Howdy again Northwest Oklahoma!
I recently booked a guided Striper fishing trip on Lake Texoma for my family for my father-in-law’s 70th birthday. We booked a VRBO close to Marina Del Ray and set off on our excursion. My family dynamic is this: My 15-year-old is a carbon copy of me. He can fish all day and even if we catch very few simply be satisfied he’s outside and fishing. My 13-year-old loves fishing IF you are catching LOTS of fish. If not, you’d better hope he brought his iPhone or Ipad or you’ll have to listen to his complaints most of the day. My wife enjoys fishing on occasion, but like my youngest boy, you’d better be catching some fish.
As the name suggests, Lake Texoma is on the Oklahoma/Texas border. As such, a Lake Texoma fishing permit is required. Since the lake spans over both states, a resident fishing license from your home state will not suffice. The 93,000-acre lake is one of the largest reservoirs in the United States, so I’ve found it best (if you aren’t a local) to hire a coast guard licensed guide to help navigate the enormous body of water to locate the fish.
A guide will typically get up at 3:00 a.m. or so to use a throw net to catch your bait (typically “shad” which is like a large minnow). The guide and his deckhand will (hopefully) locate the fish, have your rods/reels ready, and will bait the hook for you. They’ll also take the fish off the hook, fillet the fish, and package them for you to take home.
Now back to our trip. We booked an afternoon trip, so we got on the water shortly after noon. There is a 10 Striper per person limit (with some size limits included), so the 5 of us could catch 50 fish. We went out to what appeared to be the middle of the lake, dropped our lines and it was on. Our baits would no more than hit the water and there would be a striper tugging on the line. The fishing was unreal, with several “doubles” and even a “triple” or two with more than one of us with a fish on the line at the same time. We ended up catching 58 (the other 8 were released) in just over an hour. I’m aware of several Enid folks and have many friends that have fished Texoma within the past couple of months with similar success. Needless to say, no iPhones or Ipads were needed on this trip. The fishing continues to be phenomenal so if interested you’d better get on the horn and book a guide ASAP.
How to cook: Soak the filets in water with salt for 30 minutes when you get home. Package the striper in ziplock bags in water and freeze. When you are ready to cook, thaw the fish and put the fillets in a bowl of 7-up (covered) for 10 minutes. The acidic acid in the soda firms the otherwise mushy filets back up. Remove the red stripe from the middle of the fillet entirely, cube, and dip in milk, then dip in Panko or your favorite fish seasoning and fry. Delectable!
