Monster Lunker Catfish Techniques For Lake Texoma Fishing

Lake Texoma is located on the Red River on the border between Texas and Oklahoma. Like everything else in or near Texas, Lake Texoma is huge--89,000 acres of water and 580 miles of shoreline. It should not surprise you, then, that the fish you could find there are called monster lunker catfish. Not only are these catfish large, but so is the lake--so, where do you start? The sheer size of the lake could overwhelm you long before the size of the monster lunker catfish.

Past experiences has probably taught you that in order to site these trophy size catfish, sometimes you have to drift and sometimes you have to anchor. Now the trick is to figure out whether you should drift or anchor first. Of course, if you are lucky enough to catch one of these monster lunkers, what will you need to hold this enormous fish?

In the warm weather, post spawn period, drift fishing can be very productive. Look for places where the bottom shows subtle rises and drops from a little below and well above the thermocline. During the time that the water is at its warmest, the thermocline is very important. (The thermocline is a thin layer in large bodies of water where temperature changes more rapidly with depth than it does above or below.)

You can use a locator to mark fish on gently sloping ledges. This helps you figure out the correct depth before using your bait and drifting. Often you will find fish on steep ledges in summer, but sometimes gentle rises are more successful for catching them. Once you start catching some fish, note the depth that you caught them at. If you are successful at catching monster lunker catfish at a particular depth like 15 feet, then it would be wise to find other locations to drift in that have a depth of 15 feet.

While drift fishing is successful in the summer due to the catfishes metabolism, the opposite appears to be true if you are fishing for monster lunker catfish in the cooler months. During the cooler months, dropping anchor is better even though you still need to use the locator. Use the locator first, and then once you find a good spot, drop anchor.

One fisherman's theory is that the catfish's metabolism rises as the water gets hotter, and they have to move around looking for food a lot more. Therefore, it is necessary for the fisherman to drift around a lot looking for the monster
lunker catfish. While this technique does not necessarily target the big fish, it seems to help find an area that has the large fish.

This methodology almost turns the sport of fishing into a science of oceanography. Knowing the catfish's habits as well as the terrain of the lake's bottom, helps the clever fishman to discover where the monster lunker catfish are most numerous. The goal is to bring home that trophy size catfish.