It does make a diffrence

In terms of actually catching fish
It does make a difference when you know where the fish are.
After 3 days on a Fork during the Sealy and zero fish, I thought I had list the technique to catch them
Then this morning I go back to Athens and go to where I know there are fish. In 3 hours I catch 15 fish, no dinks and 3 over 5 pounds.
Fishing is all about being where the fish are and giving them something they want, either to feed or attack.
So,,,,,,
In years past Fork has not been that difficult to catch fish from,
Why is it hard now ? And don't say it is not,,, just look at the numbers from the 3 days of the Sealy

Friday morning about 100 fish were dumped but Friday second shift (after 10 AM) almost 3 times that many and a few overs.

Saturday morning was slow again but Saturday second shift there was a bunch dumped.

Sunday morning and second shift had plenty of fish brought to the scales. Stuffed the live release boat.

Fork has had a strange year where the fish were not always where they were supposed to be per the time of the year. But with the large numbers of anglers in the Sealy event it really didn't matter cause they covered all of the lake.

But a lot had to wade through all of the dinks to get a decent keeper.

Bruce just hit the answer.
Fork has fish , however they are in groups, not spread all over the lake like they were in the past.

the large number of anglers covered the entire lake.
So the one that were on the scattered groups caught em.
the rest fish all day with no bites.
jmho

Most guides I have fished with on Fork when asked about the hardest month to catch fish on Fork answer.......September.

Which supports my original topic statement. You have to know where the fish are.
They are tightly grouped and in specific spots. When you find em and get em going it is sure a lot of fun

September is the worst month to fish Fork IMO... Turnover doesn't help much either... But every once in a while ( not that often for me), you can find a spot out deep where they are loaded up and hammer em in September! I live on the lake and have fished it exclusively for over 20 years and still have more bad days then good... But the good days definatley out weigh the bad.

Big fish on Fork is not a sure thing in September, never has been.
That being said, Fork is not what it used to be.
I won't fish with live bait, but I have caught countless fish over 7 lbs in September.
WE might think about letting Fork rest for awhile.
We can abuse our fisheries.

That's two threads were it is brought up that we should give the lake a rest. I would love to hear from someone who has scientific evidence of a decline, not just conjecture. I think the surveys are still good, and the slot is mostly doing it's job. Some issues I see are not enough harvest of the smaller unders, I don't eat fish, so I don't keep them. The white bass introduction has probably caused at the very least some changes in how/what/where the larger blacks feed.

If you want to give Fork a rest, are you saying guides should stop hunting the groups of big fish? Or is your concern only with the tournaments? A rest is a rest, and you'd have to close it down to fishing. That ain't gonna happen with the number of people living on the lake and its economic impact to the area.

I'll let ya'll in on something I heard from countless pros during the TTBC. Fork doesn't have the numbers of good fish it used to. Higher water during that event certainly spread them out, so I'm sure that played a roll. A few guys got on some good deep fish and one got on some good shallow ones. But I talked to numerous guys who never found more than one good school in practice nor during the actual tournament. I'm sure the weather played a roll in that too. But what I heard echos what I have personally witnessed the past several years.

The days of finding big schools of legitimate 5-7 pound fish seem to be much fewer and further between.

We must remember that severe drought and low water levels for three straight years brought very poor spawns/recruitment. Now we have a bazillion young bass and, given fairly stable water levels, I look for Fork to rebound nicely in a couple years when these fish are in the slot.

We must also remember that the lake is 35 years old. Lakes change, become less fertile, lose habitat, etc. over that long a time. Fork is still a great lake, but she isn't what she once was. That's only natural but I agree with Mr. McCarty that she could use a rest. Especially from tournaments but that isn't going to happen, unfortunately.

Well said... The fact that the lake has withstood the constant pressure for years now, year in and year out, is nothing short of amazing.

To employ the number of guides it does and handle that much pressure just shows how good she once was.

So many people have these memories of that magical day on Fork and I think those are getting harder to come by.

posted this on the other "let it rest thread"

what if the folks in charge closed one, Just one major creek arm to fishing during the spawn months?
rotate to another creek every year ???

that would leave the rest open to guide, fish, waterski(oops) and not hurt anybody .
would keep two ball-hats in a boat from disturbing every bed possible in just one major creek

20 years ago, when the Minnow Bucket was newer and prettier, big numbers of slots were common. Having a 5 pounder on a crankbait with 2 more trying to take it away from her is something I havent seen for a while. A lot of the trees that were along places like Lands End have broken off and fallen over. I dont know how that affects the bite now but the lake looks different. I have been down there 4 times this year and it has been hard to catch fish. Have had good luck catching little bucks in the pads back in Mustang but I have found the deepwater humps tough to fish. Finally heard a guide say make 30 casts and move on to the next if you dont get a bite. If you ever fished Monticello it was king in its heyday but it has changed now as well. Tough year though with floods.

