Master striper angler and veteran fishing guide Delmer Shoults shows a 20-pounder he caught on live bait in the Lower Illinois River last spring after timely rains set the fish on a feeding spree. The Lower Illinois may be the state's absolute best place to catch a giant striper. Photo by Mike Lambeth.

Each spring Ed Godfrey and I go on a fishing pilgrimage of sorts. We conspire, amid busy schedules, to head east on I-40 for a Lower Illinois River striper trip. This annual outing has always proved to be an exciting time; on one occasion, we even had a tornado pass within a few miles of our fishing spot. However, the real excitement occurs when a double-digit-sized striper nails one of our rainbow trout swimming nervously at the end of our lines.

Ah, springtime striper fishing, there's nothing like it!

Last spring, Godfrey and I spent a spectacular day on that Eastern Oklahoma tributary under the tutelage of veteran fishing guide Delmer Shoults. Shoults plies his trade on the Lower Illinois, and due to his reputation and expertise, the guide stays booked nearly year 'round.

Spring rains had left the river's elevation much higher than normal, and the resulting dingy water proved to be teeming with big stripers seeking refuge in the cool, oxygenated water. Godfrey and I caught stripers all day, releasing all fish under 14 pounds. Our creel was highlighted by a pair of 16-pounders, a 17-pounder, an 18-pounder, and a giant that tipped the scales at more than 25 pounds. The weather was hot, but so was the fishing!

Read on below as I highlight some of the Sooner State's best striper and hybrid waters.

LAKE TEXOMA
Sitting on the state's southern border with Texas is a prolific recreational hotspot -- Lake Texoma. Each spring, Texoma is besieged by anglers and boaters from all over the nation, with the resulting influx of tourists an economic windfall for both states.

The real allure at Lake Texoma is the fabulous striper fishing -- and it's no wonder, as the lake is called the "Striped Bass Capitol." Lake Texoma anglers are coming in with bigger stringers lately, and the resurgence of the once nationally recognized striper factory is making its presence known. The lake's guides once again are staying booked almost full-time.

Though the average catch is 2 to 5 pounds, guides are daily toting in stripers that approach 20 pounds, just as they used to in the 1980s. The lake's striper catches are now larger, on average, and when guides pull in to the docks, curious onlookers are on hand to inspect their catch.

"April is a prime month on Texoma as the fish begin to form definite patterns," said guide Lloyd Jennings. "The stripers are fat and ready to spawn and will likely move into favorable areas and stack, while consuming huge amounts of the shad population."

Jennings, who has been guiding on Texoma for several years, said that the bite gets intense before the spawn -- which usually occurs the first or second week of April -- when the fish move up the Red and Washita rivers. As water temperatures near 56 degrees, huge schools of fish move toward the mouths of the rivers. However, not all stripers spawn at the same time, and so the lake always has hungry stripers available for anglers' hooks.

Fellow guide Shane Clutter said that most of the time his bait of choice is live shad. He has learned the best areas for catching stripers by being on the lake nearly 200 days each year. Clutter's average catch is nearing 5 pounds, and he is boating more big stripers than in years past. In fact, he had a client pull in a 22-pounder. He's heard reports of stripers caught weighing 25 pounds.

So are the big stripers actually returning? According to Clutter, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation did some electroshocking in some areas and sampled stripers weighing more than 30 pounds.