Texas Fishing Forum

Fork, The Good Ol' Days

Posted By: Outdoor Therapy

Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 07:26 PM

Posted By: Ranger1

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 07:44 PM

I bet they made some big ole filets
Posted By: snickers

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 08:00 PM

Jim and JW .
Posted By: 5Redman8

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 08:14 PM

Why are they holding mounts?
Posted By: snickers

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 08:15 PM

For a ad for Bass pro shops
Originally Posted By: 5Redman8
Why are they holding mounts?
Posted By: Outdoor Therapy

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 08:39 PM

Originally Posted By: snickers
For a ad for Bass pro shops
Originally Posted By: 5Redman8
Why are they holding mounts?


Yup, a very old ad for BPS
Posted By: GIG'EM AGGIES

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 08:55 PM

Don't let'em fool ya, Outdoor they're just jealous. I didn't start fishing Fork until the summer of '86 but I can tell you this, the lake you're fishing now has zero resemblance to the lake back then. If you had a black/blue worm and a rod and reel you could catch fish especially if you knew where the old brood ponds were. I didn't have a trolling motor on my Kingfisher boat but didn't matter cause I could tie up to a tree, never move and catch bass till the world looked level. Thanks for posting those pictures, it helped me remember the "good 'ol days".
Posted By: Ranger1

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 09:15 PM

Back in them days I ran a dairy farm in Yantis in the back of Birch. After my work was done I would slide my little bassbuster off in the trees and fish some of them old ponds. Most of my land I had is now under water on Fork. Now those were the good ole days.
Posted By: elkhunter7x6

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 09:41 PM

Whats JW and Jims last names?
Posted By: snickers

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 09:43 PM

Jim Purdy JW Peterson
Posted By: bo tbo

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 09:49 PM

I just wish that I could have fished the lake back then.
Posted By: snickers

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 10:00 PM

They had a network of guides and some of them had Marine radios in their boats. It was the real deal in bass fishing
Posted By: bass_n_fire

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 10:44 PM

All I can say is, WOW!I know Fork is known for big fish, but, I have yet to break the 3# mark. Too much (all) of it looks good to me, I just usually pick the wrong good looking spot.
Posted By: Chet

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/03/17 11:17 PM

I have a video we took in 1983 and have spent many nights staring at the coves we were fishing trying to figure out where we were. Still can't just too much timber but I can tell you that it was in Mar. and we sight fished for 3 days and never caught a fish under 4lb. Our guide, I believe his name was J B Barnes had the best eyes of any man I ever fished with. He spotted nests in 5-6 ft of water. We threw plastic lizards and if the fish was big enough and wouldn't commit we'd toss a water dog on her. It was an unbelievable lake, better than 2011 Falcon, 1979 Zaza, or any other lake I have fished. Sure enough not the Fork of today.
Posted By: Fish2222

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/04/17 03:58 AM

Like alot of others here on TFF....I fished Lake Fork regularly in the late 80's and ever since.
It's always been my gut to say fishing is "off" there due to pressure.... however, I see pics and read posts every day about huge bass still being caught there.
By the way...my PB is 11.12 from Fork on Aug. 19, 1996.
4 a.m. on a C-Rigged Berkely Power Fry in Mustang creek.
Just happened to be on my birthday.
Good old days....indeed.
Posted By: Hog Jaw

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/04/17 05:08 AM

Yup , good ole days
Posted By: elkhunter7x6

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/04/17 11:49 AM

Originally Posted By: snickers
Jim Purdy JW Peterson

thanks
Posted By: west tex angler

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/04/17 12:06 PM

Originally Posted By: GIG'EM AGGIES
Don't let'em fool ya, Outdoor they're just jealous. I didn't start fishing Fork until the summer of '86 but I can tell you this, the lake you're fishing now has zero resemblance to the lake back then. If you had a black/blue worm and a rod and reel you could catch fish especially if you knew where the old brood ponds were. I didn't have a trolling motor on my Kingfisher boat but didn't matter cause I could tie up to a tree, never move and catch bass till the world looked level. Thanks for posting those pictures, it helped me remember the "good 'ol days".


