Lake Texoma

For generations the Red River was known for violent floods that tore through the bottomlands of both states. In the years around World War II the Army Corps of Engineers raised Denison Dam across the river to tame those floods and to generate hydroelectric power. When the gates closed, the water backed up over the old river valley and filled it, drowning farms, roads, and a few small settlements and creating the lake now called Texoma, a name stitched together from Texas and Oklahoma.

This was Comanche and Wichita country long before the dam, part of the wide grassland and river bottoms of the Southern Plains that Native peoples hunted and traveled for centuries, and the Caddo lived and farmed to the east. The Chickasaw and Choctaw nations hold land just across the water in Oklahoma today. The reservoir that covers the old valley is a young feature on very old ground, and the towns around it, Denison among them, carry the layered history of the river country.

Texoma made its name on striped bass, a saltwater fish stocked into the lake decades ago that found the deep, cool, current-fed water so much to its liking that it began to spawn naturally in the rivers upstream. That self-sustaining run is unusual for an inland lake and is the reason anglers speak of Texoma the way saltwater fishermen speak of a good stretch of coast.

Guides work the lake year round, chasing stripers as they follow bait through the seasons, and the marinas fill with boats at dawn on a good bite. Catfish, crappie, and largemouth and smallmouth bass round out the fishing. Because the lake spans a state line, licensing can be its own small puzzle, and a special Texoma license is offered so anglers can move freely between Texas and Oklahoma waters.

The open reaches of Texoma are wide enough for real sailing, and the lake has long been a sailing center, with regattas, clubs, and a steady parade of masts on a breezy afternoon. Powerboats, personal watercraft, and paddlers all find room, and the many arms and coves offer sheltered water when the main lake turns rough.

The shoreline is ringed with public land: Corps of Engineers parks, two state parks split between Texas and Oklahoma, and stretches of beach and bluff. Campgrounds sit close to the water, and it is easy to spend a weekend moving between a fishing dawn, a swimming afternoon, and a quiet evening under big Southern Plains skies.

Below the dam and around the quieter arms of the lake, wildlife is easy to find. Bald eagles winter along the Red River and are a highlight of the cold months, and the marshes and mudflats draw pelicans, herons, and great rafts of migrating waterfowl. Deer, bobcat, and coyote move through the wooded shoreline, and the lake sits on a major flyway that makes it a strong stop for birders.

Summer is the busy season, hot and bright, with the beaches and ramps full and the striper boats out early to beat the heat. Fall brings cooler air, thinner crowds, and often excellent fishing. Winter is quiet and can be cold and windy, the season of eagles and empty coves. Spring greens the shoreline and stirs the fish, and it is a fine, uncrowded time to be on the water.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.