A couple of weeks ago, you might have read my column where I detailed an action-packed striper fishing trip on Lake Texoma with Striper Express guide Chris Carey. Edgar and David Cotton and I enjoyed some action packed catching under huge flocks of sea gulls that day.
Back at the cleaning station, we used cut bait to land a 45-pound blue catfish as well as several eater size fish. Since that fun day of catching, the very dependable big catfish action has kept me awake at night. I wanted to get back up there and catch some more; once was just not enough.
My friend Bill Carey, the self-professed old man head honcho of Striper Express, invited me to return for round two with the big catfish and bring our great friend Jeff Rice, who just retired from over 40 years in the insurance claims business.
A couple days ago, Jeff and I loaded our stout Catfish Pro rod and reels with 30-pound test line and headed north to Texoma, our focus was catching catfish. I wanted Jeff to do battle with some of the trophy class blues and my goal was to catch some eater size fish for the freezer but, when you drop fresh cut bait into Lake Texoma this time of year, you never know what size fish you will catch, they all love fresh, oily and bloody cut bait.
There is really no need to begin a winter fishing trip at the break of day, regardless the species, and Jeff and I pulled into Mill Creek about 10 a.m. We quickly unloaded our gear and, anxious to begin fishing, hurriedly made our way to the boat slips at Mill Creek Resort.
Bill Carey was there to greet us and introduce us to Jamison Tony, who is also a catfish-catching nut. His goal is to catch an honest 100-pound blue there from the dock. Jamison informed us that the big fish bite is best a bit later in the morning at the present and some of his bigger blues — giants more than 60 pounds are coming around mid-afternoon.
I remember thinking that our plan to leave by 2 in the afternoon to avoid Dallas traffic just went out the window. I vowed to fight the rush hour traffic no matter how bad is would be in order to enjoy some world class blue catfish action.
It’s always best to be flexible when hunting and fishing and take advantage of situations as they arise. I noticed one of the Striper Express guides in a nearby boat stall installing new batteries in his big Falcon striper boat. I’d met Capt. Tim Smith a couple years ago but never had the pleasure of fishing with him.
“Luke, have you ever used the deadsticking technique to catch stripers in the winter?” he asked. I told him I had tried it a time or two on another lake but without success. Capt. Tim then informed me that there was a very dependable bite using this technique under way and if we could tear ourselves away from the catfish a few hours, he felt confident he couple put us right in the middle of some red hot action.
This would work out perfectly; we could enjoy catching both species during prime time. By the time we got back to the dock after the striper trip, the catfish would hopefully be on a good feed. Jeff and I were all in and Bill Carey said he had a few hours free and jumped in the big Falcon guide boat with us.
Capt. Tim hammered down on the big engine and after soon he backed off on the big engine and buried his face in the sonar. Alost immediately he pointed out a big school of stripers right under the boat. It was time to break out the spinning rods and the guides chosen soft plastic baits and jig heads made here in Texas by Slik Bait Co.
Tim pointed out that the most productive jig colors has been Mahi Majic, pink champagne and albino shad patterns. The drill was simple: deadsticking is a do-nothing style of fishing, simply drop the baits down to the desired depth which was just above the big school of stripers below the boat and hold it dead still, thus the name deadsticking.
An occasional twitch of the rod tip puts just the right action on the bait but as I was soon to learn, many of the soft strikes occurred while the bait was sitting still. Actually, with current and drift of the boat, the baits were not setting motionless but gently moving with just enough movement to entice a hungry fish in cold water.
Our guide instructed us to keep a finger on the line so we could detect the very soft bite which was more like a crappie nibbling a minnow in deep water than the vicious strikes of the feeding stripers I was accustomed to.
Capt. Tim kept his Bobos Thumper going the entire trip. This is a unit employing a rubber hammer on a striker that creates a steady thumping sound that is transferred from the bottom of the boat down into the water column. Stripers and white bass — any open water schooling species — are highly attracted to these vibrations underwater and we watched the fish pulling in tight under the boat on sonar.
After a couple hours fishing under a bright sky and gentle wind condition, he had a box full of good eating stripers, and then back to the dock for what we hoped would be some great big catfish action. We were not disappointed.
Jeff was fishing with Jamison Tony, who puts a small bell on his rods to sound the alarm when a catfish picks up the bait. I had a big chunk of gizzard shad on a circle hook near the fish cleaning station.
After catching a couple of eater blue catfish, my rod bowed heavily toward the water and I was hooked to something big, a jumbo-size blue catfish I thought at first. But this fish didn’t fight like a catfish. He was doing more running than pulling straight down.
After a minute or so the fish was at the surface, revealing his species. I had hooked a big freshwater drum that weighed about 10 pounds. I filleted the big fish and turned the fillets into strips of cut bait. Blue cats like baits that are bloody and oily and we now had a good supply of prime catfish bait.
The bell on one of Jamisons rod sounded the big fish alarm and Jeff was soon hooked fast to a giant catfish. After a minute that lasted 4 minutes but seemed like hours, the big fish was netted. It weighted in the vicinity of 60 pounds. We took quick photos and got it back in the water as quickly as possible.
We caught several more smaller catfish that were destined for a huge winter fish fry at deer camp in a week or two.
Much of this action was captured on film and will soon be a segment of our weekly TV show “A Sportsman’s Life” on Carbon TV and YouTube.
I did spend a couple hours in Dallas traffic going home but didn’t mind so much. This banner day outdoors was well worth the inconvenience.
Catch Luke’s weekly podcast Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends just about everywhere podcasts are found.
