LAKE FORK SAND BASS TOURNAMENT JULY 2ND - MORE PRIZES ADDED TODAY - AGAIN TODAY!!!

Okay Folks,

I just hung up the phone with Mark Howard, tournament director for JC Outdoors. Mark is a great guy and puts on a great tournament. He has agreed to put the event on.

He is working on the rules of the tournament now and will post them shortly. He is also talking to Minnow Bucket for the host marina since they have a covered pavilion.

Here are some deets:

Date: July 2, 2016

Time: 6:00 am to 11:00 am

Entry Fee: $70 per team

Guides Allowed to fish

Live bait Allowed

Ten Fish Stringer to be weighed BUT; Each team that brings in 50 fish will be entered into a drawing for a Brand New Big Green Egg MiniMax!!!

http://www.biggreenegg.eu/en/eggs/minimax/

Prize money to be paid out as follows:

1st Place Heavy Stringer of 10 Fish - $1,000.00
2nd Place Stringer $750.00
3rd Place Stringer $500.00
4th Place Stringer $250.00

Biggest Sand Bass $250.00

There will also be a $250.00 Bass Pro Gift Card given to the Junior Division Winner for the Biggest Sand Bass. Must be 16 years old or less on tournament day to be eligible for the Junior Prize.

ALL fish Must be brought to weigh in in edible condition or they will not be considered for any prize money.

If this event does well there will be a follow up event in August.




The Lake Fork Guides and Merchants are getting behind this event in a big way. Here is an up to date list of prizes for the 25 fish entrants. Remember for each 25 sand bass checked in your team will get a ticket toward this drawing.

1. Big Green Egg Mini Max
2. Professional Fishing Guide Zach Hughes 1/2 Day Guided Trip
3. Professional Fishing Guide Ray Vereen 1/2 Day Guided Trip
4. Professional Fishing Guide Lance Vick has donated a Boat Lanes Chip
5. Professional Fishing Guide James Caldymeyer 1/2 Day Guided Trip
6. Professional Fishing Guide Jay Kendrick Donated a Tackle Pack
7. Lake Fork Tackle Donated a Tackle Pack
8. Professional Fishing Guide Justin Margraves 1/2 Day Guided Trip
9. Professional Fishing Guide Jason Smith 1/2 Day Guided Trip

Plus a shot at Serious Cash in the 10 fish weigh in portion of this event.

Im in, thanks for putting it all together. Mark Howard is a great guy, JC Outdoors, great bunch of folks

I applaud you for putting this together. If my schedule allows, I'll make the drive up there and help out in any way I can.

Look at it this way.

Normally you go out to your favorite offshore spot and beat your brains out to catch black bass and all you catch are those magnum Sandies.

Now you can go target the sandies and you know someone will catch a HUGE black bass in the process. It will be a HOOT!!

10 could = 23-25+ lbs......... they are fat right now..

Don't forget the culling scales.

or Balance Beam

Already made my reservations! I finally talked my wife into fishing a tournament with me.

Mark will be on here later to post rules of engagement. They will be pretty loose as this will be a FUN tournament. Bring the wife & kids. There will be a firework show at Oak Ridge the next night so come make a weekend out of it.

Hopefully one of the rules is if you're on them then you must wave all anglers in the area to come in and help catch all they can out of that school. 🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑

You da man. Now I gotta find me a partner. Wonder if Clunn is busy.

Hmmm, my wife is out of town that weekend.

Depends if you are fishing spinnerbaits

Sounds like a fun time. Going to wear my Bobo's Thumper jersey.

Rick and I went to different schools together, as a matter of fact our brothers had sisters by the same mother.

Spider rig some big minners...catch them until your arms hurt.



Gman

Sounds like a good time, might try to make it.

Find a patner Brad. Me and Dale will be there.

I'm in if my schedule allows.
Here's a suggestion, in the OT tournament they tied ribbons on the trolling motor heads to encourage fun and harassment among the competitors. Maybe do the same for this one to help encourage teamwork catching these pests?

That's awesome I have never heard of a sandbags tournament should be fun.

Looking forward to it.

Minnow Bucket just confirmed! I will keep updates on this thread.

Trailering WILL be allowed. The tournament director had even suggested we accept Three-Person Teams. Your team would still weigh TEN fish. Each team member that brings in a limit of 25 sandies will have their name entered into a drawing for a Very Special Prize to be given away at the end of weigh in.

Stay tuned!

I might have to make it over to fork for this one have a 4 day weekend that weekend. Probably the only way I have a chance at catching a big bass out there is fishing for sandies.

That will be a Bonus!!!

I'm gonna try and make this.

Ken, I agree with Mark that 3-person teams should be okay. I would like to offer a suggestion that, if you guys want to allow three person teams, at least one person on a 3-person team be a JUNIOR angler or a kid (16 years old or younger).

Then bring your girlfriend

So what was determined where all the fish weighed in go? Might be several area churches i can think of that would take some.

Several guys have offered to contact the local churches. Do you know of someone that would like some of the fish? No guarantees on how many there will be.

I will sure check with some and see.

Huge Fish Fry!!!

Good idea Alex! I'll speak with Mark about it.

Ideally there would just be a huge fish fry afterwards I.e. Lunch provided

No lunch provided at this event brother but I can use some help disposing of all the uncleaned fish after the event.

Some folks will want to keep the fish they catch for them selves. The reason I wanted to do this event was twofold.

Rid the lake of some of the pesky critters to help the fishery and help some needy families with some fresh fish for their supper table.

The unknown factor is just how many fish will we have to get rid of?

Can I put 9 people on my pontoon boat and cal that my team.?

It could be 3 teams

Good thinking TX Rig , like to see total weight from that entry .

