Eat, sleep, go striper fishing, repeat

Scott Baker

For the most part the natural habitat for the striped bass (or striper) is salt water, spending most of its life in the ocean. But this bass is able to migrate between fresh and salt waters and comes into fresh water streams and rivers to spawn during spring time. The ocean is where you will typically find the larger variety of this fish. But there are certain areas of the country where you can find stripers in land locked lakes with most of these stocked from hatcheries.

There are very few freshwater bodies where stripers can successfully spawn and live with Lake Texoma being one of them. Saddled between the border of Oklahoma and Texas, this 50-year old reservoir continues to hold its own as one of the top fishing destinations in the region. It sustains an excellent fishery that attracts anglers from all over and boasts 19 out of 23 of the lake’s record fish since 1990. Striper fishing is very good all year long, but great in the month of June when the RR Fishing Club headed north for a day long expedition.

Because of summertime temperatures and because stripers are usually low light feeders, we started out at first light. With water temperatures hitting the mid 80’s, the lake has a thermocline and all fish will be at or above it, which is usually about 35 feet.

Bait fishing using shad produced great results with six to 12 pound catches. This fish can be a battle to reel in; it’s an exhilarating and rewarding experience to catch one of these incredible creatures. Each fisherman reached his limit of ten stripers within three hours helping to fill an ice chest with tasty striped bass fillets. No wonder Lake Texoma is called the “Striper Capital of the World”!

The summer striper fishing has been way above our expectations. This wonderful lake never ceases to amaze us time and time again. For the fishing enthusiast, in addition to the striped bass, Lake Texoma offers ample opportunities to catch a variety of other species including catfish, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, sand bass, crappie, gar and paddlefish.

Interested in dropping a line? Plans are always in the works for fishing destinations to Lake Texoma (striper, catfish and bass), Lake Ray Roberts (crappie and bass) and Lake Tawakoni (catfish) among others. The RR Fishing Club meets the second Wednesday of each month at the Wildhorse Grill Boardroom at 5:00 p.m. For any inquiries, comments or suggestions contact [email protected] or Scott Baker 214-334-7664.