SMDH!!!
Those were this year's spawn.
You do know that it takes a fingerling app. 4 years to get to 16 inches on Fork, right?
This is the kind of [censored] I'm talking about.
Whacking 8,9,10 inch fish is not helping recruitment into the slot!
A bunch of those 80 fish you caught will probably have an injury that will eventually kill them.

SMDH ? What is that ?

Here's what it means.
Tournaments on Fork that force anglers to target the "unders", will cause these anglers to pound on yearling bass, hoping to catch 5 weighable fish.
Little fish are fragile, and a lot of them simply won't survive hookups.

Shaking my (damn/dang/darn/dumb/dense) head. Not sure why he'd do that though, the guy was fishing and the point of fishing is trying to catch fish. You fellas should come over to the South & Central Texas if you want to see sucky lakes.

again I agree with you Richard there should be a solution to this under haunting . maybe some good tournament format that fits our slot lakes and that's not just Fork

Good to see you post.
You do know that you are the only person on this forum that knows my origins.
From fishing Squaw Creek in the early '80s out of my 2 man boat, to freezing our asses off on Granbury that day in the old 15 Trophy bass boat, after it broke.
That was back when my goal was to catch a legal keeper out of a public lake.,

Richard I've been reading this and other threads on this subject. And I've tended to agree with most of the things you say/claim. I can tell you are passionate about Fork. But sir, this statement is over the top. To criticize an angler for sitting on a point and catching too many fish is ridiculous. Get this conversation back to be credible and lets continue the constructive conversation.

Thanks.
My point in this statement was to put into perspective what a tournament that targets the "unders" on Fork will make a contestant do.
targeting these yearling bass, trying to catch a limit of "unders" really does kill a lot of small bass, that otherwise could grow into the slot healthy.
But, I do agree with you, my response was a little harsh. I apologize.

Lake Athens is Where its at!! going in the Morning!!

Did you try live bait and cast netting?

fouz i think your drought argument is much more compelling than the age thing. here is why i say that. Look at the bassmaster top 100 list - i know its not scientific or anything, but its a decent list of top bass fisheries. I find it interesting there's only a few reservoirs (but a ton of natural lakes) above fork on the list and they are all older than Fork by a considerable margin. Guntersville for example is a perennial top-10 lake yet it was impounded in ... 1939?? None of them however were hit as hard as fork by the drought.

Having said all that - we are pretty spoiled to live in such close proximity to some of the best bass fishing on the planet.

Fork handed me my arse a few times this year, but i bet this winter and next spring we see topic titles posted here saying "Fork is on FIRE"

in general i think the bait this year stayed spread out, never really formed concentrations (excepting lake Athens) because they didn't have to - and for that reason we haven't seen the same concentrations of bass. the rule was always 90% of the fish occupy 10% of the water - but i don't think that was the case this year.

my opinion - its worth at least what you paid for it

1. Toledo Bend, Texas/Louisiana [185,000 acres]
2. Sturgeon Bay (Lake Michigan), Wisconsin [from Little Sturgeon Bay to Fish Creek]
3. Lake St. Clair, Michigan [430 square miles]
4. California Delta, California [1,100 square miles]
5. Sam Rayburn Reservoir, Texas [114,500 acres]
6. Lake Guntersville, Alabama [70,000 acres]
7. Green Bay (Lake Michigan), Wisconsin [up to Little Sturgeon Bay]
8. Thousand Islands (St. Lawrence River), New York [50-mile stretch]
9. Clear Lake, California [43,785 acres]
10. Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota [132,000 acres]
11. Lake Coeur d�Alene, Idaho [25,000 acres]
12. Kentucky/Barkley Lakes, Tennessee/Kentucky [160,309 acres and 58,000 acres, respectively]
13. Grand Lake O� the Cherokees, Oklahoma [46,500 acres]
14. Lake Champlain, New York/Vermont [490 square miles]
15. Lake Fork Reservoir, Texas [27,690 acres]

I don't think any tournament "targets" unders,,,,,but when you fish a slot lake and the big girls are hard to catch, guess what you are going to weigh in.
On lake Athens with the slot starting at 14 inches, the unders are even hard to put in the live well.
Speaking of Athens,,,,,,you guys quit talking about Athens and stay the heck away.
It is too small of a lake to support the pressure it has been getting.

Richard McCarty I am waiting on the definition SMDH please.

It means Slap my damn head.
If you have to catch 80 fish to catch one decent "under" you might be on the wrong pattern.
Plus, no telling how much damage that does to those little guys.

I'll get someone to stand on the bottom of the lake and hold a sign "Please, Nothing Under 14" Bite My Lure".