Great job Ken!

Unfortunately I will be out of town but I hope to catch the next one.

Glad you guys are doing this.

Ken, great idea, looks like alot of folks will participate. I wish I was in town that weekend dadgummit. Try to catch the next one, thanks for your work. HWH

Sorry Ken, I said early on that I would fish it.

But retired fixed income. $70 is to rich for my budget.

We are out.

Ken, I am still in. Just waiting to see how I register.

Think I may have to back out as well. Seems personal obligations should take precedent over a sandbass tournament...apparently

Texting and cell phone use should be encouraged for finding fish!

Awesome!!! Tie up, share umbrella rigs, turn up the tunes -- sounds like a great time!!!

I'm so in on this! Good idea Ken! Let me know if you need anything from me bud!

Zeeter...I am following you homie!!! Watch your boat brother, I will be tracking yo azz all over the lake!

Me too!!

Can you say, Boat Show??

I need some folks to find some folks that will haul off all the fish nobody (like me) wants at weigh in. If you could help me find a couple guys that would show up at weigh in with heavy duty trash bags and ice, we will Hook Them Up!!!

Will you just run registration that morning at the minnow bucket. We are actually staying there that weekend and wont mind helping out cleaning some fish. Go ahead an put me down for a boat

Yes you should be able to register the morning of the event at the Minnow Bucket. Mark Howard will be posting soon. Thanks!

ok sounds good.

Ken: I will help clean fish at weigh in if needed, but if Minnow Bucket can let us use their dumpster for the remains that would be great. I can bring a cleaning table, electric knife, trash bags, and zip locks for the fillets. I am not sure what to do with the fillets. I will gladly take home my 50 fish to have my own family fish fry, if I am short on my limit I will gladly accept donations to get to my limit, but I don't need over 50.

Did the volunteer fire departments turn down the fish. Also we will need some paperwork on hand to transfer fish from person to person so someone can have over their daily limit.

"we will need some paperwork on hand to transfer fish from person to person"

Here ya go:

http://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdforms/media/pwd_980_l2000_wildlife_resource_document.pdf

Take the scraps, go bait some trees and have a catfish tourney the following weekend

remains are great for gardens...

exactly what I was referring too. Ken, need me to print out a few of these??

Ken just saw a report on Chanel 5 about a "Hunt Fish Feed", Pig Man was donating pork to feed the vets. Sounds like they will accept fish also.

OK...so I sold my boat...have Alabama rigs and storm swim baits - will travel. Need to ride in Zeeters boat...this could cost me!

I am happy to announce the prize for the drawing will be a Brand-Spanking - New Big Green Egg MiniMax Grill!!

To be eligible to win the MiniMax your TEAM must bring in 50 Sand Bass to weigh in. Even though only your Best Ten will be weighed for the stringer weight, we want to remove as many of these things as legally possible. So both Team Members will be entered into a drawing to be held at the conclusion of weigh in for a chance to win the Big Green Egg MiniMax.

Come fish with us and help us make this event a success so we can have followup events just like it!!

I know since they set the weigh-in limit at 10 hopefully everyone will keep all they catch and hopefully some will even bring an ice chest since it will be hard to keep 50 alive in a live well.

Remember this tournament is to try and pull out as many sandbass that we can catch. I know ill have a few frozen 32oz gatorade bottles to throw in the live well as well as an extra ice chest.
Hopefully we have 50+ teams and even pulling out 1000+ sand bass don't seem like a lot but it is and hopefully most are female (hehe).
Hopefully the turnout is good and fish will bite and 2-3 more of these we can least get 2000+ out of the lake and headed in the right direction.

That is a deal on the drawing prize!! Ok a question or two. I doubt the GW will show up to weigh in but is there a minimum length limit on sand bass? I don't fish tournaments much but have a question. Does the entry fee need to be in cash since it is the day of and is there any kind of entry form we need to complete?

Yes. 10 inches. I would not take a chance on bringing a fish that doesn't meet the size limits to any weigh in on Fork.

Mark Howard is working up the rules. He has been travelling or he would have had them posted already. You will be able to register the morning of the event at the Minnow Bucket. He may allow registration the day before as well. I will let him say.

Glad I read thru all this. The rules at the start of the post said bring the fish to the weigh-in in eatable condition. I was thinking I needed more time to clean em and cook em before the weigh-in. LOL moment!

It sounds like a team is two people if the total fish per team is 50. I may only want to put 6 fishermen in the pontoon and 2 on the bass boat. The bass boat can scout while the mothership waits to come in for the kill.

I have big family party over the 4th of July holiday weekend. I will see if they want to fish.

Three person teams will be allowed. They just weigh Ten fish like the other teams.

The way we fish we will be lucky to find ten fish.

I will be there for sure then. Sounds a good reason for 3 generations to fish together.

I will have a couple hundred slabs available if anyone needs any.

Hello Guys! This is going to be a fun and relaxing event for everyone. I will get you guys a list of rules by Sunday. Day 2 of the FLW Tour kicks off in an hour. Sitting in 18th needing about 16-17 lbs today for the win! Thanks Ken for getting this party started!

Go Mark! Beat those Champlain basses!!

Professional Fishing Guide Zach Hughes has graciously donated a Half-Day guided fishing trip as one of the prizes to be given away to one of the lucky guys that brings in a full limit of sandies!

Date of that trip to be worked out mutually between Zach and the winner.

Lance Vick has donated a Boat Lanes Chip to be given away to one of the lucky guys that brings in a limit of sandies!

Professional Fishing Guide Ray Vereen has graciously donated a Half-Day guided fishing trip as one of the prizes to be given away to one of the lucky guys that brings in a full limit of sandies!

