lb striper that ate a 13 inch freshwater drum. In its stomach, you can see another fish. That fish in its stomach is a 13 inch gizzard shad and also 6 thread fin shad in there too! What really baffled me one day, was finding a couple of my striper throughout the week, had baby channel catfish in their gut.



All flukes and sassys we used, and have been using are found here: https://moestackleshop.com/shop/dead-assassin-flukes-flukes-jerk-shad/dead-assassin-fluke/
Also a must have, "White Ice" color "Squirmin" Shad from Bass Pro Shops. Call them before you go and get some, I usually wipe out the Garland store when I go re-up, lol. http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Squirmin-Shad/product/15634/ White Ice


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## Guide Carey Thorn (Sep 30, 2009)

I know I posted some this already but this was an update. Some peeps emailed me for and update on the forum. Didn't want to start another thread and post repeat pics and yall have a cow..... so I copied and pasted what I wrote on another forum today.


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## Ducktracker (Aug 1, 2011)

Keep us posted. I enjoy your report one day I will get up that way to fish


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Texasfisherman57 (Mar 2, 2008)

We will be up there in March. The last two times we went up there, the fishing was terrible. I just hope they are biting decently. Cold and no fish is a crappy combo.


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