Lake Fork Anglers Hard Core (Major League Fishing format) is pretty cool getting to count every fish you catch.

As describe below prior to fishing section 2 of the lake was drawn. Section 1 is all of Big Caney, Section 2 is from where section 1 ends and goes north to the FM 515 West bridge. Section 3 is everything north of there.
Fishing on the new moon many members were using this tournament as a tune up for the Berkley this weekend. The fact that the winners have to give up the goods to all present helps everyone. And since we were just coming off the lake turnover the help was appreciated.

The final will take place on November 16 in one of the two remaining lake sections.

Like the real TV show every fish over 10" counts. You must catch 6 LB + in one of the qualifying tournaments to move into the semi-final. We set it low so most of our members would make to the second level. But there is three ways to qualify. Then in the semi-final on a portion of the lake drawn that morning:

The first ten members to catch 8 lbs will record it on the back of their score sheet and have the other person in the boat sign the sheet and record the time. They will qualify for the finals in November. Which will be held in one of the two remaining lake sections.

Today was the last qualifying tournament for 2017 with the next being the semi-final. Today Tim Gold, Terry Thompson and Stijn Lens qualified for the semi, joining every other participant in Hard Core> None of our members who fished it failed to qualify. A major improvement over 2016.

Today 10/19 was the semi-final where the first ten members to catch 8 lb automatically qualified. In order to even out the boater-co angler ratio members (boaters and co-anglers together) are asked to fill in the open spots based on the total weight they caught during the qualifying tournaments. In this case 5 will be needed.


Boaters:
First place went to Bob Roberts of Longview with 9 bass for 13.17 with a 2.36 lunker.
Second place went to Don Overstreet of Sulphur Springs with 8 bass for 9.62 with the 2.24 lunker
Third place went to Mark Talley of Quitman with 5 bass for 9.31 with THE 3.56 boater lunker.
Fourth place went to Bruce Allen of Lake Fork with 8 bass for 9.0 with a 1.82 lunker
Fifth place went to Charlie Abresch from Hawkins with 3 fish for 8.59 with a 2.24 lunker.

Stijn Lens, our 20 year old visitor from Europe basically blew away for oldsters with 17 bass and a 6+ lunker. He also got to see his first alligator in the wild. Guess where he was fishing?

Co-Anglers (Judges)
First place went to Stijn Lens of Belgium with 17 bass for 22.15 with THE 6.03 lunker.
Second place went to John Markos of Paris with 5 bass for 7.74 with a 1.75 lunker.
Third place went to Jackie Price of Alba with 3 bass for 6.94 with a 1.8 lunker.
Fourth place went to Jerry Krone of Hawkins with 5 bass for 6.1 with a 2.49 lunker.
Fifth Place went to Don Cox of Garland with 3 bass for 4.25 with a 1.91 lunker.
Drop shots, T-rigs and c-rigs accounted for a bunch.

94 keepers were caught with very few slots involved.

For info on fishing this tournament and others put on by the Lake Fork Anglers contact me at sjbasser@aol.com or PM me on here. We have openings for both boaters and co-anglers right now. This is a club that fishes only on Thursday daytime. Dues are $5 a year.

All of our tournaments are priced for seniors as follows. $10 entry 100% payback, $1 for club and $1 for the Top 6 team* So Total entry of $12. Optional lunker pool 80% payback of $5. Optional 100% payback side pot for $10 per person.

In addition to this format that we call "Hard Core" we also fish our regular every other Thursday tournament, and a team tournament all at Lake Fork on a draw style fishing. All of our tournaments "paper" the bass and slot fish count.

If you are as "Hard Core" as some of us you can fish every Thursday like we do. And some Fridays too. And then Opens on the weekend.

Hey we are seniors and we are supposed to be doing something to keep us healthy and our minds sharp and get some vitamin D. LOL At least that is what you need to tell your wife.