I have said and heard others say it: if you are fishing Lake Texoma, you best have a good backup place to fish. In our old Texoma Bass Club meetings, someone would always come up the excuse about how their fish had moved.

Even today those who fish regularly or in tournaments will say the same thing at times — here today, gone tomorrow. Now the fish might not move far but all that water looks the same on top. Today it’s not hard to find them with the new electronics on fishing boats.

There is an exception now for striper guides and striper fishermen. The stripers generally stay in the same area and fishing as often as they do, guides can pretty much go right to them. Most, but not all, guides now are using live shad. Some catch their shad in the evening and keep them in tanks. Others are up and on the water around 4-5 a.m. while it’s still dark, throwing a cast net around a lighted area to get the day’s bait.

If striper fishing is your goal, learn to throw a net. Nets can be found in businesses almost anywhere around the lake. Academy also has them. It takes some practice to learn how to throw a net. Some of the guides only use artificial baits.

John Blasingame of Adventure Texoma Outdoors only uses artificial baits and brings some awesome catches to his cleaning station; my friend Doug Shaw also uses them.

I fish Texoma more than most people. I use lures. I also fish mostly for bass or crappie but will catch stripers if they come up around me. Even Goober, who doesn’t like them, will get in the game. He also makes it hard on me to catch bass as he doesn’t like fishing boathouses.

I like to use a Booyah Spinnerbait run just almost out of sight down the sides inside and out. Jimmy Houston, at a show we were working together, told me he seldom fished his Spinnerbait out of sight. That ties in with my like for fishing one just fast enough to be barely below the bottom of floats, where you can still see it.

Tuesday morning after the girls were taken care of, I hitched up Tombstone and was in the water in no time. I was the only boat in our ramp area. It was a great day to be on the lake weatherwise, that’s about all I can say. I fished until noon, worked some of my better areas hard and moved around, something I’d rather not do if possible.

After launching at 8 a.m. I found the water temp was 65 and that is a top-notch temp for Topwaters and Spinnerbaits. Someone forgot to tell the fish. When I stopped I had caught five small bass, two drum and a slimy catfish. I had six rods on the deck and could have put four of them up.

My Cotton Cordell Gay Blade and a Rebel P50 Pop R Top Water caught every fish. The Gay Blade works well on the bottom and on suspending fish, my Pop R worked the top. Those two lures work top to bottom for me. All I can say is it was a beautiful day to be on the water.

Last Friday night while sitting in a falling sheet of water at the Gunter game, even for me with my rain gear was a little cold and wet in some places. Then they made us all leave the stands because of lightning. As we were ahead 41-0 I just went on home. Now I’m debating on going to Blue Ridge or stay home even if they did move the game to Thursday. I haven’t missed a game or prediction yet, after consulting my crystal ball I’m predicting Gunter’s Tigers are meaner than the Blue Ridge ones. Gunter 50 Blue Ridge 7.

New to our area but love to bass fish? You might want to consider joining The Little Dixie Bass Club in Durant, Oklahoma. They have just set next year’s tournament schedule. It’s a great club and they have some sticks in it to make you work.

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