My wife and I climbed aboard the guide's boat in the stillness of the foggy morning. The vision-obscuring shroud, reminiscent of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, began to lift off the water as we idled through the shallows. The day had dawned warm and would get hotter.

Soon my wife and I compared the pair of rainbow trout that were now flip-flopping on the end of our fishing lines. Had we been trout fishing, I would have been well pleased with those speckled beauties. But these were our live bait offerings. You see, we were fishing the Lower Illinois River for monster stripers.

Our lines were cast behind the boat and the pound-sized trout allowed to swim freely. After a cursory lesson from our guide on hooking a striper, the vigil began.

We were fishing with Delmer Shoults a veteran guide who has boated innumerable monster stripers. Shoults' stories and anecdotes would help us pass the time, but soon the focus shifted to the heavy rods fished off the back of the boat.

In a flash, line peeled off my reel as a potentially huge striper mouthed my 10-inch bait. I picked up the rod and jerked as if I was trying to land the fish in one mighty heave, only to feel no resistance on the other end. My line was limp and I soon retrieved the baitless hook. With a dejected look, I asked Delmer what went wrong.

When Dennis Donalo caught this 32-pound striper in the Lower Illinois River, the Del City angler was fishing with guide Delmer Shoults, who specializes in catching big stripers on live trout there. (Photo courtesy of Delmer Shoults)

For the next 15 minutes, Shoults schooled me again in the proper techniques of catching a big striped bass on live trout. Shoults explained that I had tried to set the hook too soon, and in the process, had jerked the bait out of the striper's mouth before the fish had time to digest the lively trout.

My patience was tested as Donna and I endured the warm, sunny day, but we were rewarded with two chunky stripers and a new appetite for Lower Illinois River striper fishing.

Stripers can be caught in the Sooner State at several venues, and they reach weights upward to 50 pounds. Although stripers bite year 'round, the springtime is an excellent time to catch a wallhanger.

With the information included here, you'll have the "right stuff" to target and then catch the Oklahoma striper of your dreams.

SUPER BAITS FOR STRIPERS
Optimum striper baits will vary from lake to river, and range from several forms of live baits, to several forms of artificial lures. All will accomplish the task of enticing a hungry striper to bite when conditions are right. However, some lures produce more fish but smaller creels, while others are earmarked to catch only the super-sized variety.

Striper guide Delmer Shoults fishes almost exclusively with rainbow trout and achieves very impressive results. Shoults fishes a two- to three-mile stretch of the Lower Illinois River near Gore Landing and swears by the speckled baits.

Shoults is licensed by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation to maintain a submerged bait tank in the river, which he keeps well stocked with rainbows ranging in size from 7 inches to near 12.

Trout are expensive bait, according to Shoults, costing from 60 cents to $1.65 apiece. They are very fragile and must be kept in an aerated bait tank with cool water and a precise pH reading. Shoults fishes most of his trout on a weightless line, rigging them by running a sharp hook between the upper lip and nostril. Allowing the trout to swim freely in the green water of the river, this method of rigging has produced some huge stripers.