I started fishing Fork in the early 80's. I also fished out of a Kingfisher, 50 merc. and a silvertroll troll motor and a lowrance depth finder. We always stayed near a bridge so we wouldn't get lost. That used to happen a lot. We would stay at Pope's or Lake Fork Marina, can't remember which one, but I do remember that you couldn't see the lake from the dock. Just too many trees.
100 fish a day was common, even for a dufus like me. But I don't remember that folks were catching real big fish at that time. Just a lot of fish. I think the big fish started coming later, I might be wrong about that.
Posted By: GIG'EM AGGIES

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/04/17 12:35 PM

Originally Posted By: west tex angler
Originally Posted By: GIG'EM AGGIES
Don't let'em fool ya, Outdoor they're just jealous. I didn't start fishing Fork until the summer of '86 but I can tell you this, the lake you're fishing now has zero resemblance to the lake back then. If you had a black/blue worm and a rod and reel you could catch fish especially if you knew where the old brood ponds were. I didn't have a trolling motor on my Kingfisher boat but didn't matter cause I could tie up to a tree, never move and catch bass till the world looked level. Thanks for posting those pictures, it helped me remember the "good 'ol days".


I started fishing Fork in the early 80's. I also fished out of a Kingfisher, 50 merc. and a silvertroll troll motor and a lowrance depth finder. We always stayed near a bridge so we wouldn't get lost. That used to happen a lot. We would stay at Pope's or Lake Fork Marina, can't remember which one, but I do remember that you couldn't see the lake from the dock. Just too many trees.
100 fish a day was common, even for a dufus like me. But I don't remember that folks were catching real big fish at that time. Just a lot of fish. I think the big fish started coming later, I might be wrong about that.

There were some bigguns caught but few pictures and no certified scales available. Not sure about Pope's but Lake Fork Marina didn't open until March of '86. Most everyone launched at the 515 west ramp back then and I remember lots of folks sleeping in their trucks in the parking lot. I was one of them, lol.
Posted By: Okie Poke

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/04/17 12:44 PM

Ole' Mutha Forker.....she was a gem at one point, and every point!
Posted By: Chato

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/04/17 02:07 PM

Remember at 515w ramp you had to drive down prob 30 ft to the turn a round to launch..that was fun when it was busy
Posted By: Kay Dyson

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/04/17 04:01 PM

I remember when Oakridge Lodge had chickens running around.. It was one of the very first marinas on the lake.. Cowhead was Killer from a Jon boat.
Posted By: Mike Keenan

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/04/17 05:38 PM

I miss the original Lunker Lodge off of 17. My first visit, I got to meet the owner I think his name was Scott? He was recovering from a recent motorcycle accident I think? He took a young teenager looking like Jeff Spicoli around his shop and got me all the right baits at the time (Stanley jigs, Jawtec baits and Lucky Strike worms) and a map. He introduced me to Ronnie Byrd and Mark Stevenson, they pointed out some spots on the map and told me how to fish the areas.

Then there was the place right behind there that made some of the best burgers on the planet. It was the size of a shack right off the water. Or EB's BBQ off 17 as well.

Yes I'm showing my age at times
Posted By: kcb

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/04/17 06:00 PM

Lunker Lodge......there is a memory. You're right Mike the owners name was Scott. Don't know if you remember but he had the biggest inventory of Bagley baits in probably the entire state. He had gotten some kind of big discount for one huge order. It was a cool place to stop. I believe his parents ran the little shak that served food. At least they did for a time. Another place we enjoyed stopping was Val's both on 515 and when they moved to the place on 2946.
Posted By: eyeball

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/04/17 06:21 PM

Reminds me of Big Sam, the Bass Factory back in the day.

I saw acres of 4-6 lb bass school at times. I saw spools collapse on Abu 5000s. I saw ice chests opened from fishing humps in the Black Forest at night that could only hold 3 bass.

Then, the bass clubs got enough clout to stop the commercial gill netters who caught thousands of lbs of egg eating carp and buffalo daily and killed hundreds of huge bass eating gator gar, fearing a big bass would die in the nets.

You could fish a couple of days and find big schools of big bass and fish them a few weeks before they moved on.

The fishing hasnt been the same since. The only reprieve the bass got was more restricted limits and warnings about the dangers of eating fish with toxins.

