Lake Fork Fishing Report 4/29/16
Lake fork is currently sitting at 402.94, which is just a hair below full pool. The water temps have been ranging from 68-75 degrees depending on the time of the day and where you are on the lake. Most of the fish are in the early post spawn phase, with some still spawning and a small percentage that haven't moved up yet.
The fishing seems to be a little bit tougher than it normally is this time of the year, but we've managed to put some nice fish in the boat every day running a few different patterns.
I've been starting every morning on secondary points and flats half way back in the creeks and have been looking for Shad spawn activity, which occurs under early morning & low light conditions. We have been catching bass feeding on these Shad mostly on a Sexy West colored Rat-L-Trap Echo 1.75 squarebill and a 1/2 oz white Santone M series spinnerbait. We have been fishing these baits in 2-5 ft on these points and flats. The Echo 1.75 is a perfect bait for the Shad spawn because of its mid sized profile, loud rattles, and hard thumping action on he retrieve.
Once this bite dies down we've been combing over the same spots with Carolina rigged flukes.
On days with good sunlight, we've been sight fishing for the remaining bed fish and fry guarders. My two best baits for these fish have been a wacky rigged okechobee craw smash tech baits smash stick and a 3/8 oz green pumpkin and orange santone rattling jig with a matching smash tech baits smash craw that I bite a few segments off of to shorten the profile. When we get a little bit of cloud cover we have been fan casting the wacky worm, a black spro popping frog and a lightly weighted fluke around these same spawning areas.
We have also been catching a few out in 15-25 ft on a Carolina rigged fluke and a drop shot. The sandbass are stacked out in 20-25 ft and can be easily caught on A rigs and small spoons or tail spinners. I expect a huge wave of fish to be moving out in the next week or two.
I have May 10,11,12,15,16,22,23&24 open if anybody is looking to do some fishing on lake fork with me or wants to pre fish for the legend tournament.
I hope this helps those of y'all coming out here this weekend.
Good luck and tight lines!
Jay