Comparing Falcon or Choke to Fork is just not the same in my book. You go to Falcon or Choke to catch ALOT of fish and AlOT of big fish. You come to Fork and you will catch alot of solid slot fish for sure but you wont go out there and bang out a day where you have ten+ fish over 7 or 8 pounds like you would down south. There are simply more big bass down there. Not necessarily the biggest bass but definitely more of them.

I live in Hideaway on I-20 just west of Hwy.69 35 min. from Fork, 25 min. from Lake Palestine or Lake Tyler. Heaven on earth!--Smitty

Hey Timbass,
I did exactly what you are about to do - just about 1 year ago. Moved from So. Cal, but spent almost 25 years in CA, Northern & Southern. I now live in Flint, TX, just a few miles south of Tyler. Like many have said - WAY too many lakes to fish!!! Fork is 1 hour away, Rayburn is 2 hours away (my favorite) and just too many others within an hour or two drive - bass fishing heaven!!!! Tell you what - I'm going to send you an IM with my phone number, I'll tell you my experience in doing what you are about to do. Texas is fabulous!!!

spent my working life either in Corpus area or Houston. Corpus sucks to live there, but its close to Falcon and Choke. When lake Corpus chrisi had water in it it was a good lake. The south texas lakes can get hit hard with drought, I've seen Falcon, Choke and Lake CC almost dry up back in the day.

Houston traffic will make you want to give your boat away try ing to get to Rayburn.

The Dallas area would be my choice, Tyler second.

I work all over the state, lots of nice places to live

I live about 30 miles east of Dallas...I can still go there in a reasonable amount of time but do not have to deal with the traffic or noise...country living for me...if I had to pick the perfect place to live to bass fish it would be in the triangle boundries from Tyler to Canton to Athens...if you live in or around that area you are living in my favorite spot in the state and have access to many lakes with in a hours drive....

Tim, I'm a Southern CA (San Diego) transplant. Your thread seems to have gotten a little hijacked because it was more a question of where in the metroplex area to live. It depends on your situation and finances. Are you retiring here? Will you be working? If so, you have to consider where your job will be. can you work from home? If so, you can move further out to East TX to be close to the lakes there. If you need to be closer to the center of things, you may want to consider Richardson, Plano, Frisco type areas. Close to the heart, but also close to metro lakes like Ray Hubbard, Lavon, Grapevine, Lewisville etc. Urban lakes but still some great fishing. I live in Garland which is 8 miles east of downtown Dallas. Housing is cheap, it's close to where we both work and I'm a city boy, so it works great for me. As for the west side of town (Ft. Worth), I don't live over there, so Ill let others comment on good places to live there. By the way, from my house, I can be at Ray Hubbard, Lavon, Grapevine, Lewisville, Ray Roberts, Tawakoni, Fork, Bonham, Quitman, Cedar Creek, and loads of others in less than 90 minutes. Hope this helps.

If I had my choice I'd live SE of San Antonio. Very close to Choke Canyon, close to Falcon, and even close to Laguna Madre and chasing redfish, speckled trout, and flounder.

Also got some giant deer(racks).
_________________________
+1 on this.

If you love to fish South Texas / San Antoino has it all. Excellent Salt water fishing for Reds, trout, flounder, etc right at a 2 hour drive and the best bass fiheries in the country only an hour and 4.5 hours away with Choke / Falcon / and Amistad. About the only place you can not make a day trip out of is Amistad and Falcon. Also, SA have 2 good powerplant lakes for cathcing stripers, reds, and bass less than 20 mins away. Also have Canyon and the river system about 30 mins away for smalls and stripers.

Cost of living is the best in the country by far for the 7th largest city in the nation.

But just my .02

What is the "largest" city in east TX closest to Monticello, Welsh, Fork that has some form of civilization? i.e (Target,Movies,Dentist,Hospital,Bar,paved roads). Also what is the nearest airport?

Mt Pleasant

Emory,u got Quitman,Minneola,Gilmer,Pittsburg,but Tyler or Longview are the biggest

In a bass boat.

I am a new transplant from Nebraska, 5 weeks now. I have 4 and 7 year old girls, love bass fishing and have fished in my share of Club and Money tournaments over the years. My wife's parents live in just outside Mountain Springs near Vally View (north of Dallas some 50 miles just off of Ray Roberts). I work out of the house (Software Engineer), so can live anyplace I want to. We chose Krum due to it's size (Pop 5K or so), location to her parents (25 miles) and for it's school system.

