Texoma Midday Update – Day 1
Castledine one of the few pros with an early limit
The first morning of the Costa FLW Series Southwestern Division presented by Frabill validated one of Texoma’s reputation points. The Red River reservoir straddling the Texas/Oklahoma border is known for putting on her pouty face when the wind blows, and this morning’s sporty conditions certainly seemed to be limiting anglers.
For one thing, running becomes an arduous and time-consuming chore that often influences where anglers can/want to fish. We started seeing more boats tucking into pockets and creeks as the wind increased. Brett Branstrom, who had three fish for 8 pounds by late morning, says water clarity is becoming an issue.
On the upside, Texas pro Todd Castledine sacked up a limit of about 13 pounds, all on a Carolina-rigged worm, all on the same rocky point. Fall on Texoma typically requires anglers to burn gas picking off one or two here, a couple more there, and so on.
“You’re not supposed to do this here; you’re not supposed to sit in one spot and catch a limit,” Castledine says. “But I’ll take this any day.”
Castledine was particularly pleased to have a solid limit by mid-morning because he’s expecting his better action in the afternoon. If practice patterns hold up, he’ll be looking for a good smallmouth bite a couple of hours before he has to leave for weigh-in.
Elsewhere, Zack Birge reports two small keepers, Lendell Martin Jr. has four small keepers and Dakota Ebare has a limit for about 10 pounds.
Throughout the morning, we saw a mix of topwaters, crankbaits, spinnerbaits and flipping tactics. It’s likely that many anglers will resort to junk fishing with bites coming on a broad range of baits.
When the scales open at 3 p.m. CT at Highport Marina, we’ll be looking for a handful of big sacks and a reasonable number of limits, but considering the wind — plus generally scattered fish that have not yet made their fall transition — there may be a lot of long faces in the weigh-in line.
Tournament details
Format: All boaters and co-anglers will compete for two days. The top 10 boaters and co-anglers based on cumulative weight after two days of competition will advance to the third and final round, with the winner determined by the heaviest cumulative three-day weight.
Takeoff Time: 7:00 a.m. CT
Takeoff Location: Highport Marina, 120 Texoma Harbor Drive, Pottsboro, TX 75076
Weigh-In Time: 3:00 p.m. CT
Weigh-In Location: Highport Marina