You might take a look at the results from the Triton owners tournament.
Nearly half the field zeroed.
You think we have too many "unders", that need to be harvested?

+ 1 Richard

There might just be too many unders . I set on one point during Sealy's and caught close to eighty small fish . With only one descent size under

SMDH!!!
Those were this year's spawn.
You do know that it takes a fingerling app. 4 years to get to 16 inches on Fork, right?
This is the kind of [censored] I'm talking about.
Whacking 8,9,10 inch fish is not helping recruitment into the slot!
A bunch of those 80 fish you caught will probably have an injury that will eventually kill them.

SMDH ? What is that ?

Here's what it means.
Tournaments on Fork that force anglers to target the "unders", will cause these anglers to pound on yearling bass, hoping to catch 5 weighable fish.
Little fish are fragile, and a lot of them simply won't survive hookups.

Shaking my (damn/dang/darn/dumb/dense) head. Not sure why he'd do that though, the guy was fishing and the point of fishing is trying to catch fish. You fellas should come over to the South & Central Texas if you want to see sucky lakes.

again I agree with you Richard there should be a solution to this under haunting . maybe some good tournament format that fits our slot lakes and that's not just Fork

Good to see you post.
You do know that you are the only person on this forum that knows my origins.
From fishing Squaw Creek in the early '80s out of my 2 man boat, to freezing our asses off on Granbury that day in the old 15 Trophy bass boat, after it broke.
That was back when my goal was to catch a legal keeper out of a public lake.,

Richard I've been reading this and other threads on this subject. And I've tended to agree with most of the things you say/claim. I can tell you are passionate about Fork. But sir, this statement is over the top. To criticize an angler for sitting on a point and catching too many fish is ridiculous. Get this conversation back to be credible and lets continue the constructive conversation.

Thanks.
My point in this statement was to put into perspective what a tournament that targets the "unders" on Fork will make a contestant do.
targeting these yearling bass, trying to catch a limit of "unders" really does kill a lot of small bass, that otherwise could grow into the slot healthy.
But, I do agree with you, my response was a little harsh. I apologize.

Lake Athens is Where its at!! going in the Morning!!

Did you try live bait and cast netting?

fouz i think your drought argument is much more compelling than the age thing. here is why i say that. Look at the bassmaster top 100 list - i know its not scientific or anything, but its a decent list of top bass fisheries. I find it interesting there's only a few reservoirs (but a ton of natural lakes) above fork on the list and they are all older than Fork by a considerable margin. Guntersville for example is a perennial top-10 lake yet it was impounded in ... 1939?? None of them however were hit as hard as fork by the drought.

Having said all that - we are pretty spoiled to live in such close proximity to some of the best bass fishing on the planet.

Fork handed me my arse a few times this year, but i bet this winter and next spring we see topic titles posted here saying "Fork is on FIRE"

in general i think the bait this year stayed spread out, never really formed concentrations (excepting lake Athens) because they didn't have to - and for that reason we haven't seen the same concentrations of bass. the rule was always 90% of the fish occupy 10% of the water - but i don't think that was the case this year.

my opinion - its worth at least what you paid for it

1. Toledo Bend, Texas/Louisiana [185,000 acres]
2. Sturgeon Bay (Lake Michigan), Wisconsin [from Little Sturgeon Bay to Fish Creek]
3. Lake St. Clair, Michigan [430 square miles]
4. California Delta, California [1,100 square miles]
5. Sam Rayburn Reservoir, Texas [114,500 acres]
6. Lake Guntersville, Alabama [70,000 acres]
7. Green Bay (Lake Michigan), Wisconsin [up to Little Sturgeon Bay]
8. Thousand Islands (St. Lawrence River), New York [50-mile stretch]
9. Clear Lake, California [43,785 acres]
10. Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota [132,000 acres]
11. Lake Coeur d’Alene, Idaho [25,000 acres]
12. Kentucky/Barkley Lakes, Tennessee/Kentucky [160,309 acres and 58,000 acres, respectively]
13. Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees, Oklahoma [46,500 acres]
14. Lake Champlain, New York/Vermont [490 square miles]
15. Lake Fork Reservoir, Texas [27,690 acres]

I don't think any tournament "targets" unders,,,,,but when you fish a slot lake and the big girls are hard to catch, guess what you are going to weigh in.
On lake Athens with the slot starting at 14 inches, the unders are even hard to put in the live well.
Speaking of Athens,,,,,,you guys quit talking about Athens and stay the heck away.
It is too small of a lake to support the pressure it has been getting.

Richard McCarty I am waiting on the definition SMDH please.

It means Slap my damn head.
If you have to catch 80 fish to catch one decent "under" you might be on the wrong pattern.
Plus, no telling how much damage that does to those little guys.

I'll get someone to stand on the bottom of the lake and hold a sign "Please, Nothing Under 14" Bite My Lure".