Lake Fork schooling observation

let me start out by saying I'm a very average fisherman; been doing it all my life, and most of the last 30+ years on Lake Fork.

my observation is about the lack of largemouth schooling that I am seeing on the lake, both last year and this year. I have a couple of "spots" where I can usually catch bass during the summer months, and up until the last couple of years, there would always be largemouth sporadically schooling all during the day at these spots. but last year, and this year so far, other than an occasional single fish, I've seen no largemouths doing it, just small sand bass.

also, last year, I never saw any large schools of shad, just a lot of very small groups. in years past in these areas, I would see shad schools that would almost cover my whole screen. this year so far, I'm back seeing large schools of shad, but still no schooling from the largemouths.

I hatched a theory about this last sunday while I was sweating and not getting bit. could the lack of schooling be attributed to the largemouth bass feeding on all the small sand bass? before the sand bass went crazy in lake fork, the largemouth had to chase and eat a large quantity of little shad on a daily basis. now, they can just wait for a 4 or 5 inch sand bass to swim by, and they are full for a while. that would explain why I'm seeing fish in these "spots", but other than a couple of bites, they just are not biting. could they just be hanging out down where it's cooler and digesting that last sand bass they just ate? you know how you are after wolfing down a double Whataburger with cheese!!

anyway, I would like to hear what other folks are seeing on lake fork. maybe I'm just not fishing in the right spot....

I've caught a schooling bass this year with a sandbass tail in its throat and it ate every bit of my 8" swimbait, I don't think they are full, I think they are scattered everywhere in the flooded grass and Willows, there's a lot of schools running around, one thing I've noticed I haven't seen them school on the surface yet, they mostly do that start of fall though.

also nearly every schooling bass I see their is sandbass and yellow bass "bar fish" mixed with them.

I saw some school last but they don't stay up long enough.

This is exactly what was happening at Lake Lavon. Water levels were low for a while, then came rushing up. The fishing had not been good since the spring when it started to rain. Now that the lake has stabilized and water levels are returning to normal, so has the fishing. Give it a little more time and see if your bass don't come back.

here is another thought to digest. uaually the summer schooling bass are the 2 lb give or take variety in my experience, (speaking strictly of surface schoolers). the last several fry classes have been decimated by the combination of sand bass population explosion and low water providing little to no cover to hide in for fry. now this years young had plenty of cover but they are not big enough to school on these big open water shad schools yet. that being said i just dont think there is much of a 1-2 yr old class bass in fork right now, therefore greatly reducing the numbers of surface shooling bass in the summer time.

Them small lmb are scared to school as the bigger sandbass are feasting on them, therefore, there is less lmb schooling and the bigger lmb are feasting on the sandbass.

TawokaFork.......................

I miss the good ol days about 20 years ago or so when you could sit in Dale Creek on a late summer afternoon and just wait for the huge school of 5 and 6 lbers to start chasing shad up the creek or through all of the bushes in the shallows. At least when you have experienced it you can always revisit those times again in your memories.

I don't see near as many schooling bass on the surface as I used to on any lake.

Modern electronics probably play a part in this. They used to be harder to find but now anyone can take a graph and find them fairly easily so possibly the added pressure is making them travel in smaller groups.

They will be back in school in a couple weeks

This time of year fishing for schoolers can be pretty productive on Fork. I noticed over the years not just on Fork but other lakes as well on these dog days of summer @ or about 6:00pm on until about 30 minutes before dark the lakes seem to come alive with fish chasing shad on the surface. When I'd go to Fork this time of year I started waiting until about 5:00 pm or so to leave the house; it is about a 30 minute drive, I'd put in at Rainswood and go over to the Birch Creek area and just shut off my big motor and listen for them to break. I'd go to them and throw a chrome blue 1/4 oz. Ratl-Trap and catch a few on back to back cast. Once they died down I'd pitch some soft plastics into the general area I was catching them and pick up one to two more. I'd sit at that spot and listen for them breaking some where else and repeat the process. I'd usually have the opportunity to hit 3 to 4 schools and maybe get a repeat on a school I'd already hit. It was 99% slot fish I was catching but it was a lot of fun.........

Probably low bait fish population or very scattered bait fish will prevent traditional schooling activity. Depends on the body of water and its recent history.

You knowing this, then you can confirm that Fork is no where near the lake that it once was. The South end of the lake would come alive with schooling bass in the fall. Not little fish either acres of 5 & 6 pound schooling bass that would stay up all day long. That has not happened in years. I don't think you can point your finger at one specific cause but it is a combination of things. Fishing pressure, lack of cover, fish mortality and numbers of fish are all factors that contribute to the decline of the lake.