Date of that trip to be worked out mutually between Ray and the winner.

Catching Sand Bass on Fork is harder for me than catching LMB.
Somebody tell me where they are and I'll go catch em

if the idea is to catch as many SB as possible to remove them from the lake then info should be readily available and shared ----- ?? Right ??

I hope so! I poured water out of my graph I'll need all he help I can get.

i'm in same boat hopefully i'll find some sandies too.
may need some of them slab's too...

Try the horseshoe Nut, sits between Mustang Creek and LFM. Get about a quarter mile off the west bank into about 23ft. Of water and use a jigging spoon. There was a trotline tied up to a tree right on the ridge if it's still there that's the sweet spot.

Sounds like a fun event,i'm in. Has it been determined yet if you can sign up friday?

NUT shouldn't have any problem finding the "horseshoe" KO, there will probably a boat tied to every tree around it, lol. I used to fish there back in the early 90's. Caught a lot of nice LMB but that was before the sandies showed up. Be funny if somebody hooked a 12-13 lb. bass there fishing for sandies, might happen too.

Mark Howard, tournament director is on his way back from New York where he just fished the FLW event on Lake Champlain. Normally he allows registration the night before at his trailer over at Minnow Bucket. That's what we plan to do.

He will need to chime in to verify.

Is there any way to register other than the morning before the tournament? I will be coming from work that morning and might be running late.

Probably.. Mark will be on here tomorrow with more details.

Professional Fishing Guide JAMES CALDEMEYER has graciously donated a Half-Day guided fishing trip as one of the prizes to be given away to one of the lucky guys that brings in a full limit of sandies!

Date of that trip to be worked out mutually between James and the winner.

The guides all seem to be on board with this event. They know that for every adult sand bass removed from the lake, a black bass will have more to eat!

Professional Fishing Guide JAY KENDRICK has graciously donated a very nice Tackle Grab Bag as one of the prizes to be given away to one of the lucky guys that brings in a full limit of sandies!

I haven't read through this whole thread but you're saying every team that brings in 50 fish to weigh are in a drawing for these guide trips? There is 3 or 4 of them from Lake Fork guides?

I am discussing with Mark about this. It is not as easy as one might think to catch 25 sandies in a five hour period unless you are really on them.

Should we require each two-man team to have a limit of 50 fish? If Three Men, 75 total.

OR....

Should we allow each person that catches a 25 fish limit to be eligible for the drawing?

Open to ideas here.

Lake Fork Tackle has donated a Tackle Pack for one of the Prize Drawings!!

Ken, I may end up fishing by myself. If so 25 would be my choice but don't change rules on my account. Majority rules.

Oddly, I'm very excited for this tourney. Should be a blast. Lol

TD call I guess. Going to be kind of hard to keep track of whose fish are whose if you make it an individual tourney. Especially if the fishing is fast & furious as is hoped.

Okay bud. Let's see what the TD says. He makes the rules.

Could be I suppose - Good point.

hopefully the teams that catch 10 doesn't stop there and tries to catch a limit of 50 per team the Main reason for this tournament is to pull out the maximum per boat otherwise we are defeating the purpose of the tourny.

on the drawing hopefully each person that catches a limit will have his/her name in the drawing as i know some kids and women will be fishing and may be tougher for them to limit out. i know i will have a female fishing with me..

I think if the team has 25 then one person gets their name in the drawing and 50 fish equals 2 names on the drawing.

This is what I'm thinking too.

I agree with 1 ticket per 25 Sandbass.

Looking forward to the tourney. Laid back and fun.

Could do 75 for three man teams.

Exactly

.......a lil eye candy.

Yep, that's the target.

Looks like you've been to that spot a couple time's Zeet...... ................gonna be fun, looking forward to seeing some of you guys again...

Professional Fishing Guide JUSTIN MARGRAVES has graciously donated a Half-Day guided fishing trip as one of the prizes to be given away to one of the lucky guys that brings in a full limit of sandies!

Date of that trip to be worked out mutually between Justin and the winner.

Teams can consist of up to 3 anglers per boat. We want you to bring your ten biggest sand bass to the scales. For each 25 sand bass weighed in you will receive an entry into the prize drawings. We encourage everyone to bring a big cooler with lots of ice to keep the sand bass in edible condition. For those who want to keep their sand bass that is great, we encourage you to enjoy them at your own fish fry. For those who have no desire to keep your sand bass you will have the opportunity to donate them to others less fortunate. We will have wildlife transfer documents for each team member to fill out if you are donating your sand bass to others.
We have decided on the hours of first cast 6:00 AM and all fishing ceases at 11:00 AM, at that point proceed to weigh in. Anglers must be in weigh line with their 10 fish by 12:00 Noon!

As stated above iced fish will be weighed, not frozen fish. All fish being weighed must be caught during tournament hours of 6am to noon on tournament day. All entrants are subject to a polygraph.

This is going to be a fun event with limited rules and restrictions. I encourage anyone who is on them to invite others in to help wreck the school and increase the total amount of fish being harvested.

We will supply each team with a ribbon to display on their trolling motor throughout the tournament day so that others will be able to recognize a fellow competitor. There will not be a 25 yard rule in place for this event, these are school fish and with the size of these schools everyone should be able to fish around each other without issues.

Please remember to be courteous to one another and when approaching other boats who are fishing please shut off the main motor and approach the school with your trolling motor.

I will get an entry form and setup an online registration through PayPal later today (PayPal rates will be added to the online registration).

Diane and I will be at Pope's Landing Thursday for the working mans tournament where we will take on site registration and on site registration once again on Friday evening at The Minnow Bucket Marina from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. at the on the water pavilion. Saturday morning registration will be in the Minnow Bucket restaurant from 5:00 AM to 6:15 AM.