Later, I would tie up at the timberline crossing Pophers creek in the morning and wait to see the big gar rolling by the hundreds while moving my way from the main lake and toward me. When they got a half mile away the bass would reach me on their way to shallow water and timber. The fishing would be great until the gar reached me. Ive had gar that looked to be 8 ft long tear a stringer of bass off the side of the boat.

Now, i fish several days to find a school of fish in shallow water early in the summer and with the gar after them you can bet they wont be there the next day.

Its progress, i guess.
Posted By: reeltexan

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/05/17 01:43 AM

Originally Posted By: Chet
I have a video we took in 1983 and have spent many nights staring at the coves we were fishing trying to figure out where we were. Still can't just too much timber but I can tell you that it was in Mar. and we sight fished for 3 days and never caught a fish under 4lb. Our guide, I believe his name was J B Barnes had the best eyes of any man I ever fished with. He spotted nests in 5-6 ft of water.


It was Barnes, he was the man for quite a while over there.
He also wrote the monthly fishing report on Fork for "Honey Hole Magazine".
I remember the early years at Fork. The first time I launched on Fork we had to use a submerged Farm to Market road because there were no ramps yet.
I'd look at all that timber and think..."I can get lost in there. There's NO WAY this lake is EVER going to get over fished." That's was back before they even raised it to pool level.

It was a long time ago.
Posted By: Mike Keenan

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/05/17 11:53 AM

Originally Posted By: kcb
Lunker Lodge......there is a memory. You're right Mike the owners name was Scott. Don't know if you remember but he had the biggest inventory of Bagley baits in probably the entire state. He had gotten some kind of big discount for one huge order. It was a cool place to stop. I believe his parents ran the little shak that served food. At least they did for a time. Another place we enjoyed stopping was Val's both on 515 and when they moved to the place on 2946.


He had a huge inventory of Bagley baits, what ever happened to Scott? I remember Val's for many years, if I'm not mistaking my uncle and I used to stay there and they had a steep ramp right outside their rooms? I loved fishing fork back in those days. I'm starting to feel my age here...

But I remember fishing with Ronnie Byrd and Mark Stevenson. Those two guys taught me a lot about map reading, jig fishing and fishing creek channels. Back in those days we would just fish the shoreline. Mind you it was the time period of the old LCR 8000, X-16
Posted By: TBassYates

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/05/17 12:42 PM

Originally Posted By: reeltexan
Originally Posted By: Chet
I have a video we took in 1983 and have spent many nights staring at the coves we were fishing trying to figure out where we were. Still can't just too much timber but I can tell you that it was in Mar. and we sight fished for 3 days and never caught a fish under 4lb. Our guide, I believe his name was J B Barnes had the best eyes of any man I ever fished with. He spotted nests in 5-6 ft of water.


It was Barnes, he was the man for quite a while over there.
He also wrote the monthly fishing report on Fork for "Honey Hole Magazine".
I remember the early years at Fork. The first time I launched on Fork we had to use a submerged Farm to Market road because there were no ramps yet.
I'd look at all that timber and think..."I can get lost in there. There's NO WAY this lake is EVER going to get over fished." That's was back before they even raised it to pool level.

It was a long time ago.


I remember first going to Fork in the 80's and launching from the end of old roads. Barnes was probably Larry Barnes who caught the awesome fish Valentine during those days. He was a great guy and guide. I used to fish with Ronnie Byrd all the time back in those early years. Great guide and jig fisherman that was a blast to fish with. Then I spent all of the 90's hanging around Vals Landing and tournament fishing with her son Kenny. Those were the days where we started night fishing around Memorial weekend through the summer. That was some fantastic fishing.
Posted By: Chet

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/05/17 03:00 PM

The guide we had used initials on his business card. Pretty sure it was JB. Real sure about Barnes. He had what at the time seemed like the latest gear, scales you laid the fish on etc. My memory is about like any 70 year old but he was a relatively young guy.
Posted By: meP2too

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 02:10 AM

the good ole days included a cheese burger and fries from rainswood marina, before heading out for night fishing.
Posted By: Mike Keenan

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 02:40 AM

I'm really starting to miss the old fork now... I miss fishing white oak, pension bay and the such back when it still had trees. I haven't been on fork in probably 10 years.

