Fishing on Lake Texoma has been an absolute slaughter this spring for big fish. Daily bag limit for striper on Texoma is 10 but only two can be 20 inches or longer and most of the fish we are catching this year are over 20 inches. I guess it’s a good problem to have but in reality we should be harvesting more of the larger fish this year.

Here is my theory on what is happening. Flood gates were open most of the winter and I believe we lost a big portion of shad, stripers natural prey, thru the floodgates. So now we have a huge population of fish with not near enough food to go around and the end result will probably be a summer die off of larger fish that will balance it back out. But the fish that die off are fish that could have been harvested for the better of the lake. So why not change the limit to fit the current population of striper? Because you are dealing with two states on a border lake and it takes at least a year to change the laws. By the time you get it changed it’s to late. What I have been told is the limits are set to kinda work for average years. I can see where it would be confusing to the general public if you changed the limits every month so I have an idea that might work — There are hundreds of striper guides on Texoma and I would bet that they account for the vast majority of striper harvest on Texoma. If the guide limit was set once a month it could be changed more often to benefit the guides and the striper population. Separate the guides from the recreational side, manage them separately. I would even support limiting the number of guides on the lake. Seems like we get more guides every year and the lake can only take so much. You can’t keep increasing the number of guides. I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is and help pay for improved management, I have always said that a $2,500 annual guide fee would really help clean up the business and provide some management funds.

Anyways back to the fishing. If you can get some shad the fishing has been incredible on ledges and humps in 20 to 50 foot water. Topwater bite has been coming around and I’m betting that slabbing and trolling will be on in another week or so. Shad seem to be coming back and there is small shad all over the lake with 6-12 inch striper schooling on them every day.

Just a matter of time till the shad get big enough to attract the larger fish , usually late June early July. Most guides are staying booked up so better get booked if you want in on the action this summer. Check out this video hand feeding the striper at the cleaning table https://www.facebook.com/CaptSteveBarnes/videos/398618610819933/