Hello I'm 15 years old And a member of the prosper highschiol bass fishing team. We have a tournament at lake fork this weekend (July 25-26) and I have never fished lake fork before. Could someone please give me some tips to catch fish around this time of the year? Everything would be greatly appreciated!

Hey Kiel lots of info on Fork here, use the search feature, prop your legs up and read on!

Good luck to yall! Fishing is good shallow early in the morning. Then move deep and find road beds and cranks, jigs and c-rig is good.

This for sure and topwaters early. Pop-R or buzz bait right out of the gate and have a T-Rigged worm ready to throw just in case you miss. When I do topwaters I always keep a T-rigged rod laying at my feet and if the fish swings and misses I reel in as fast as I can and throw a slow sinking T-rig as close to the exact spot they missed as I can as quick as I can. Most of the time they wind up in the livewell..........when the sun gets up good; about 8 am or so, switch over to a spinnerbait, Ratl-Trap, or shallow square bill just under the surface, after about an hour go to a shallow diving crankbait in the 6 to 8 foot range out in a little deeper water; 7 to 10 feet. Give that an hour or two and then break out a Carolina rig or a deep diving crankbait at the end of a point, hump, creek channel, road bed, under water bridge, etc in 20+ feet of water and ride that until the end, moving if you don't get bit in a reasonable amount of time after trying multiple lures. I generally won't stay on a spot but about 15 minutes if it doesn't produce.......Also show these fish something they don't see very often, try counting down a spinnerbait or a Ratl-Trap in the deep water, generally a second per foot. Try a slow steady retrieve, try pumping it back, and ripping it back, and ripping it with a pause every once in a while. You just never know what might happen.........my 50 cents (2 cents figuring for inflation)

White Zoom Fluke early

top water early

c-rig fluke deep later

Right now the lower 3rd of the lake is fishing better, you will want to fish from 25' to 30' on point drops at that depth, using a C-rig with a 10' plum worm or a chartreuse lizard or centipede, drag it slowly and then shake it and then repeat.
Also a 1oz PB&J football jig dragged slowly up the slope will get bit.

Good Luck

"You're a good egg Danny"

Take the wisdom you read here, and apply it to your strong points. Fish how you are CONFIDENT fishing. Have a ton of fun!

This is HUGE! I was always in the position you were in when I fished college circuits. Always a different lake that we never really fished before, always got tips from locals on what worked and tried those without much confidence, ended up doing better on sticking with what we knew.

Everything we all posted ARE what is currently working and fairly well out there right now, but confidence is key. Stick with what you know and good luck! I may be out there tomorrow but not sure. If you see a guy on an 18ft xpress, give me a holler and I can point you in the right direction.

Might be against tournament rules to get info during tournament hours haha ^

Great info, and what i was gonna say has been said multiple times already it looks like. Have fun, fork is an awesome lake to fish. Do not get discouraged catching slot fish, you will have to weed through them sometimes to get keepers

the same water Pack spoke of use a drop shot for keepers...

Also keep a trap tied on in case they start schooling around you

What do you mean by trap?

Trap = Rat-L-trap

Rattle trap
To cast into schools of fish

thanks again yall