FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

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  Tip for the Day

Time to take a look at your bearings.  You will often see grease on the inside of the rim, but if it is on the outside of the tire it could be a serious problem.  Have a single axle?  Shake your trailer side to side and watch each wheel.  Have a double?  Stand behind it and make sure the tires are inline, if not it might be bearing failure.

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Stuff Happens

Jeffish and I were excited to be heading to Texoma to fish for stripers and maybe a catfish or two.  But as the week wore on Terry sent me several forecasts, and it was looking ugly.  They had a big storm blow through on Friday night, the same one we got, only a heck of a lot colder.  I was kind of worried about the weather, but what the heck, who would pass up a couple of days fishing on the big lake and the river.  And it looked like it would be starting to get out of there, to bad we were a day early.  So Saturday morning we drove up there, and the drive should have given us the hint.

Trolling as the sun set.

On the drive up the wind howled straight out of the north, in fact, I had to get gas about 60 miles before usual, I have made the drive many times.  It was freezing, or at least felt that way.  We got there for a late supper with Terry and his girlfriend, and then would start our 2 days Sunday morning.  When we got up it was cold, and I mean ice on top of the big cooler seat until 11:00.  And to really make conditions more perfect, it was blowing 25 out of the north and it was a freakin’ cold wind.

Jeffish and his first stripers.

The plan was to start on the Red River below the dam and then take it from there the rest of the day.  So just before daylight we dropped the air boat in the water in the back of a cove on the lake and Terry and Jeffish caught bait.  It took them a little bit as the north wind was blowing right in the cove and the water temp was around 44 degrees.  But Terry finally got us enough shad, and we headed to put in below the dam.

Texoma is a Corp of Engineers lake, and unlike my past life on Norfork and Bull Shoals where you never knew if the water was coming, here they post a schedule.  They were going to turn the water on at 8:30 so Terry wanted to fish until the water came.  Basically we launched the air boat on mud below the dam, definitely 4 wheel drive country as there is no real ramp, and other than a kayak there really was no other way to fish that area other than from the bank.

We set up on 4 different times on little runs and holes tossing llive shad on un-weighted hooks.  It only took a few bites to realize they were definitely off their feed.  Must have had something to do with being the second day post cold front, terrible wind, high pressure and a super high sky, falling water temp…….  Huh?  Wonder if I forgot any other helpful conditions.  One here and one there, with lots of totally uninterested nibbles.

The only safe way to fish the Red River is an air boat, except for the occasional holes it is one shallow river.

Below the dam we ended up boating 4 stripers and I caught a big ass white bass.  There were lots of short half-hearted bites killing the shad, but that was about it.  And Terry even did some chumming with live baits, which normally gets them going but had no affect today.  The wind was blowing like a mofo making it tough to cast and position, but we stayed with it until the water came, then off to breakfast.  Slow but an ok start to the day considering.

After warming up, and filling our belly’s, we headed several miles below the dam and put in at private ramp close to where he catches lots of big catfish, and that was even uglier.  It was finally getting in the 40’s, but the wind was howling.  We fished 3 holes, and other than a couple of nibbles, interesting considering how big the baits were, but not one real “bite”.  At this point in the day it was real apparent it was way past tough.  So off for a nap and boat change, then out on the big lake at 5:00.

The best we could figure is that orange red cloud was smoke from the big fires in Oklahoma.  Whatever it was it sure was pretty.

(Side Note:  The Boss has always said that I just might be the worst catfisherman on the planet.  Well guess what? She might be right.  I am so freakin’ bad at it I can screw up a guy who has caught tons of them over 30 and has broke the 80lb mark this year.)

Terry’s lake boat is a big and safe 27′ custom made aluminum boat powered by a V8, good thing as the lake was rocking with 3′ plus rollers.  You could easily fish 6 out of it with plenty of room to spare.  He has been catching fish in the evening trolling so we headed there, it was a good thing his boat was that big or there is no way I would have even considered it.  It was that cold and rough.  So we trolled until dark, and other than one bite and Jeffish losing a pretty good fish which made it “perfect”, that was it.    Watching the graph we went over tons and tons, having trolled for stripers many miles in my life there was no doubt they were there, and I means lots of them.  We also saw the occasional bunch of diving gulls, which would stop as quickly as they started.  So a little before dark we called it a day.

So in one day we put 2 different boats in 4 different ramps, fished 3 different places, 3 different ways, for 2 different fish, from daylight to dark.  When I say Terry was trying to catch us some fish that would be an understatement.  He was making the best of a bad situation.  I felt sorry for him because he would have been hanging out with his girlfriend instead of fighting the weather with us.  Sunday was tough, period, end of story.  If I had been home I would have passed.  But we all had the time so we gave it a go, you never know until you go.  Then as we headed to our place that evening Terry gave me a call, trashed trailer bearing.  As in trailer not moving until fixed, plus looking at the rest of them.  Double axle trailer = double axle fun.  Ain’t boat ownership fun?

He actually was going to hurry up and fix it in the morning and try to get us out there but after a nights sleep Jeffish and I decided to hit the road.  We were going to leave in the afternoon anyway so it was time to let Terry get his trailer fixed without having to hurry or worry about us.  He was going to have plenty to do fixing it and when we went by to say thanks we saw the hub was damaged too.  Luckily that has only happened to me twice, 40 years ago, and last year, it happens if you tow enough.  But it was a really good time for him, because he has a trip coming up shortly and that would have cost him a day.

On the bright side we had a really good, cold, time.  Jeffish has his first air boat ride and caught his first couple of stripers.  Terry is a great guy, and if this is the effort he makes with me under these conditions you can be sure he will do all he can if you book a trip. (We got a good laugh, (Not really.) when he fished POC with me it was a big north wind and tougher than hell with basically the same results.)  But as far as the lake, the number of stripers available is crazy.  Good thing it is not any closer or I would be in the throes of striper mania, it would take meds to get me to stop.   As it has been a while, I forgot how much I liked it.  Texoma has tons of those 3 – 6 lbers, (Good eaters.)  and plenty of 10’s with the occasional 20lb+ thrown in.  And according to Terry the summer period has some consistent schooling activity so the hot line is open and I will be gone on the call.   A big thanks to Terry for his hospitality and it was good to have Jeffish along.

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When I got home the phone rang and it was Tim from the Wade Right company  making sure I was all in for the Chandeleur Island houseboat trip a month from now.  Talk about excited, that has the potential to be truly epic.  They went with the same boat last year and had a great time, along with lots of trout and redfish.  They caught them both boat fishing and wading, and according to Tim the eats are something to behold.

But first it is some offshore fishing in Peru next week.  I have no particular expectations on that, but for me offshore trolling is fun no matter what you catch.  Think it is my “ADD”, I can watch the baits and water for hours without getting bored, and if something jumps on it is always an adventure.  It has seemed like it was just out there waiting to happen, and here it is.  And though no particular fishing is planned on the Amazon trip, I made sure I can get a travel rod and reel in the suitcase.

This week at least one more day on the bay, hopefully Wednesday.   The winds look great, the tides are right and there should be some clouds.  Sounds like a topwater day to me.  So the fishcatchingtravel continues.  So many places, so little time, no matter the results I intend to take advantage of every second of it.  Keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines