This is what you came for. Texoma's stripers are self-sustaining, plentiful, and they pull like a freight train — a five-to-ten-pounder is a realistic fish and the lake gives up teens every year. They're open-water schoolers, so find the shad and you've found them: idle the main-lake points, humps, flats and channel edges watching your graph, or watch the gulls for surface-feeding schools. Live gizzard shad is the go-to bait; slabs and spoons dropped vertically, swimbaits, and topwater during the boils all catch them. Summer sends them deep toward the dam; fall and winter bring them shallow chasing bait; spring runs them up the Red and Washita to spawn. They travel in schools by size, so keep moving until you find the class you want. Check current limits and any downstream/river regulations — Texoma has its own rules. If you only chase one fish here, make it the linesider.

Texoma is trophy blue-cat water, full stop — the current Texas state-record blue, a 121.5-pound giant, came out of this lake in 2004. The rich, shad-filled Red River water grows them huge. Drift or anchor over main-lake structure, humps, channel edges and flats with fresh cut shad, and fish near the dam and the deeper water for the biggest ones, especially in winter when the giant blues feed up. Channel and flathead cats are abundant too — flatheads want live bait around timber and structure. This is genuinely one of the best big-catfish lakes in the country, and a fantastic target when the wind's too rough to chase stripers or when you just want a shot at the fish of a lifetime.

Here's something you can't do at most lakes down home: catch a real smallmouth bass. Texoma's rocky, clearer water grows brown fish, and previous state-record smallmouth have come from both the Texas and Oklahoma sides — fish the rocky points, bluffs, riprap and boulders with jigs, tubes, drop-shots and small crankbaits. Largemouth and spotted bass are here too, relating to the rock, timber, stumps, channels and secondary points; as the water warms and they move offshore, switch to Texas-rigged worms, deep cranks and early topwater. Several black-bass tournaments run here each year for good reason. If you're a bass angler wanting variety you can't get close to home, Texoma delivers.

Don't overlook the panfish. Texoma has big crappie around the timber, brush, bridge pilings and marina docks — jigs and minnows, shallow in spring and deep in summer and winter. White bass are thick and school on the open water and up the rivers in spring, hitting slabs, spoons, small swimbaits and in-line spinners — when the whites are schooling with the stripers, the action is nonstop and it's a blast for kids. Both make an easy, tasty limit and a great backup when the wind or the crowd pushes you off the striper program.

Here's a Texoma fish that turns a trip into an adventure: the alligator gar, a living dinosaur that grows to lengths and weights nothing else in these waters comes close to. Texoma and the Red River hold true giants — a bowfisherman landed a 6-foot-9, roughly 170-pound gator gar here that made national news, and fish in that class are really out there. They're most concentrated where the lake meets the Red River, up the river arms and in the shallow, warm backwaters and coves where they roll and gulp air on calm summer evenings. Most Texoma gar hunters bowfish for them — it's especially popular on the Oklahoma side — but you can also target them on heavy rod-and-reel with a big chunk of cut bait on a wire or heavy leader, set the hook hard, and hold on for the fight of your life. Know the rules before you go: the daily limit is one alligator gar, harvest must be reported within 24 hours (Texas "Texas Hunt & Fish" app / Oklahoma E-Check), and the take of alligator gar is prohibited during the May spawn on Texoma and the Red River. Handle these ancient fish with respect — they're slow to mature and a genuine trophy. If you want a fish that feels prehistoric, this is the one.

The single best striper tool on Texoma has feathers. Seagulls gang up and dive over schools that have pushed shad to the surface, so a flock of working birds is a neon sign pointing at fish. Keep a pair of binoculars handy, scan the open water, and idle toward the activity — don't blow through it and scatter the school. Throw topwater, a swimbait or a slab into the boil. Nine times out of ten the birds beat the graph to the fish.

Texoma stripers run a schedule in summer, and the guides live by it. A classic pattern near the dam: schools show on the surface at daylight, drift along the shoreline through the morning, cross an open-water area, and reappear near the swim beaches around midday. Spend your first morning watching where and when they show, and the next day you can be sitting on the spot before they arrive. On this lake, being early and being in the right place beats out-fishing anybody.