I've seen wolf packs of micro bass in the shallows this summer so far...2"-3" but they are busting little minnows.

and many many balls of tiny shad in every creek. if fish aren't fat this fall it won't be due to lack of shad. there is so much natural bait it may not be as easy to talk the bass into a fake meal.

maybe lake fork has declined somewhat over the years; I think that the fish are still there, but they are more scattered (and suspended) than even 10 years ago, which makes it harder for the average fisherman (like me) to catch the kind of numbers that we used to catch. the lack of the right kind of weeds, and the silt that naturally fills in the creek channels, has not helped any.

does it have anything to do with the sand bass showing up in large numbers? not sure; maybe a fisheries biologist could explain that.

but I do agree that 10 years ago (and back), you could go into any creek arm and find big schools of feeding bass this time of year. and once they stopped schooling, you could drop a texas rig and catch several more.

I guess this old dog is going to have to learn some new tricks.

Don't know if it has anything to do with anything but the major difference in Fork these days compared to say the 90's when I was spending just about every weekend on Fork is Hydrilla. By the way that goes for a lot of other lakes besides Fork. I just remember how much different and better the fishing was for me when the lake was full of hydrilla. And of course this time of year pulling a spinnerbait at night in water approximately 2 to 3 feet over the top of the hydrilla, makes me scared thinking about it.
Another thing about the schooling activity on Fork that I remember is how you also would have a lot of schooling activity in late winter and early spring by really big fat gals in Mustang and other area's by some pre spawn fish.

Is the lake as good as it was in the 90's, Nope, never will be again. There were so many places you couldn't get to, it was unreal. We would leave the big bass boats at home and jump in the lil 2-man bass hunters to access those areas, only way to get in there. Now ----- you can fish everywhere, no secrets. 90% of the timber is below surface or gone, I can remember C-riging out deep on a point or ledge and as mentioned above 5 & 6 lb bass would explode on the surface for a long time and it was on.
We've had a rough time overal since 99 and the LMBV kill, there were a few super good yrs like 06-2010.
The last 4 yrs during the drought, and the 2 very cold winters in 010&011 that killed the grass have changed the lake.. I'm a grass guy, always have been cause Fork has always had grass, and that's what I fished, and liked it.
It for the most part is gone, has showed my weakness for adapting to the new conditions. The days of huge fish schooling behind the 17 bridge in big Mustang are gone but I will always remember the event.
I think if the grass ever comes back, we can see the fish school up close to what they used to.. Not to sure how this sandbass thing is going to play out on the surfacing schools of bass we had, just don't know.
Me and Tommy(TbassYates) above are passonate about the old days on Fork, those were days of high adventure, giant wasp nest, thorny tree's and Huge freak'n fish..... LOL

Never? Man, that's a definitive statement. Maybe you will be right, but not because anyone in the world can actually predict that. I remember people saying that Falcon would "never" be as good as its earlier years. During the AMAZING fishing that lasted about 5-7 years (2005-2012 or so), the same people said it was the best it had ever been. They ate their own words.

I hope you are wrong.

I would love to be wrong, I lived there during those years, and live there now.. You had to be here to experiance the Fork in those days.. I can't imagine anything except a lake in mexico to compare in numbers and size that was here... The deal with Falcon was fabulous, but it didn't get POUND every year like the Fork does. Falcon had time to heal, it's a long way from here...

potty mouth.

Agreed, I fished it before, through, and after the LBV out break and I just don't think it ever fully recovered from that.......I just remember when it happened you could see huge schools of shad in the back of the coves and nothing would be disturbing them at all......

Cue the music from All in the Family with Archie Bunker...

"Those were the days.."

If you think the fishing was good in the late 80's and early 90's, you should hear the stories I tell Dustin and Khristian!

Ken, we all know you tell stories, we are looking for some truth in what you say.

Been guiding here for 33 years now. I have seen this lake go through some drastic changes through all my years. Predator threat against these bass is at a all time high.

30 years ago there was fewer fisherman, less water turkeys,less sand bass,less tournaments and way more cover for the fish to survive. Now days lack of cover and the increase in the predator threats have had a decline in the number of fish per acre.

TP&W wants 25 fish per acre in the lake, but that number is not there. With all the new water and flooded bushes this year, we had a good spawn which we have not had in years so 3 years down the road we should see some very good results from this year alone.

I remember the good old days and have logs showing how good it really was. Maybe one day Fork can be at the top of its game again but the days of fish over 15 lbs are over IMO.

Fished fork all through the 80s , lot's of schooling then.
Tied up to a tree me & bud caught 70 bass, amazin...