Fishing Report

Friday, September 6, 2002

Water pool level: 616.38, normal annual pool level is 617 feet.

Water temperature: 82 degrees.  Water clarity: clear.

Not generating.

Partly cloudy with a light East wind, low 77 degrees, high 92 degrees.
 
 

With the water temperature getting as high as 86 degrees, limits of stripers are being caught on a regular basis.  Summer fishing nearly always produces a lot of small fish.  If you are one of the lucky anglers there is a good chance of landing a large striper.  The fish are unusually healthy for this time of the year. Several reports of ten to eighteen pound silversides were landed in July and August.  The outlook for October and November fishing is very good.  This is the first summer in over 10 years Texoma stripers have made it thru the heat and hot water without losing weight.  The water temperature is already dropping, which usually doesn't happen until the middle of September.  The shad population is very high.

The Annual Performance Report for Lake Texoma, prepared by Texas Parks & Wildlife, showed a 31% increase in the population of stripers in 2001 with 10.5% of the sample population greater or equal to 20
inches.  These conclusions were drawn from catch rates of stripers caught in gill netting sample sites in the winter & spring of 2001. Electro fishing in 2000 showed Smallmouth Bass decreased 45%; Spotted
Bass increased 65%; Largemouth Bass decreased 41%.  Gill netting and electro fishing sites were randomly selected.  The accuracy percentage rate is very hard to determine from randomly picked sites on an 89,000
surface lake.  Electro fishing results for Smallmouth, Spotted and Largemouth bass were not available for 2001.

The prospect for a bumper harvest is in store for fall and winterfishing on Lake Texoma.  Come fish in September and October when a light jacket is all you will need to wear or get out the long johns and coveralls and fish in November and December.  I always suggest to all anglers to bring some type of wet weather gear when fishing Texoma.  A short shower or a little boat spray from a high wave can ruin an otherwise great fishing day if you are not prepared.

Mark Russell and seven friends left the boathouse around 6:30 a.m.with guides Joe Grigar and Matt Anderson.  The conditions were just right for striper fishing on this humid September morning.  There was
only a slight east wind and partly cloudy skies.  Joe and Matt had caught plenty of three to four inch shad earlier in the morning on the east side of the lake.  It didn't take long for the guides to find a large school of feeding silversides on the main body of the lake. Everyone baited up with the fresh live shad and started fishing about 30 feet deep.  The fight was on and when the smoke cleared the tired fishermen had landed 85 stripers to 6 pounds and caught and released another 23.   Everyone had an exciting fishing adventure and plenty of cleaned and bagged fillets to take home by noon.

To see September's pictures go to: http://www.tinker.net/fishpics02/fishpics09.html