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Striper Fishing Guide Service Fishing
Report
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| Texoma
Fishing Report
February 26, 2004 Water pool level: 610.83, normal annual pool level is 617 feet. Water temperature: 46 degrees. Water clarity: stained. Generating Schedule: 6:00 AM till 11:00 AM This morning was cold with a low of 30 degrees with a light mist. Sunrise was 6:59 AM and sunset will be 6:20 PM. The forecast thru Wednesday is highs in the 60's and lows in the 40's, cloudy and windy Saturday and Sunday with a slight chance of showers Sunday, clear to partly cloudy Monday and Tuesday and a slight chance of showers on Wednesday. Our anglers are still landing more and more double digit stripers. Afternoon fishing has been super for both striper and catfish. Many of our anglers prefer afternoons when the temperature is much warmer than early in the morning. This is a good time of the year to start your fishing trip around 10:00 a.m. or later, but here is always an early bite that determined tough fishermen like. Other than slightly warmer water temperature and much better weather conditions for fishing, I could copy last February's fishing report. Jug line fishing the river channels with cut shad or prepared bait is producing catches of 5 to 76 pound blue cats. Rod and reel fishing from the bank near Rock Creek (Red River) is also producing some large stringers of blue and channel cats. This is also an ideal spot to jug line. Using your sonar, locate large schools of shad near the river channels. Anchor your boat as close to the channel ledge as possible. The catfish are coming up on the ledge to feed on the schools of shad. Cut shad and Danny King's Punch Bait are working very well in this situation. For bait info check out www.dannykingbait.com. Larger stripers are being caught on artificial baits. We field tested a new lure last Sunday. The ABT Lure Company, Ahwahnee, CA sent two anglers and a box full of their Gladiator hard plastic, three section swim baits to Texoma to try on Texas stripers. This lure looks more like a shad than anything I have seen in 30 years of fishing. It moves thru the water exactly like a shad and also rattles. The lure produced more large stripers than our boats fishing live shad or other lures. You can get info about the lure at www.abtlures.com. Stripers are feeding on the upper ends of the lake where the rivers come into the lake. The stripers are already forming roe and milt, staging for an early spawn in the Red and Washita rivers. Lures are working well west of Highport Marina and north of Washita Point. Fishing live shad 30 feet deep in 35 to 50 feet of water is still an excellent way to land a limit of stripers. Catching the bait is not always easy. Learning to use a 7' radius cast net can be difficult and keeping the shad alive long enough to fish with them can be trying without the right equipment and supplies. First, you need to get a good medium weight cast net. The one our guides prefer is the Super Spreader by Fitec. This net is not too heavy to make multiple casts and still be able to breathe, but it is heavy enough to sink fast and catch shad in 20' of water. It is priced reasonable and can be found at several tackle and discount stores. To get more info about these nets go to www.castnets.com. Second, there are several methods of casting the net. Learning videos are available, but if you know someone who is good at casting, I suggest you get them to teach you. As with anything, practice makes perfect. After you get your new net, get out in the yard and practice throwing it. Do not throw it on gravel or pavement. A grassy lawn is ideal. The lead line can be damaged by a hard surface. The worst thing you can do is try to catch bait before you learn to get the net open. When you hit the water with what we refer to as a "taco" or closed net you will run what shad are present away from you. Learning how, where and when to cast your net is a long story that I will get to later. Third, you will need a bait tank that has a good filter system and aerator. Depending on the size of your boat, pick a tank size that will hold up to one hundred shad. I suggest nothing smaller than a twenty gallon tank. We use thirty-five, forty and fifty gallon tanks. There are several brands available. The hard plastic molded or welded models will give you much better service and last longer. The better larger tanks have double filters and aerators. Fourth, always start with a clean bait tank. After you get your new tank you should fill it with water and put a half gallon of bleach in it and let the pump run for about twenty minutes and empty it. Rinse and wipe out the tank after each use. Every fourth or fifth time you use it give it the bleach treatment to remove any parasites and algae. Fifth, you must use rock salt or stock salt in the water. An exact measurement is not important, but be sure and use at least a cup of salt for every fifteen gallons of water. I also use a product called Baitcycle, a blue water bait treatment that removes chlorine and copper, lowers ammonia, carbon dioxide, slime and hardens the shad scales. It also reduces loss from parasites and tailrot. Use a heaping teaspoon to forty gallons of water. Baitcycle comes with a measuring device. Baitcycle is sold by Boatcycle Co. Shad will cause foam in your tank, especially if you overload the tank. This can be removed with a product called no-foam. Only a few drops are needed for a forty gallon tank. It is also sold by Boatcycle at www.boatcycle.com. Sixth, the temperature of the water in the tank plays a big part in keeping your bait alive and healthy. In very hot weather we put three or four two liter bottles of frozen water in our tanks. In very cold weather we use four or five gallons of hot water in a forty gallon tank. Remember, you can cool shad off as fast as you want, but you can only warm them up a few degrees slowly. Any of the better bait tanks are insulated to keep your water cool in the summer and warm in the winter Now you are ready to bait fish. I will give you some hot tips on bait fishing later. I'll bet you didn't realize guides had to go to so much trouble to have healthy live bait ready for you to use on the morning of your fishing trip. This time of the year remember to always wear layers of clothing, insulated boots and have wet weather gear available in case of showers. If the wind is high, a hooded rain suit makes a great wind barrier. Don't let the cold weather keep you off the lake. When you are catching fish at this time of the year, you will never notice the weather. To see pictures of these catches and other fish caught this month by our customers, click on the following link. http://home.texoma.net/~tinker/fishpics04/fishpics02.html Go to http://www.tinker.net,
to read testimonials sent in by our customers and see pictures of the fish
they caught over the last year. Links to both are on the right side
of my home page.
Tinker’s Guide Service • 1-888-846-5377
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