Dear Friend,


I've been fishing on Lake Texoma with Jeff for about 7-8 years now, exclusively.  I fish from my own boat, and many years ago I tried a number of guides in Texas and Oklahoma.  Here's why I continue to fish with Jeff.


  • First and most important, with very rare exceptions we have always come back with better quantity and quality of fish than has been my experience with any other guide on Lake Texoma by far.

  • I absolutely love Striper fishing and so does my son, and try as we might after years of fishing from our own boat and with other guides , we just can't catch fish like Jeff does.  (Don't tell him, and don't tell him we tried another guide either.)


Here's what happened last year, and this is 100% true "so help me".  I was out with Jeff and I said, Jeff... I think it's your boat.  That's why I can't catch as many fish as you do, after all, I'm doing the same things you do and I'm as good as anyone at getting fish into the boat, my son's ever better. 


Jeff said, well Mark, you may be right, this boat's been on the lake for a while, maybe they just like it better.  (Jeff has a way of, well,  "patronizing" the client in these situations.)  He said, "your boat isn't all that pretty either by the way, maybe you should paint it or put some perfume on it, or something".  He offered to help paint it too, that's just the kind of guy he is.


2 weeks later Jeff gave me a call.  He said "hey Mark, come on up to the lake this Friday.  I'll meet you at 6:30 at the dock.  And bring your boat".  I said "Jeff, it's the middle of the blasted winter, and by the way, you NEVER take a day off.  I'll come up and we'll get some breakfast, then I'll fish with Dan (my son) and you go do whatever you do when you're not fishing ...  hopefully something legal".   Jeff said, "Great! .. bring your son with you, I want a witness, basically ignoring everything I had said.  He says Great a lot, Jeff's a real optimist.


You're probably starting to get the picture.  Jeff jumped in my boat, and drove it, and we filled it with fish in about 3 hours.  Very large fish I might add.  We also froze my fingers to the point where I had to warm them on the engine just to keep them moving enough to turn the reel handle. Jeff just smiled and talked about the weather, and how he enjoys being self employed, and about having no boss to tell him what to do every day like me, and how the other guides  that were following us around for 3 hours aren't really too bothersome, they're just a bunch of lonely folks looking for new friends ...  but he couldn't resist making one little comment as he drove my boat back to the dock.  All he said was, "your boat seems fine to me, your sonar works great and that's the fastest I've gone across the lake in 10 years!   I said "yeah, it's just great Jeff" adopting the optimist thing.




Here's a few more reasons I keep fishing with Jeff:


  • When the fishing gets slow, Jeff will change his approach and find fish another way.  He knows the fish and he has enough experience and confidence to know when to change up and try something different.
  • He likes people.  Kids, new comers, Republicans, Democrats, Clowns, really anybody (except for people who want to dig around in his bait tank, he doesn't like that too much, make a note).
  • Jeff knows the lake.  When I fished with him in my own boat, I took the wheel for a bit (against Jeff's better judgment) and got us into some fish just to prove how good I am, too.  So there!  At some point Jeff took the wheel and moved the boat 20 yards, turning it broad to the wind just before cutting the engine.  There were fish on the sonar in both places, it looked the same to me, but we caught them 2 to 1 where Jeff stopped.  He understands the currents, the shelves where bait accumulates, and he knows the feeding patterns at various times of day.  The man has simply lived on the lake for so long it's surprising he doesn't have gills.
  • I like to watch when  the other boats chase him. They see us catching fish even though there's no birds around and no one else is catching a blessed thing.  When they crowd him, and "wake him" seemingly trying to knock our coffee over, and chase his fish away by racing over the school, he gets all red in the face and looks like his ears are going to start spinning around. It's really funny, you really gotta see it close up and get some pictures!  Little secret here: you can get on Jeff's good side by waiting until some other boat comes in close and scares the fish, then you say, "hey Jeff, I think those guys like you, maybe you can share some of your bait with them". He really likes that cause Jeff is a really friendly dude.
  • Jeff takes the time to explain what he's doing, he's a good teacher and he runs a safe and legal boat.
  • Now hear this one, his rates are always among the lowest prices on the lake.  I'm cheap and I fish with Jeff, nuff sed. 

I could go on but just between you and me, I'm Jeff's webmaster and a dedicated fishing client.  I didn't ask him for permission to put this up.  Hope you get to see it before me makes me take it down. It'll be a while though, I tried to get him to write some articles for the site 2 weeks ago and he just said, " how about this, you take care of the web site and I'll  take care of the fishing? "  What a guy, huh?


I've had some great times on Lake Texoma over the years with friends and family, see some pictures below.  Jeff's been a big part of that.


I'm dead serious, this Dude's the one to fish with. 



Mark Depew

http://marketblasthosting.com