RIGHTEOUS ROADTRIP

I've always liked the anticipation of looking forward to an outdoor excursion outside the usual here at home.  And my 12-year-old twin boys, Brandon and Cody, get even more fired-up as many of these junkets are their first-ever.  A buddy, Kent Dodds, was equally anxious when we departed last week headed to Lake Texoma for a little striper fishing.

Our guide, Travis Barker, picked us up at the dock at 5:30 a.m. the first morning in a boat more suited for the ocean but right at home on Texoma's 90,000 acres.  Outfitted with dual 250 hp Yamaha 4-strokes we were stylin' and it didn't take us long to get anywhere.  Our first spot didn't yield much, but it wasn't long and news of good fishing spread over the radio.  Many of the guides share information and there's usually plenty of fish to go around. 

Travis was a flurry of activity trying to keep our four rods in the water as fish bit nearly non-stop.  We used live threadfin shad he'd caught prior to picking us up and most times we fished them three to five cranks off the bottom.  Stripers typically don't mess around and sometimes hit like a freight train and then act like a runaway one when hooked.  My boys had no trouble discerning a hit and we all caught a mess of fish in a hurry.  Our limit of 40-fish (10 each) happened almost too fast as we were back at the dock, fish cleaned and headed back to our motel room by 8:30 a.m.

The next morning followed with similar results.  A large school of surfacing fish started the day and for whatever reason we caught bigger fish this day with several pushing 10 pounds.  Each angler is allowed two fish over 20 inches long in their daily creel and we had some nice ones.  Our 40-fish limit took a bit longer but we were still back at the dock well before the temperatures of 100-degree-plus days started sizzling. 

All four of us had a great time.  We spent more time on the road than we did fishing, but the overall experience was a package deal.  It's nice to do something different and I'm certain I'll have plenty of anxious participants should we do it again.