I am < 30 miles from Ray Roberts, Lewisville and Bridgeport (probably others). < 60 miles from Texoma, Grapevine (and others). 107 miles from Fork. Fishing wise, trying to learn those lakes alone will keep me busy for many years to come. Location wise, Krum seems to be a perfect fit for us. For you, just depends on what you are looking for.

I don't think you will find a shortage of fishing living anywhere around the Metroplex area. Just depends on what you are looking for. The M-plex is a pretty busy area in comparison to the Omaha NE area I came from. But for you, it might not seem that way. There are smaller cities like McKinney. Smaller towns like Krum, Pilot Point and others mentioned here. There are lots of ranches in the area as well.

So depending on what you need as far as your job location and what you are looking for will go a long way on what area of the M-plex you will want to look. You can pretty much find anything you want in the area, but it is a big area so going to be hard for anyone to tell you exaclty what would fit you best without a few details on what you are looking for.

Hey Husker! Toledo Bend Country is the DREAM!

www.toledo-bend.com

Dallas Ft Worth and beyond. I just bought some land to retire to in TX (so I picked Texas), you are still working I take it. I would get something close to work, at 3am when you go fishing you can get thru the traffic OK. Home prices are also important, so close to work and affordable, etc.

I bought land on Sam Rayburn, I have been in and stayed in Longview, Tyler and Lufkin. I thought Tyler was a really nice place and is close to Lake Fork. Longview and Lufkin, seems like Lufkin is up and coming ... but they all had a nice feel to them, not too big or small. Now Tyler seemed a bit bigger. I liked them all.

Good luck.

P.S. I have a home in New Mexico and my plans are to live in Texas during the winter/spring and NM in the summer/fall. I doubt that will work out for me, so I will be getting use to the weather in TX too.

Toledo Bend, Lake Murvaul, Lake Pinkston, DEEP EAST TEXAS!

The BEST 3 if you ask me! (Kinda like if the glove dont fit, you

must acquit!

I believe you. But our move wasn't just about the fishing. I lived in Omaha for 19 years and it was great, the winters were just a little to long. This move was about getting away from those winters and moving closer to the in-laws. If it were only about fishing, I would have moved to Fork's, Falcon's, Amistad's, T-Bend's, S-Rayburn's, Clear's, C-Dela's or G-Vill's door step (notice all but a few of those lakes are in Texas). Maybe in another 20 years or so. The Krum area is a pretty good fishing move from where I am coming from, at least on paper. Ask me a year from now .

I have given this subject much thought over the last 10-yrs, things to consider for us were not only the excellent fishing and quality of life an area provides, but the health needs for our latter yrs, and of course the dreaded property taxes.
To choose wisely is very important at the start, or you'll waste needed earnings on a bad decision.
East Texas offered everything we sought in the Best place to live category. More(GOOD)lakes than you can shake a fish'n pole at. Dallas,Tyler,Longview,Greenville,etc... all within an easy commute from Lake Fork.
Great people and fantastic neighbors, and both of our families are in either Winnsboro, or Pittsburg. That's convenient at Holidays or just whenever.

Good luck with your choice, if it makes you happy, it's a good one.

East Texas is great. I lived in California my whole life. [Bakersfield] Great city kind of like Texas. Great trout fishing in the Kern River from the mouth of the canyon all the way up to Johnsondale [8,000 ft] and only 2 hrs from the Pacific Ocean [Morro Bay] i miss all that but took a job transfer to East Texas [4 years ago] got hooked on Bass fishin and will retire here. Live north of Longview and there are many lakes to fish that are very close.Going to Fork next week on a trip with James Caldemeyer. Can't wait,Its quite different out here [property taxes the weather] but the air is clean people are friendly and the fishin is great. WELCOME!!!!!

If you like the city or being close to it, I'd definately say Dallas.. Any kind of fishing you want within an hour and a half.

are you frickin stoned again?

SAGINAW, TEXAS

Got to be Tyler area. Great lakes within one hundred miles circle of this city. Bet you can't wait for Cali. to start taking 10% of your paycheck. Good luck

Best thing to do is live around the San Antonio area and you can fish all the top lakes. You will be close to Amistad, Falcon, and Choke Canyon, these 3 are the top 5 lakes in Texas.

wtf, the prices over there are more expensive then Dallas.

i LIVE IN wINNSBORO tx AND AM 15 MINUTES FROM fORK. tHERE ARE ABOUT 10 MORE LAKES IN THIS AREA WITHIN 30 MINUTES TO GET TO. WE HAVE COOLING LAKES FOR POWER PLANTS AND A LOT OF THE SMALL LAKES IN AND AROUND HERE. EAST TEXAS NEAR LAKE FORK FOR SURE IS THE BEST PLACE TO LIVE!!!!