Nothing out-fishes live gizzard shad for Texoma stripers. Learn to throw a cast net over the shad on the flats and around the marinas early, keep them lively in a good aerated tank, and fish them on a slip-rig or free-lined near the schools. If you don't want to mess with bait, slabs and spoons dropped vertically into a school will fill the boat too. Come see us for the slabs, spoons and terminal tackle; grab a cast net if you're going the live-bait route.

Texoma is not a protected little cove lake. It's 89,000 acres of open water that can build a serious chop and dangerous whitecaps in a hurry when the wind gets up, and the striper crowd loves a little chop because it turns the fish on. Watch the forecast, keep an eye on building wind, wear your kill-switch lanyard, and know where the protected water is if it blows up. When it's too rough for the main lake, duck into the creeks for crappie or drift the deeper structure for catfish.

You need the special Lake Texoma License (about $12, from Texas or Oklahoma) to fish the whole lake from either state. A plain Texas license only covers Texas water, and the border runs right through the best fishing. Buy it before you leave so you're not stuck on the wrong side of a line at daylight. Stop in and we'll make sure your license situation is sorted along with your tackle. Always verify current rules with TPWD/ODWC.

Texoma is big, and if you've never fished open water for schooling stripers, a half-day with a striper guide on your first trip will teach you more than a season of guessing — how to read the birds and the graph, where the schools live that time of year, and how to fish live shad. Then you can come back and do it yourself. Book through one of the marinas. It's the fastest way to fall in love with this lake.

Texoma's a haul and a big lake, so you don't want to get up there and be short a slab color or out of line. We keep it deep and priced fair, and for anglers routing through Northeast Texas we're a smart stop on the way. Load up on slabs, spoons, swimbaits, topwater, heavy line, catfish rigs, a cast net and your Texoma license here — then all that's left up there is finding the birds.

Because its striped bass reproduce naturally — one of only about seven to ten inland lakes in the country where that happens. The stripers were introduced in the 1960s, and by 1974 they were spawning on their own in the Red and Washita rivers, so the lake hasn't needed stocking since. The result is a huge, self-sustaining striper population and world-class striper fishing year-round.

Yes — to fish the entire lake from either state, you need the special Lake Texoma License (about $12, sold by both Texas and Oklahoma). A regular Texas license only covers Texas water, and you can't legally cross the state line without the Texoma license. It doesn't cover the rivers below the dam, which have separate rules. Always verify current details with TPWD and ODWC.

All year, but the style changes. Spring brings the river spawning run up the Red and Washita. Summer pushes stripers deep near Denison Dam (fish early and follow the daily migration). Fall is the topwater blitz as they chase shad shallow. Winter finds them gorging on the flats and in the creeks. Watch for diving seagulls year-round — they mark the schools.

Texoma is trophy water. Stripers of five to ten pounds are realistic and teens are caught every year. It holds the Texas state-record blue catfish — a 121.5-pounder from 2004 — and grows trophy smallmouth bass (rare for the region), plus quality largemouth, crappie and white bass.

Roughly an hour and a half to two hours west of Brannan's Bass Shop in Powderly, near Denison–Sherman about 75 miles north of Dallas. Brannan's is a convenient gear-up-and-license stop for anglers routing to the lake.

Eisenhower State Park near Denison is the top family spot — swim beach, camping, cabins, trails and a lighted fishing pier. Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge offers bank fishing (great for blue catfish) and world-class bird watching. Both are excellent no-boat and family options on the Texas side.

Gear up before you go. Brannan's Bass Shop in Powderly is a smart stop for anglers coming through Northeast Texas — deep inventory, fair prices, a fresh report, and we'll sort your special Lake Texoma License so you're ready to fish the whole lake.

Both, and much more. Beyond the famous stripers, Texoma has trophy blue catfish (state-record water), channel and flathead cats, smallmouth, largemouth and spotted bass, big crappie, white bass, and even prehistoric alligator gar that top 150 pounds. It's one of the most diverse fisheries in the region — a true multi-species destination.