Yup , good ole days

thanks

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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