It is sad that Lake Fork has went so far down hill.

What makes you think it�s gone down hill?

The talk of minimal bites and the over all tournament results. Not like it used to be.

Weather and gates open were a big factor in that. If champs were the weekend before or even the weekend before that. Would�ve been a completely different story.

Sorry to hear the problems. I blew my engine once in a January event, not BC, and no one offered me a tow.
Even a couple that stopped to see what I was fishing in the middle of the lake! Called our TD and he was kind enough to meet me on the bank take me to my truck and loan us a boat.
The best part was after all of that we won the event in a big way! Karma is great sometimes.
I won� t ever be that person though. Take the high road.
Hope you get the boat fixed soon.

Exactly.


The bite out there will be awesome as soon as it warms up and stays that way.

I guess people don't realize the lake has gone downhill if you didn't fish it in the 80's and 90's when the quantity and quality was crazy!...including lots of DD's. It's all documented. But still fish it as much as possible though.

I fished Fork the day it opened and was there for all the heydays. Anyone who says the lake hasn't gone downhill since then is mistaken. All new lakes peak at around 15 years and slowly decline from there. It's a natural progression that happens to all lakes. Now, Fork is still one of the top 4 lakes in Texas and always will be, but it's nowhere near what it once was.

Ive been out there since 89. And I have to agree and disagree with you and some of the statements. I too was out there during the hayday and the main decline Ive seen is the number of fish over 13 lbs. every year. I feel it mainly declined after the LMV out there and all the killing of the grass. (Mainly by property owners)
But the number of 8 to 10 lbs. fish is still crazy in that lake. We are catching just as many now as we did back then. Now 10's aren't as easy to come by. But you also have 5X the pressure on the lake as you did back then. But people say all the time they don't see the 100 fish days like they did back then, but there are a handful of us that are still catching those numbers. What I see is most people are set in their ways on how they fish out there. And there's some of us that think outside the box. Try new baits, different colors, etc.

But no, its not the same and may not ever be the same as far as the 13 lbs. + fish being caught. But Ive fished all over Texas, and I can tell you she is a special place for sure. And if they ever lifted the slot, would be the #1 lake in Texas for size and everything.

Isn't the slot the reason for such high numbers of 5-8# fish? I would think if they lifted it, we would see a big decrease in those numbers from meat eaters, tourney mortality, etc.

Agreed.
But hard to believe coming form me cause I've made a lot off tournaments out there.....but I hate tournaments out there. Wish they didn't have them.

Crazy respect for you guys that tourney fish out there- I don't know how you do it, as I couldn't. Fish for dinks and hope you get lucky and catch an over? Would be tough for me to get motivated for a 10# winning bag, but I guess everyone that signs up has a chance to win one of those for sure. I have fun going up there every couple of years and whacking those slot fish though.

5x3Phoenix, what is motivating is to catch a 10# sack in a tournament!!! Do you know hard it is to catch 2# fish under 16"? There's a lot more 16-1/16" or 16-1/8" 2lb Fish swimming around than there are 15-3/4" to 15-7/8" 2 #'ers. So really for us, it's not fishing for dinks, it's fishing for 5-
2 lber's. Dinks in a sack won't get you paid.

Hey, I respect you guys that grind it out all day looking for that 10 lb sack. Like Phoenix, I just can't do it. Not my preferred way to bass fish however, I do understand the competition aspect of it.