Thanks
Mark Howard
214-773-5451

Mark, will there be a check in and what time ? Rules said stop fishing at 11am so is there a time limit to weigh in or check in? Thanks

Took son out Saturday, I may be the only guy on fork who cant find any. maybe we were to early, or deep. did find some underwater bridges I did not know where there, but that's not much, I only get out a few times a year. Checked both 515 bridge submerged road beds, other road beds and points, main lake. I suck.

This is a trailering event so we will have boats launching from ramps all over the lake. All contestants weighing fish will have until 12:00 Noon to be in line with their 10 fish for weigh in. After weighing their 10 sand bass they may bring there fish up for the tickets for raffle prizes.

I will also try to get some of the guides to update us throughout the week on sand bass activity and areas to focus on. They want this event to be successful as much as anybody.

Thanks
Mark Howard
214-773-5451

Perfect. Your experience is showing. I won't be looking for sand bass, I'll be looking for ribbons, lol. Last time I caught a sand bass Reagan was president.

I have 3 boys ages 8,8 and 9. Can I be the captain and not fish? I totally understand if the answer is no but who knows if there will ever be another fantastic tourney like this that is only 1/2 day. Thank you.

Kewl idea... get them started young..

Last time I was out both 515 road beds were covered up with them. You couldn't pull a crankbait through there without getting a 2 pound sandy!!

I have no problem with that at all. With 3 boys you on sand bass you wouldn't get a chance to fish anyway! Anybody that sees this boat of younguns please wave them in on the juice!

Sweet! They are fired up. 1 more question that they just asked me, can we still swim? Haha!

That's what this is all about right there!!



Can I make a suggestion to the man fishing with three young boys?

Before you start fishing mash all the barbs down on their lures. It will help you unhook thie fish and will also make it much easier to extract a hook in the event one of them gets a little excited and hooks his little brother. Don't ask me how I know this.....

got a family barbeque to attend, so unfortunately can't make it.

but, I was out on Fork on Friday afternoon; fished the point between Williams and Mustang, fished the point just south of LFM, and fished another spot near the dam. I marked fish at all locations, but not a lot of shad. the fish were all over the water column, but seems mostly in the 15-20 range. no surface schooling at all. ended the day catching 1 medium sized sand bass on a white crankbait. I tried everything I had that was either silver or white, but they just didn't seem to be biting that day.

what was I doing wrong? although I can't fish this event, I plan on doing my share to reduce the sand bass population over the coming months.

good luck to everyone!

We need more tournaments like this! These things put a hammer on bass and bass forage on Lake Fork!

I don't know, I didn't see anything, saw a few people fish and no one pulled one up. I am sure they move thru, we just didn't have it timed right.

Ken, is that like promoting ? Saturday comes around and there will be so many boats under those bridges you'll have to take a number to pass through, lol.

so tourny has moved to 6-12 instead of 6-11

Fishing time 6 am to 11 am.

No it is 6 to 11 and in line no later than 12 noon.

Rules state to cease fishing @ 11:00 am and be in weigh in line by 12:00 pm..... #hookem

I can say this: many of the sandies are now suspending for most of the day.

Looks like we may be trolling for sandies if they don't stay put.

Do whatever you need to do but get them out of the lake!

The roadbeds are adjacent to, not under the bridges GIG'EM.

So where are these little suckers hanging out at? Mainlake points, lower end of the lake, humps? I'm considering fishing this but I have never been out looking for them. I'm seeing cool screen shots on here but that doesn't help much.

I was out Sunday morning. SRA point. The water was boiling all over in 5-15 foot of water. They were on the point for about an hour. There were a lot of 10-15 inch large mouth mixed in with them.

Yes to all. And all road beds

Not a bad idea with young anglers, that's how we fished for bass, back in the day...

For those who would like to register and pay online. Copy and Paste the link provided here and include names of all anglers including yourself on the team. Convenience fee added to cover PayPal charges.

paypal.me/jcoutdoors/75

I have my family July 4th get together at my place each year but what a great idea this was and put into motion. Brings back so many memories when my family had a lake house on Whitney back in the 70's. My dad would take us out in his old stick steering boat. We would troll a Hellbender with an Abu spinner trailing it. Then when we would happen onto a school we would have Lil Georges, Slabs and Tiny Torpedos tied on for the schooling action. It is a blast to have this fun fishing but it can be at other lakes and everyone participating in this is doing a great thing for Lake Fork and it's largemouth bass population.

Hello Bruce, this is $70 per team of up to 3 anglers. Less than $25 each. Come join us in battle Brother!

The Lake Fork Guides and Merchants are getting behind this event in a big way. Here is an up to date list of prizes for the 25 fish entrants. Remember for each 25 sand bass checked in your team will get a ticket toward this drawing.

1. Big Green Egg Mini Max
2. Professional Fishing Guide Zach Hughes 1/2 Day Guided Trip
3. Professional Fishing Guide Ray Vereen 1/2 Day Guided Trip
4. Professional Fishing Guide Lance Vick has donated a Boat Lanes Chip
5. Professional Fishing Guide James Caldymeyer 1/2 Day Guided Trip
6. Professional Fishing Guide Jay Kendrick Donated a Tackle Pack
7. Lake Fork Tackle Donated a Tackle Pack
8. Professional Fishing Guide Justin Margraves 1/2 Day Guided Trip
9. Professional Fishing Guide Jason Smith 1/2 Day Guided Trip

Plus a shot at Serious Cash in the 10 fish weigh in portion of this event.

Mark....if you need any additional help I would be more than pleased. I only have one operable arm right now or I would join in on the catching.

You mean this post Gig'Em?.....lol. I know it is hard for ya but you are making it too easy. :-)

Correction, it is fish until 11:00am and in line by 12:00 noon. There is a family reunion coming into the pavilion after us. If I could find where I put the wrong time I would correct it. If you show up at 1:00 pm we will be wrapping up.

First Cast 6:00 AM
STOP FISHING 11:00 AM

Mark,
I copied the rules and added them to Kens first post, easy to find, page 1, post 1....

Thanks Billy!

First cast 6:00 AM

All fishing ceases at 11:00 AM

Aggie please delete the post you copied me on. That way there is no more confusion.

It is 6:00 AM First Cast

11:00 AM all fishing ceases

In line with your 10 fish to be weighed no later than 12:00 Noon

Will do.

so any guides or others that are catching sand bass on here wanna post baits and maybe photos of them. i have heard of slabs but have no idea of what they look like. I have a A-rig and few spoons from academy thats all i have don't wanna go out there with wrong baits.

Thanks
Jeff

Finch Nasty is donating a $50 gift card to be used online at www.finchnastybaitco.com. All team members from teams that have a Junior Angler will have an opportunity to win, regardless of whether or not they catch a fish. Those of you that know me, know I am passionate about getting kids on the water and this is the perfect opportunity to do that. I appreciate the effort everyone is making
to help the lake. If all goes well, my little boy and I will be out there hunting them down with you guys on Saturday.

Jeff, you're funny. I remember a morning a couple of months ago that we couldn't shake those sandies off the hook. A-rig works or stop by the Minnow Bucket and get you some of those KT spoons. Deep diver will catch em too. Catching them is usually about finding them. They will eat just about anything shiny and shaped like a shad if you keep it in the strike zone.

maybe i need to start close to that spot then, so if you are there move over lol

Not a bad idea! Maybe move out to the tree line on the main lake.

Jeff,

A slab is just a lead spoon. They come in various shapes & sizes. Google image of a Bomber Slab. Any chrome, chartreuse, or white shad-shaped spoon will catch them once you locate them. They are not picky. Tie a small white crappie jig on the line above the slab and catch two at a time.

They were stacked on the old 154 roadbed yesterday.

Hey Folks,

I am still looking for some folks to haul away fish after weigh in. I did reach a lady at Lake Fork Baptist that is sending over a man to pick up some at noon at the Minnow Bucket. I do not want this to be a burden on anyone. That is why I haven't asked anyone to clean fish or cook. I want this to be a regular event on the lake so it needs to run smoothly.

I will haul away a BIG ice chest full if I need to. I don't want to but I will. I have friends back in DFW that would take a truckload but they are in DFW.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I can take an Ice chest as well Ken, no problem getting them cleaned and sacked up.. I have a cleaning station on my dock about 4-5 mins from LFM... get R done.

Thanks Billy

...... ROADRUNNERS .......

I'm in Fort Worth and would take a bunch. TFF express?

I'm leaving right after weigh in to go camping at pk. If you can meet me somewhere, i can bring an ice chest full to you.

This is so cool! Hopefully y'all can clean the lake completely out of Sandies

I don't think anyone is thinking we can rid the lake of the silly things. They are like roaches, however, I think we can remove enough of them to make a difference.

So what do you say? Come join the party.

The key to our success will be for all the anglers to work together, sharing spots and hammering these fish as hard as we can between now and January. If you guys will support this we will make this a monthly event and we will impact the population prior to the 2017 spawn. I will bring an ice chest full back to my customers in Dallas Saturday night.

We need a minimum of 50 teams at this first event so we know you are serious about working together to reduce this population of out of control sand bass.

The guides and merchants are stepping up their support as well as the folks at The Big Green Egg.

Looking forward to Saturday and seeing what we can do together. I will be at Pope's Landing from 5pm to 6pm tomorrow evening taking registration for the Thursday Night Working Mans and will accept entries into the Sand Bass Tournament as well.

We will take registration from 6 to 8 PM at The Minnow Bucket on the water pavilion Friday evening.

Hope you are making plans to join us.

You can register through PayPal, just copy and paste this link. Be sure to add your angler names before submitting.

paypal.me/jcoutdoors/75

Mark Howard
214-773-5451 Shoot me a text if you plan on joining us so we can get an idea of how many boats to prepare for and how many fish we may need to find homes for.

Mark, I'm planning on coming out with my little boy and a third. Hopefully we can contribute to the cause!

Hope this is successful and lots of sandies are caught, if not, lets not give up and let the sandies win and doing this on a monthly basis will help the cause. Hopefully by end of the year we can have an average of 30-40 teams and at least 2500+ sandbass taken from the lake...

Hopefully its more catching than fishing..
good luck to everyone and stay safe!!

PM sent Ken

Are the sand bass also referred to as white bass? Thanks!

Yes sir. I sometimes refer to them as something else....

Returned

Thanks!

I have asked a bunch of folks to help with the disposal of the fish after the weigh in. As much as I would like to, we cannot simply dump them in some field and plow them under. It is unlawful to waste game fish. The fines can be stiff. They have to be kept in edible condition.


Just to be clear:

They will be WHOLE. Not filleted, Not deboned, Not skinned....

A few people have responded they will help us get rid of them. I spoke to Darla Blair from LFM. She called a family at her church that is supposed to come get a bunch of them.

I stressed to her they will be ICED DOWN & WHOLE....

If you would like me to email you a copy of the entry form with rules and a copy of the wildlife transfer document send me a request for tournament info to mhowardc@aol.com mhowardc@aol.com

I have a buddy looking for a boater. He is an excellent fisherman that can contribute to the cause.

Let me know if anyone is looking for a good partner.

I hope we have over 50 teams, that is the bench mark imo...I was starting to worry about my fillet knife.. I've skined a few with it so, I bought a back up.. Now I have 2, so if anyone wants to use 1 we'll have it.
Make sure u guys you have plenty of baggies, ice, etc. if your planing on cleanning them at the lake..

[quote=RedSkeeter]I hope we have over 50 teams, that is the bench mark imo...I was starting to worry about my fillet knife.. I've skined a few with it so, I bought a back up.. Now I have 2, so if anyone wants to use 1 we'll have it.
Make sure u guys you have plenty of baggies, ice, etc. if your planing on cleanning them at the lake..[/quote

???filet knife ???
you mean an electric knife ?

Yep, I know it's cheat'n, but man it's quick...

Looks like a bunch of them right next to the old bridge.

4 foot thick right under the boat...............


I'm outta here, see y'all there, gonna do a little scout'n

Good luck out there tomorrow folks. I had planned on bringing my 4 year old and fishing this one. He would have a blast but sadly my starter cratered right before take off on the TX Shoot Out. My boat will not be up and running until next week. Count me in on the next one.

I'll be getting off work late so I will have to miss it. Make sure that someone posts the results and lots of pics. It should be a blast!

Just to be clear. The weigh in for this event is at Minnow Bucket.

You guys have a great time...wish like heck I was going to be there. In between boats and doing honey doo's this weekend.

Judy and I will be at the next event if there is one...I love the monthly sand bass tournament idea...feeding folks one fish at a time

This might be tougher than I thought, got on the water at 6:30. Hit 5 different notorious Sand Bass spots and only caught 3 on a jigging spoon. Good thing pot licking will be encouraged, and I ain't no stranger to Lake Fork. The spots I tried were 515 bridge road beds east and west. Cowhead and the mouth of Big Caney, Horseshoe and the sunken road bed and bridge in Birch creeck. Good Luck to all and I'm sure somebody will get on 'em.

Bring Judy to Fork and help us get rid of a bunch of sandies. Tell her I said hello!

Thats NOT what I wanted to hear!

I've not fished for them for over a month but was at the lake last weekend. I heard the same thing from everyone. The sandbass were there but hard to catch or they were suspended. Think thermocline. At what depth is it set up? Fish that depth for sandies on bottom Should be set up around 15-17 feet right now, but that's only a guess.

Hell pet.

Fish Here!!

Looky there. Fish at 17 feet right under the giant schools of shad. Wish we could fish it, Ken.

We will save some for you guys

Got out late this morning---8ish.
Hit 9 spots, fish stacked on 2. Much shallower than expected. 12-19 foot
Lots of bar fish mixed in. I did catch 2 decent bass, all fish came on a sebile tailspinner. I did see a lot of fish suspended, crankbait,and Alabama rigs should wear them out.

If I am able to fish (still trying to figure out if I will be able to), can I get those spots form you? I would be appreciative.

Come on brother!! You can follow us.

Maybe I was fishing to deep, I stayed around 20 ft to 25 ft. I'm seriously considering a lb. Minnows for in the morning.

Registration begins in 1 hour at the Minnow Bucket Marina on the water pavilion. Hope to see you there between 6-8pm

Mark Howard
214-773-5451

Thats NOT what I wanted to hear!
quote]
You all will be disappointed if you try to fish these type places mentioned in the morning. They are not getting on them spots until later in the afternoon. Try shallower places earlier in the day right now. Good Luck out there!

I don't think he idled that spot enough lol

..... Heck with idling ... We've been whacking

Twenty teams pre registered! Expecting a good turnout for the morning registration! It begins at 5:00 AM at the Minnow Bucket restaurant!

Operation Kill Whitey begins at 6:00 AM and stop fishing at 11:00 AM.

Eric Wright just donated a duck hunting trip for two for one of the drawing prizes!!!

Thanks Little E!!!

Yall have fun out there tomorrow. I will have both kids with me (6 and 2 years old) so I won't be able to fish it. Really wanted to. I might get a chance to take my daughter out either early Sunday or Monday, so if anyone here gets on a decent school of them, please shoot me a PM. I've never had much luck boating more than 1 or 2 sand bass out at Fork. Not sure why, but I'd love to get some help so I could put my little girl on a few fish.

That's alright, we'll just follow RedSkeeter!

That's what I'm doing! That boat has a school of fish following it around all the time!

33 Teams on the water for our first event of "Operation Kill Whitey". Good Luck to all of the anglers.

Guys should use this thread to post where the sandies are being caught, and how they're being caught!

Any news on this?

I obly saw about 4 boats that were fishing,..

My brother and I won big bag and big fish with 17.5 for bag and 2.5 for fish. We caught 24. Only one team caught a limit. So all teams at weigh in got a raffle ticket. It was a fun event.

Thanks Ken for organizing. Thanks Mark and Diane for running today's activities. It was done very smoothly and quickly.

Only 1 limit. Wow

Thanks to all who participated in today's tournament. Obviously someone let the fish know we were coming for them and most of them went AWOL! A good time was had by all and a total of 146 fish were weighed. There was one team who had 31 and another with 24 as well as numerous teams who had numbers in the teens. That being said the body count was somewhere in the 250-300 range overall.

Thanks to Ken Addington and his hard work at rallying the troops and organizing donations as raffle prizes. The Big Green Egg Mini-Max was a hit, thanks Big Green Egg for the donation. Thanks to the following Professional Guides who donated 1/2 day fishing trips Zack Hughes, Ray Vereen, James Caldymeyer, Justin Margraves, and Jason Smith. Eric Wright donated a 1/2 day duck hunt for two, Thanks E. Tackle Packs were donated by Lake Fork Tackle and Professional Guide Jay Kendrick and were very appreciated. Thank You Alex Finch for the $50 Finch Nasty Junior Angler Gift Card! Thank You to Lance Vick for donating a Boat Lanes Chip as well.

