Destination: Lake Texoma
Texas Tournament Trail, April 27
At almost 100,000 acres, Lake Texoma is a sizeable reservoir on the Texas-Oklahoma border.
Wal-Mart FLW Tour pro Jim Tutt of Longview, Texas, says that Texoma bass should be in a post-spawn pattern. He predicts top-water baits in very shallow water to be a primary pattern throughout the tournament.
Tutt describes Texoma as a lake with a lot of shallow, barren flats. “You can’t fish shallow enough on Texoma,” he reports. “If you think you are fishing shallow, go shallower. I have caught fish in mere inches of water on Texoma.”
Another pattern Tutt looks for this time of year is bass guarding fry near boat docks. “After the spawn, fry tend to gather around the backsides of floating boat docks. If bass are still guarding fry, they will be around the docks, too”
Texoma also has a history of producing lunker smallmouth. In fact, the Oklahoma state record smallmouth weighing 7 pounds, 8 ounces was caught in Texoma. Although targeting smallmouth for the course of a tournament is not common, big smallmouth do swim in Texoma’s waters.
“In just about every tournament I have fished on Texoma, the big-bass award went to a big smallmouth,” Tutt says. “I look for a 5- to 6-pound smallmouth to take the big-bass award in April’s TTT.”
– Rob Newell
Links: