Chris Sussmann

A few months ago, my father-in-law told me of a new adventure that he and his brother were cooking up for May. He gave me the line up of usual suspects, six guys, fun guys really. All ready willing and able to take on this task.

The adventure was simple. The men booked a trip to Lake Texoma for Striper Fishing with Sparky’s Guide Service. This was our mission and we chose to accept it. All we had to do was wait for the day to arrive. Boy, oh boy, was that hard to do. As the day got closer, more and more sleepless nights were had. The crew gathered Friday night out on the docks where one of the men injured himself on an old dirty rusty pipe. I rushed him for emergency medical care in Durant. The man that he is, he didn’t shed a tear over the ordeal.

We left the docks about 6’ish Saturday morning and headed out to a spot with our guide, Eddy. He stopped the boat over the spot. And sure, he had all the latest GPS/Fish Finder technology, but it seemed that he sensed where to the mother load was. He started to hand out the poles and bate the hooks. Asking if we knew how to handle the bate casting gear. He had six experienced seasoned fishermen – of course we did. By the time he baited the last one, we had a fish on! More than a couple of times, all six of us were reeling in a fish at the same time. The limit was ten fish each, 70 including the guide. But we estimate we drug in about 200. We released quite a few. So after two hours, yup, 8:30 we headed back to the docks to watch the masters filet the catch.

After a short break, we started fishing of the dock near where the guides clean the stripers, using parts of the discarded carcasses for bate. The rate that we were catching wasn’t as fast as earlier in the day. But it was just as fun. As the sun was setting, one of the team member hooked into a large one. With all us and all the other onlookers cheering him on, he pulled in an 18 pound buffalo. You can see pictures of this and more from the day.

Later that night we fried some to sample and they were perfect.