Our Winners in this first event.
1. John Kelbe and Collin Kelbe 10 fish 17.40 BB 2.58 $750+$165 BB
2. Wyatt Cook, Gage Cook, Gunner Cook 10 fish 15.38 $500 + Jr. BB 1.95 $250 Bass Pro Gift Card courtesy of Chem-Cal
3. Dale Washington and Scott Duber 10 fish 15.22 $250
4 Place Tie: Josh Busby, Cody Beaver, Kevin Stofel 10 fish 14.78 $75 Winner Big Green Egg
Thomas Crawford and Shana Crawford 10 fish 14.78 $75
Jr. Angler Josh Diller won the $50 Finch Nasty Gift Card donated by Alex Finch

If you won a raffle prize please give a Thank You on here to your team and providing Guide or Merchant.

Thanks Again and stay tuned while we look at dates for the remainder of this year for more monthly Operation Kill Whitey events.

Thank you Justin Margaves
Had a great time on the water, caught tons of the wrong fish(barfish) but, we had 15 nice sandies going to the grease. Ready for round 2. Thank you Ken and JC Outdoors, you guys are super.
Billy&Kay Dyson.

Justin I'll be in touch when it's kooler.

Thanks to Zach Hughes. For the half day trip. Looking forward to more time on the water and learning more.

Appreciate the opportunity to get out and chase the whites for a change. Felt like I had joined a lynching mob while making the first run of the morning . I would just like for all to know that this event was a SUCCESS in my mind. While we didn't carry any in, we watched a team that was not in the tournament absolutely pummel them. They said they had 30 in their live well, but were not in the tournament. I thought they had more, since they were catching them regularly for at least 2 hours. The fellas thought they had 60 pounds of fish, and those fish are not going back in the lake.

Good job guys for putting this on, what amazes me is the liers that said they would fish it and then had a excuse or didn't show up! Keep your mouth shut for now on, cause your just a key board warrior!

I thought I would go but didn't have the funds,but my keyboards still standing strong.
Maybe yall could put a side pot on the local tourneys for most sandbass weight or biggest

1 freaking limit!!! WOW!

If you stay around long enough, this is quite the norm from the TFF. Lots of good folks on here, but whole lotta wannabes and heavy typers, too. Great Job by Ken A for orchestrating this G2G, and great job by all the supporters for the event.

I had planned on fishing this event but I had to go back to work in PA... Hopefully I will get to fish it next time.

Wow, I guess Ray Hubbard should be out of Whites by now.
People been taking them out for years

I ended up getting off work at 7 that morning so I wasn't going to show up at 8:30 to fish it, but that post exemplifies what a keyboard warrior's post would look like. It's easy to criticize and attack a group of people from behind a keyboard.

+1, people he doesn't even know. Realize it's July 4th weekend and while some had planned seriously to fish it, family took precedent. In other words, wives wanted to spend the 4th with other family and/or take a mini vacation and wives win. Ken and John both mentioned they plan on maybe one a month so let's cut the ones who missed this one a little slack, it's not the Bass Master Classic and who knows, the ones who fished this one may not be able to make the next one. Still was a success for a first time event.

We were well pleased with the turnout for event #1 and look forward to the next one. The fishing was tough and that had a bigger effect ton the turnout than anything else. What I witnessed was friends, families, husband and wives, and children having a great time in a low key fun competition. Many experienced there first competition as anglers. More dates to come so stay tuned.

I believe August 13th there is an event sponsored by Fisherman's One Stop called the Hook and Cook tournament.

Thanks again to Ken Addington and all of the guides and merchants who helped make this a success.

Happy Independence Day

Mark and Diane Howard

Thanks to all that participated. I thought 33 teams was pretty good for a holiday weekend. I spoke to a lot of my close friends and they all wanted to fish but Momma had something else in mind for them. Let's hook up again in Sept or Oct when the weather cools down below 102 and do it again!!

Ken, that is a little deceiving. There were quite a few limits of 10 fish brought to the scales. There was only one team that caught 25 or more.

I was hoping to meet you Aggie. Sorry you had to work late. I always like to meet the guys that have landed giants from Fork and shake their hand. Hoping some of that Big Fish Luck will rub off on me!

Excellent Job to you guys! You guys did good!!

I didn't have to work Ken, my partner backed out on me at the last minute. This after I spent $$$$ at BPS buying sand bass lures. Started to come anyway but launching by myself on a busy weekend could get me cursed and maybe worse. People are very impatient when it comes to getting their boat in the water. I'll make the next one either way. I was at the weigh in for a short time but left to have lunch. Appears the sand bass have been taking lessons from the LMB. They get lost on the weekend. I never fish on the weekend which tells you I don't have a job and ain't looking. I retired in 05 or as some of mine friends say retard, lol.
Congrats to you and John on a job well done and I'll be very pleased to shake your hand.

Couple things:

1. We got to LFM at 6 am and there was not a single other person launching so that excuse is null & void.

2. I am jealous of your retirement. I only have about 15 more years!!

3. Not sure who John is??

1. Never launched at LFM in all my years ( 1987-2016 ) of fishing Fork and had no way of knowing no one was there.
2. Wanna swap ages ?
3. John the Baptist, lol. Meant Mark.
4. I'll be at the next one if you will, promise. By the way, On the deck of my boat in the garage right now there are 6 rods and every one has a sand bass lured tied on. I was ready. Last weekend my partner went to New Mexico on a prairie dog hunt and we were still on until Friday morning but then he played golf Friday and his wife cancelled the fishing and anymore children.