But Ronnie and Mark taught me my love of jig fishing with those old Stanley jigs.
Posted By: Legend08

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 04:01 AM

Caught these two five pound fish on jigs during my first trip to Fork in March 1981. Lake was still filling and every tree was still green. Awe how nice it would be to be a twenty year old again, and fishing ole mother Fork when she was brand new.
Posted By: LeonSulak

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 04:13 AM

Neighbor gave me this book a few months ago. Shows fork as it was filling. Great shots of creeks, boat lanes, and original

marinas.
Posted By: Gamblinman

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 07:48 AM

Originally Posted By: Chet
The guide we had used initials on his business card. Pretty sure it was JB. Real sure about Barnes. He had what at the time seemed like the latest gear, scales you laid the fish on etc. My memory is about like any 70 year old but he was a relatively young guy.


JR Simpson.

I had shoe boxes full of Polaroid's from the early years and when I retired and moved here full-time, I discovered almost all had gone bad. If you had a paper graph, you had the latest and greatest.
Posted By: reelswift

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 10:53 AM

Can the bowfishermen can take up the slack? coolio

Originally Posted By: eyeball
Reminds me of Big Sam, the Bass Factory back in the day.

I saw acres of 4-6 lb bass school at times. I saw spools collapse on Abu 5000s. I saw ice chests opened from fishing humps in the Black Forest at night that could only hold 3 bass.

Then, the bass clubs got enough clout to stop the commercial gill netters who caught thousands of lbs of egg eating carp and buffalo daily and killed hundreds of huge bass eating gator gar, fearing a big bass would die in the nets.

You could fish a couple of days and find big schools of big bass and fish them a few weeks before they moved on.

The fishing hasnt been the same since. The only reprieve the bass got was more restricted limits and warnings about the dangers of eating fish with toxins.

Later, I would tie up at the timberline crossing Pophers creek in the morning and wait to see the big gar rolling by the hundreds while moving my way from the main lake and toward me. When they got a half mile away the bass would reach me on their way to shallow water and timber. The fishing would be great until the gar reached me. Ive had gar that looked to be 8 ft long tear a stringer of bass off the side of the boat.

Now, i fish several days to find a school of fish in shallow water early in the summer and with the gar after them you can bet they wont be there the next day.

Its progress, i guess.
Posted By: bassmanrudy

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 12:56 PM

Originally Posted By: loves2fish
Neighbor gave me this book a few months ago. Shows fork as it was filling. Great shots of creeks, boat lanes, and original

marinas.


WOW now that would be a Great book to look thru!!!!!! I have fished Fork a few times and with most of the timber broken off at water level would be Crazy to see full trees standing!! Awesome lake and I enjoy fishing it.
Posted By: fouzman

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 01:26 PM

Originally Posted By: Mike Keenan
[quote=kcb]Lunker Lodge......there is a memory. You're right Mike the owners name was Scott. Don't know if you remember but he had the biggest inventory of Bagley baits in probably the entire state.
He had a huge inventory of Bagley baits, what ever happened to Scott?


Scott Wishart died many years ago. Remember his matching 18' and 20' Rangers with Mariner engines? His white El Dorado Biaritz? His custom A-frame in the back of Glade? Scott was awarded a large settlement due to a terrible oilfield accident. He built Lunker Lodge and bought all those toys with some of that $. Scott ended up broke and Ronnie Byrd and Jesse Parker tried to make a go of it there with an SBA loan. Added the motel, etc. Some local judge ended up taking it out from under them. No idea who owns it these days. Anyway, Scott had a TON of health issues due to his injuries that he never overcame.

How about the pretties behind the counter, Myra and Audra? Peggy was there too and still works at Lands End, I believe.
Posted By: Chet

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 01:59 PM


Here's a pic from the 1983 trip. A pose that was pretty much the way the trip went. Nice lake grin Long drive from GA. but worth every mile. (sorry for sideways pic)

Posted By: Ranger1

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 02:04 PM

I kept my first trailer at Lunker Lodge when Scott had it. My lot ran me 38 bucks a month. I won't ever forget taking my dog inside Lunker one day and her taking a [censored] inside, we all cracked up.
Posted By: Kay Dyson

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 02:15 PM

Originally Posted By: Chet

Here's a pic from the 1983 trip. A pose that was pretty much the way the trip went. Nice lake grin Long drive from GA. but worth every mile. (sorry for sideways pic)




Nice picture Chet, were those some Bill Dance sunglasses ? LOL.. We all some back then, I love hearing these old stories. I've forgot 10X more than I can remember, showing my age I reckon, but man, we didn't know, just how awesome those days were at the time.. We do now... I'm blessed to have been a part of it, all of us were. cheers
Posted By: Sinkey

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 02:16 PM

I wish I could go back and get all my polaroid pics that were at Rainswood......and have another burger there!
Posted By: Okie Poke

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 02:29 PM

This was me leading up to spending a week at Fork back in the late 80's and early 90's....



