Texoma Striper Action Picks Up – Strictly Fly – Part 2
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… a heck of a long battle on an eight weight, but landed, photographed, and I should say, greatly admired by myself before releasing. Success. CK’s entire day, the day before, wasn’t so good. Now, showing up and slapping a nice fish right away can be a blessing, or it can be a curse.
“What fly are you using,” came from CK right away. “Well, you know that border collie that we have (she found us recently), well I saw her tail just laying there last night, and I just couldn’t resist,” came back my answer. It was a huge, and I mean HUGE, white/white Clouser with double flash (top and bottom) on a big size #1 Mustad circle jig hook.
“How fast was your retrieve?” followed. “I was stripping like a banshee,” I said, recalling Joyce Davis’ advice from her experiences catching striper on Texoma with Steve Hollensed.
THE CHANGE-UP
Regardless of the rest of the day, I had made changes to my approach on Texoma, and it had paid off. First, I changed my leader style. Second, I took time to let the fly sink. Third, I was using a circle hook. Fourth, I was stripping like a banshee. Fifth, I abandoned conventional prospecting. I figured if I am after striper on Texoma on fly, may as well live and die by the fly.
The overall bite was rather slow, so we started moving, searching for those subsurface blips. No birds, and no blitzes were on the horizon. What a difference a week makes here in North Texas. The day dragged on, broken up by a trip back to the dock for a great lunch at the marina (they were open and serving food and beer by the boatload).
Back on the Lake and still moving, but finding little in the way of solid blips or solid bites, the day ebbed away. Texoma is a huge expanse, and you can run it for days and never hit the same spot, but we decided to move closer to the marina so we could just idle back in with less than two hours of light left.
CONTINUES in PART 3 …
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