Left to right: Steve Williams, Ron Lehler, Bill Adams, Steve Russell, Joe Busic, Dean French and Scott Baker
Scott P. Baker
The early morning of November 18, 2014 dawned with a clear blue sky and light wind. Temperatures had risen to 36 degrees from a low of 24 that night. A group of 12 men and women took off for Lake Texoma with the intent on being on the lake by 10:30 a.m. For many of us this was our first trip to Texoma for striper fishing, and we had layered up to meet this new adventure despite the cold. Dean French organized the trip into four boats of three people with a guide for each boat. As the boats left the dock, we all headed in different directions in search of the best fishing spot. With the past week of cold and windy weather, the guides were uncertain whether the fish would bite.
Once our boat arrived at our first location, we fished for about 10 minutes with no bites or indication the fish were even around. We then proceeded to stop number two. Within the first five minutes Dean landed the biggest fish caught this day, 35 inches long at 15 pounds. Dean’s moniker became “Mean Dean, the Fishing Machine” as he reeled them in one after another. The rest of us were getting bites, but no one else landed one except Dean so we moved to location number three. Everybody was now catching fish, but the guide told us to release all fish less than 18 inches. With no large fish being caught we moved to location number four.
Location number four was a long beach with a sandy point. As we passed the point we were now catching the bigger fish. The guide called the other boats; we’ve found the hot spot. We maxed out our boat’s 20 inch limit (six 20 inch fish per boat) and within 30 minutes we maxed out our catch limit (total 30 fish per boat). We continued fishing, but all fish caught had to be released. The largest stripers caught 35 inches (Dean French), 30 inches (Dick Farnsworth), and 28 inches (Scott Baker). No fish tales here; the pictures tell the story.
All the boats pooled our fish together, and Striper Express guides cleaned, filleted and packaged the catch for transporting home.
Along with the great fishing, the wildlife watching was incredible. We sighted a family of bald eagles and a grouping of deer with a buck, doe and two little ones on the beach not more than 50 yards away. Unfortunately no one had a camera with a long-range lens. Next trip I am sure we will all bring cameras.
For more information about the Robson Ranch Fishing Club, send an email to [email protected].