Now, here's what I feel like on my way over there for the last 20 years.....yes, 20 years!

Posted By: Chet

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 02:31 PM

Not sure about the glasses but sure remember the rain pants, the kind that didn't breath, and cracked after a couple of uses. My gear has improved some since the early days. But would fish in the my undies if I could go back to the lake I fished in '83.

By the way, lived in DFW from 1978-1982 and fished Fork in an old 16 ft Terry boat. Remember running into green leafy forest after trolling a short distance, and looking for open areas to fish. Can't tell you how many good fish got off after casting into heavy timber. When you found an open spot you could catch fish till it got old. I remember running out of my favorite worms and realizing I could catch them on anything I had in the boat. Good times.
Posted By: Kay Dyson

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 02:56 PM

Wasp nest big as a pie plate, trees with thorns 6+ inches long, duck weed and plastic casting spoons worked on top. We have a lake house on Winnsboro, it was 11 miles from there to Fork, me and little brother were fishing wantabe's. In those days you actually could catch fish on a helicopter lure, and a Dances eel....it was just that good... roflmao people talk about Falcon, Tbend, Big Sam, etc... Fork was off the charts a fishermans dream not for just couple three years, it was great for 1 1/2 -2 decades. It's not what it was, but then neither am I... I live out there in a place called Penson Springs, we enjoy it all we can, the lake is still damn good, just different.
Posted By: BThomas

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 07:19 PM

I remember fishing fork in the 80's. There was one place, boats would be lined up and everyone of them fishing with waterdogs. Does anyone remember where that was ?
Posted By: Sinkey

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 07:51 PM

Red slugos and A/C plugs!

.........and nutrias on every damn log and stump out there. Some had 5 or 6 of them on it!
Posted By: fouzman

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 07:56 PM

I don't throw red sluggos any more, but they'll still eat that big A/C plug when conditions are right.
Posted By: Okie Poke

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 08:07 PM

I remember throwing to one tree in Little Caney for probably an hour one time. It had a tank dam next to it and hydrilla was loaded in there. We caught around 25 fish off it and smallest was 4lbs. Avg size was 5-6lbs. All on c-rig watermelon centipedes. They would rip the rod outta of your hands if you weren't holding on tight.

Another time we were way back in Coffee Creek during spawn. We were throwing weightless red bug zoom worms on the flats, under bridge, letting them sink down, twitch around slow, and all of a sudden line would take off like a freight train. Some of the coolest fishing I have done. We would throw out, open a beer, chill out, and then all of a sudden your line would get wild. Caught prob 30 or so doing this one afternoon. Biggest was 8lbs.

We also used to go way back in Birch before the sun came up and throw black buzzbaits on the flats. Heart attack bait!

Just a few of the good ole' days from Mutha Forker.
Posted By: TBassYates

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 08:20 PM

90's this time of year on Fork. Eat dinner at Val's Landing. Take off before dark and run up to the power lines in Garrett. Drop the trolling motor. Run the top of the hydrilla with Hilldebrandt Black Spinnerbaits with an Uncle Josh pork trailer around and in the Shotgun area and end up back where we started by daylight. Very common to catch 60 to 80 fish or more with at least 10 being over the 6 to 8 lb range. Back to Val's for breakfast and hit the sack for a while. Monday morning I would call my buddy Jimmy Smith up to place my order for more spinnerbaits for the next weekend. He would always know exactly how good of a weekend I would have by how many more I would have to get. Those mean old bass would tear one up about every 5 to 10 fish. I still have an old coffee can with a ton of mangled up spinnerbaits I have always thought I would bend back into working order.
Posted By: snickers

Re: Fork, The Good Ol' Days - 07/06/17 08:22 PM

Val had some great pancakes
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