Today.......I heard a guy on a fishing radio show today that indicated that last year Lake Fork got so much rain water that it completely changed a road bed that they used to fish on. I have to qualify this and say that I only got to hear the tail end of this program. There may have been some parts that I didn't hear that would have made his comments make sense however, again, I missed that part. No matter, I've heard something like this said often in the past. If I understood this person correctly, they indicated that it was so much run-off water that the erosion actually moved the road gravel and other debris to another location that they now then began to catch fish on. He actually said that people would see them and wonder why they were catching fish on that area now. He went on to say that Lake Fork is a living organism and is constantly changing. Basically, it seemed that he was indicating that old patterns don't work at Fork anymore and that you can't depend upon known, lake structure. So, I suppose that this is a case of a road, that went on a road trip!
Now in my opinion, there's two things wrong with this scenario. For one, I have to say that I don't know which underwater road he might of been talking about. That erosion may have actually taken place at that road however I'm fairly certain that the erosion began way back in the early 1980's as the lake began to be filled and in some cases before that. It has been my experience that lake erosion usually doesn't work overnight, at least not on Fork. It didn't just happen last year for this road or any other road. Here is a fact. Every road in this lake will get silt through time. It's like leaving your house UN-attended for 35 years and coming back and there is dust every where. The lake is the same way except that you have turbulence from boat traffic, erosion, wind will blow water up on main lake humps, points and banks causing erosion, trees will fall and settle to the bottom of the lake and etc., etc. The idea that erosion creates a fish able structure to me does not seem feasible. Erosion usually will just decimate structure to the point that it's more sediment on the bottom and now it's just a flat or sloped lake bottom. Erosion makes a nice point or hump that previously had a very well defined drop into something that is now less desirable for bait and bass to relate to. I'm guessing that possibly in this case the bait may have moved and these particular bass followed them. It's a guess, however I don't believe that good structure moves to new fish able location. In 35 years of hydro graphic sounding on lakes for the productions of my maps or work for the Corps of Engineers I've not seen one instance of this phenomena happen.
The other part of this has to do with people saying that old patterns no longer work. You know the spawn is an old pattern. It's as old a pattern as I know of and everyone I know still sets their watch by it. March 15th is usually pretty close to the beginning of it on Fork. I hear these people on the radio that talk about Fork being a living creature and they tell you that you can't depend upon the past and at the same time when they take a client out on the lake they take them right back to a structure that's been in the lake since day one like Chicken Ridge or Dale's Hump. So I see a lot of what I consider "sales" talk out there. Do they tell you that it's possible to be on Dales Hump in three or four feet of water and in a very short distance away see the water drop off to forty three feet deep? Four to forty three depth change in a boat length or less. These same people probably don't know that at the bottom of that drop-off lies a man-made concrete dam with a gut that was formed when the creek blew out the dirt around that dam before the lake was built? They can't tell you that you can tell the location of this structure by the tree line. They can't tell you that those same trees follow that bank from the concrete skirt up the bank toward that hump. I'm certain that this area has had it's share of erosion and silt and you're probably not going to fish the concrete structure at forty three feet deep however the fact is that this place is still a big fish location. Fish in this area have plenty of room to roam. It's a main lake hump with great access to big water, with lots of food and room to spawn, close by.
Erosion in some cases can be your friend. Take for instance on the big water side of this same hump. There is a location over on that side, where you big trees once grew and they great root systems which in time, erosion removed dirt and exposed these massive root systems for these trees and now that eroded area under and around these trees, allows for sanctuary protection for bait fish. You get winds that drive bait up on this hump and here come the bass right after them. At a certain time of year (this should be your first hole to hit the first two weeks in April) the bass actually spawn between these trees and at that time you can go "stumping" which is basically taking a Gene Larew Hawg Craw (6 in a pumpkinseed green). Texas-rig this bait and use a #5 true Turn hook with a 5/16 bullet slip-weight. Drop it down between these stumps and then you wait for that one thump bite to set the hook on. Now that timing is still subject to water temperature but it's one of the known patterns (by some) on this lake. Should you just completely disregard past, known patterns, and throw that information away? The guy was on the radio telling me this so it must be so? I say, that in order for an angler to be completely effective on this lake you really need to know the historical patterns as well as learn to take the present conditions available and make a scientific approach to your fishing decisions based upon combined known facts. Does that not make sense?
Most of the time people will say that erosion is bad. But, in this case erosion actually created a habitat that not everyone knows about. So knowledge is good. Fishing is a science. Erosion is just one of the mechanical s related to fishing, just as water clarity is. These factors are minimal when considering a factor like water temperature. Water temperature has a huge part to do with when the spawn takes place. Back to Dale's hump. For numerous reasons, no matter what people say now a days, the history on this hump and many other places on this lake, still matter. HISTORICAL PATTERNS MATTER!!
This hump is still a huge-fish spot on this lake. It's one of the many places on this lake that a person should completely learn about if they are serious about catching that lifetime trophy bass. Would anyone be interested in the coordinates for this big fish hole? If so write me and I'll send it to you in an e-mail. I might even send you a picture of the concrete structure. I do have it. I'm sure that I'm wrong about all this, but that's my two cents.
Lake Fork Unplugged jimmymartin@martinsmap.com
