Striper Reproduction?? / Best Striper Action

[elnutsmalljaws]

I was watchin Babe Winkelman this morning and he was fishing on Lake Texoma for Stripers with a guide. The guide said that the Stripers in Texoma had not been stocked in many years for they reproduce naturally in the lake. I always thought Stripers did not reproduce in freshwater. I know land locked stripers started when they damned up Sante Cooper but thought fresh water stripers did not reproduce on their own. Anyone know of this??? They did catch many on bottom with shad and had some pretty good topwater action which I thought was pretty amazing considering it was taped in July 2007. This may not be the same "strain" striper that is stocked in Cumberland and I may be comparing apples to oranges for their best fish was barely 10lbs with most of them 5-7 pounds. The guide said the law was you could keep 10 per day with only 2 over 20" and the rest under 20". I have cleaned a few Stripers in my time and won't even keep one unless it is 15+ because I don't think you get enough meat off one any smaller to sacrifice. This may not be the same strain for I never heard of Stripers in the jumps in July for one and never knew they reproduced naturally in freshwater.

On the topic, I will tell a TRUTH about my best Striper action. I had posted a while back about my first trip Striper fishing where I hired a guide and learned what to do and had good success the first 4 days, Wed thru Sat. The best action happened on Sunday which went exactly as follows. My Dad left and went back home on Friday night so my Brother in Law and his Dad came down and fished with me on the weekend. We pulled boards on Saturday and caught a good limit of Stripers and graphed a HUGE amount of baitfish in Beaver and Otter Creeks just past the Island on your right a 1/2 mile or so off the main lake. We decided to start there in the moring looking for some topwater activity. It was the 3rd weekend of October 2003, with water temps in the low 60's. We went back to the cottage and called my other Brother In Law that decided to come down with his boat as well. Danny and I was in my boat, Rob and Anthony was in his boat to start off Sunday morning. We went up into Beaver and idled around looking for towater activity for a good hour with no luck so we decided to put out the boards and start trolling. Danny and I get over to the bluff wall on the left side of Beaver going in and sit out the boards and start trolling up that bluff area towards the main lake. Just as we get all 5 lines out and had not been 2 minutes trolling my walkie talkie screams at us "Woody / Danny" get over here they are everywhere" SILENCE. I grab the binoculars and glass over to them and water is churning like it is boiling on a stove. Nothing like trying to get in 4 planer boards, 1 balloon line and over to the topwater action. It was the absolute maddest tangled mess of line, hooks, swivels, boards that you ever seen as I crammed them in the rod locker. Over we go and it is still going on!!!!!!! How fast do you drive to not spook, when do you turn off the big motor to not spook, put down the trolling motor to not spook, all of this is NEW to me for I had never experienced anything like this. We set up and both make cast on one side of a school of Stripers that is easily a 1/2 acre or more in surface area. Rob and Anthony are hooked up, Danny gets hooked up, I am so excited I set the hook 3 times and pull the bait out each time before the 4th I hook up (All on the SAME cast). We are all boating fish, hooking fish, loosing fish for what seems like hours but it was about 20 minutes. By this time there are a couple more boats that have joined in on the action all around the school. Danny hooks and loses 3 different fish on the SAME cast before the 4th fish comes from the depths and destroys his Knucklead Sr. within 5 yards of the boat. Scared us both to depth for he was reeling it in a mach10 speeed to get back to the busting fish. I had one, he had this one, mine went left, his went right, Coming over Danny I said coming up Woody he says and we switch as I hold my rod over his head to move. We both land and they are both over 20 lbs so into the cooler they go. The school comes up and goes down about 6 times within a good 45 minute period and does not mover very far at all. Towards the end there are 9 boats around this school and at one time 17 of 18 rods were bent and the one that wasn't bent was because this "FOOL" had a video camera in hand. The school went down and stayed down for a couple of minutes as we all sat there trying to catch our breaths. They surfaced on the other side of my boat so most of the other 8 boats were out of casting range but not Danny and I. Rob and Anthony had the longest to troll to get in casting action so Rob has picked up his video camera. I hook up with a nice one and Danny does to as we are the only 2 hooked. Mine comes to the starboard side and Danny was on port side as we faught. I finally get mine to the boat and am trying to net this giant by myself. I get him in the boat and he is bigger than the 2 we have in the cooler, turn around just in time to net Danny's which is also bigger. The school goes down and they don't come up again. What I don't know is that Rob got this all on video tape along with his expert commentary about me, A NOVICE, trying to land my big striper by myself. "Look at Woody, Watch Woody try to net this fish by himself", he says then the words that really make it good as I pivot the giant to the boat, "Good Gosh Anthony, that's a MONSTER" Rob says on video tape. In all I landed 13 Stripers in 45 minutes or so, Danny caught and landed 14 and I don't remember how many Rob and Anthony caught. They threw all of theres back but we kept 4 good ones all over 20 lbs each with my 25 pounder being the biggest. No more topwater action, I had been Striper fishing since Tuesday and we had some fish to clean. I took out my trolling battery and gave it to Rob plus the shiners I had in my livewell and off Danny and I went for home. They pulled boards all day with no luck and ended up using the shiners to catch SMallies and Ky's up in the day. My best Striper action to date and I don't fish for them much but I sure do have an itch to scratch now for them. Hopefully in 2 weeks that itch will be scratched. Good Luck

[apb]

Stripers spawn in freshwater. All the ocean ones come up into major rivers in spring to spawn in freshwater, then back to the ocean. A few lakes around the country have successful striper spawns. I've heard reports that Cumberland does have a successful spawn on some years. Not often enough, and not enough spawners to keep the lake stocked.

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe Texoma is pure strain stripers. Same as in Cumberland. Some lakes they do not get as big. A variety of reasons for that.

That topwater action sounds like a blast! Run into a few times on Cumberland. My best topwater action has been fishing New England in the fall. You'll run into days where there will be topwater action for 4-5 hours solid, getting hit on almost every cast.

Andrew