1st off thank you to all sponsors and guides for their donations. This coupled with the cash payouts made for a great payback in relation to the # of teams and prizes/cash to the entrants. The fishing was tough so those that catch sand bass regularly on Fork should come out next time. I could have had a record if I would've caught a crappie. I caught 4 small bass, a channel cat a few sand bass. Also caught a 3 lber on a slab and partner caught a 4 lber on a Crankbait (largemouth). I caught every fish on a blue back/white slab. Had fun but no where near the 15 or so pounds the leading fisherman had.

LFM has the best of several worlds for Fork IMO. It is centrally located on the lake. They have two good ramps both with docks. One of them is always available unless it is McDonald's-crazy. They have an excellent restaurant. I'm not married to either end of the lake so I like the flexibility of being able to put in mid-lake. Nothing against any of the other marinas on the lake.

I never said how old I was.. Just that I had about 15 more years before I could retire.

I knew you meant Mark but I like to give folks a hard time. It's all good-natured tho.

Your fishing partner needs to get his priorities straight. Killing all them prairie dogs in NM won't help the black bass at Fork!

Nothing but praise for LFM, they have always supported the fishery and the fishermen I have just always used Little Mustang Resort. When I see you remind me to tell you a funny story that happened at LFM between me, a well known guide and a well known TV show host.
Not good at guessing age and too smart to try but if a wager was involved I bet I could get real close.
You can always give me a hard time I don't get offended very easy plus I know you're a good guy.
My partner is a good guy but he has no priorities except to enjoy life. He just tried to enjoy too much in a short time. Great wife but she can and will put her foot down.
Looking forward to seeing you buddy. Have a good week at WORK. I'm playing in a golf tournament Tuesday and I'll be thinking of you.

I'd like to thank Ken A and his team and Mark Howard for putting on a great tournament on yet another hot day at Lake Fork.
Also for those who donated prizes to make it even more interesting thank you. Including Lance Vick who I will be calling this week.

And a personal thanks to Ken from me and my partner who caught all of the white bass in our boat..

And I'd just like to say that the 10 sand bass we had for dinner this evening were great broiled. The cats enjoyed the red strips I cut out of the filets.

Sent you an email buddy.

Hey Alex,

My 16 yr old son Josh won your gift card! He was excited! He's not a big fisherman but he was excited to win something! I'll get in touch with you so we can figure out how to claim his prize.

Thanks again for donating to the event! You're a good man!

Good to finally meet you Bruce. Glad y'all made it out to fish.

Wyatt, Gage, Gunner and I would like to thank Chem-Cal and Mark for the donations and the time spent organizing the tourney. The boys had a blast and can't wait for the next one. I get to spend a lot of time with my boys fishing, but I have never seen them so excited. When they were not catching fish...they were a mess. When they were catching fish....they were a mess! Watching them at the weigh in was an absolute riot. Thanks again for a weekend we won't soon forget. Happy 4th of July.

You guys are very welcome! That is what its all about. It did my heart good to see your boys accept the first place money and big fish prize. We will do it again when Mark can find an open date.

That's great to hear Ken! I'm sure he will put them to good use! Thank you for the kind words. I'm happy to support the responsible involvement of our youth in the great outdoors, and this event sets a good example for our youth.

Thanks to Ken and Mark. We had fun and plan on fishing the next one.

Big thanks to Ken and Mark for getting this together and organizing this tournament and trying to get some of these out of the lake for good.Thanks to all the sponsers who donated items and to the guides who donated guide trips. Glad i got to meet you ken, thanks again for this tournament. I, as well as you, and those who fished this tournament to try and rid these creatures from the lake was what this tournament was all about. The fishing was tough and guess those sandbass were tipped off they had bounties on their head.

Maybe the next one has as many and hopefully more teams especially those who are serious about trying to remove these sandies from the lake, because if you love the bass fishing on fork as much as i do and many more, you will try and help make the bass fishing. believe me they are hurting the lake.
Proof is in the guides out there who have trouble catching LMB and start offering Sandbass Trips we have a problem...

and even though i was like some who had trouble catching them, Michele and I continued our success on winning swimbait prize packs. so Thanks to Jay Kendricks for donating them, they will be put to use and also, now michele has some tomato dropshot worms to whip my butt with lol..

thanks again and looking forward to the next one!!!
stay safe out there everyone and remember removing those sandies will continue to help the LMB fishing on Fork.

Thank you Ken A for organizing the tournament and thank you Mark Howard for putting it on. We had a lot of fun and the 6AM-11AM tournament hours were just right. I hope we did some good and very much enjoyed the fish fry. I hope we can do it again soon. If you do it in August, I may be out of town depending on when it is. I will be out of State Aug. 6-13. But if you do I know 2 other teams that said they would like to fish the next one. The reason it was so fun for me was that we were just fishing for fun. It's is funny though, because when you're just relaxed fishing you can catch anything. I love tournament bass fishing and it's funny we put so much pressure on ourselves in these events to catch the elusive right size bass, but here I am just having fun. Maybe I need to fish for Sandbass in the Bass tournaments.Lol!!!! my partner lost a nice bass probably in the 8-9 # class, caught a 2.5# Channel cat on a Crankbait, caught the dreaded 16 1/8 bass, and we caught three other Bass, as well as 12 of the Nasty Finning go crazy once in the boat Whitey's. All in all and action packed 5 hours of fun fishing. Hope all has a good week, Jeff.

Now, that folks, is the way to keep things positive........unbelievable!

Nice work, Ken, getting this up and running. ..and actually happening


...oh, and btw, it is spelled "liars"...

Thanks buddy.

As far as the spelling goes, apparently some folks don't know what to do when they see that squiggly red line under their word!!