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There have been some recent comments
on the bulletin board indicating that
winter has started moving in and the
fishing has slowed down for the more
northern part of the country. Here in
Texas, November is still a prime
warm-water fishing month and the Striper
fishing can be excellent this time
of year.
The Stripers were very active on the
Saturday afternoon before Thanksgiving on
Lake Texoma. The lake temperature finally
cooled off and nature's personal fish finders,
the seagulls, had returned for the winter and
were showing where the fish were feeding.
Today I passed five separate schools of feeding
Stripers. The first school was even located
inside the marina. Normally, I'd have been
real happy to find five schools, but you'll
notice that I said passed not fished. Since
fall had finally arrived and the trees had
turned red, orange, and yellow, I was sightseeing
with my wife, daughter, and dog and I didn't
have a rod in the boat. Instead of chasing
Stripers, we were looking at the colorful
leaves and the first bald eagles of the season.
Every time I see one, I am amazed at the
magnificence of a bald eagle along a lakeshore.
A couple of weeks earlier I did have my rod
with me on the lake. That weekend was one of
those perfect weather days that caused me to
buy my first boat. That Sunday afternoon was
70 degrees with the wind gusting to 5 miles
an hour. Who can refuse to go fishing on a
70-degree November day with no wind? After
all, those days are rare even around here.
Even with the perfect weather, I was only able
to fit in two hours of fishing time that wonderful
day. I started with several streamers using a 7
wt and all of them were completely ignored. It
only took a couple of casts with a white crease
fly to result in a nice 14 inch large mouth. A
couple of smaller bass and a couple of "early
release" bass followed that first fish. I have
grown very fond of the crease fly pattern, it is
easy to cast and it catches fish! All of those
strikes came in less than three feet of water on
a point that is within sight of the boat ramp.
Since I was fishing alone with a short amount
of time, I had decided to try catching my first
carp on a fly. I had located a cove that had been
holding carp for several weeks. So, I was planning
to make a serious effort to catch one of them. I
had dug out one my seldom opened fly boxes that
contained "trout flies" and selected something
that looked like a good "carp fly" instead of
one of my usual "bass flies". I was ready to sight
cast to a carp when I arrived in the cove. Well,
I'm sure some of you know what happened. I was
ready cast to a carp but there weren't any of
them in the cove that day. Oh well, maybe next time.
On the way back to the boat ramp, a 14 inch Striper
took the same white crease fly in the same location
as the large mouth bass earlier. That fish
was a nice way to finish the day before
heading home. Gee, I sure do like fall in Texas.
Have fun, ~ Rex
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