First time your boat has been off Caddo...you don�t say? With the threat of calling a game warden from a very perceptive guide this guy left and power washed his trailer before launching. Ridiculous. Just a matter of time before this [censored] is literally everywhere.

wow!

That didn�t come from Caddo I can say that much. We have found zero on it this year. Even the people under contract to spray the lake isn�t finding any.

Now his trailer might have been sitting up awhile also. Don�t forget Murvual has it along with couple other East Texas Lakes

Judging from his Oil City Louisiana address and his statement about Caddo I suspect he was telling the truth.

Mudd is right, there is ZERO salvinia on Caddo that I have seen this year, and I fish about 4 days a week. The Good Lord blessed us with almost a week straight of temps that didn't get above freezing, which killed it all....for now. Plus, the contractors are spraying all the backwaters of the lake 8 hrs a day, 5 days a week in a preventative measure (which I don't necessarily like since it will mean killing hydrilla, hyacinth, other "fishy" grasses) but, it's the sacrifice that has to be made, i guess, to not have 50% of the lake unfishable as it was last year.

With that being said, I have been dealing with nasty alein weed on area lakes here for the past 15 years, and my opinion is for Fork, it's not a matter of IF, it's WHEN it becomes an issue. I believe there was an infestation in one of the bays last year that was cordoned off with booms, right?

I can tell you that last year on Caddo both Texas and LA Wildlife Agents stopped writing tickets for people not cleaning all of the Salvinia off of their trailers prior to leaving the launch. The reason? It was literally implossible. I don't mean it was an inconvenience, I mean that EVERY launch on Caddo Lake had Salvinia that would get caught between the bunks and the boat, and every other nook and cranny. The Game Wardens couldn't very well write tickets when they could not obey the law themselves.

So, how many boats do you think launched at Fork last year that had LIVE Salvina on their trailers?

Now, with that being said, I fish Fork as well, and If I would have seen the guy in the picture above at the ramp, he and I would have had a conversation that he would not have liked, to say the least. It appears to be a party barge type boat, and he's probably clueless. But, I would have informed him in no uncertain terms of his responsibility. He should know better.

But, I will say this to Fork regulars. You are at a huge advantage compared to Caddo when it comes to combatting Salvinia. Caddo literally has thousands of acres of backwater that are inaccesible, even by air boat or duck boat due to shallow water and the density of the Cypress trees. So, WHEN it starts showing up like it did last year, it will be much easier to quarantine and eradicate. Not to say that it won't be a fight, but you won't be looking at the dire situation Caddo was in last year when about 50% of the lake was unfishable.

Also, since Fork has deep water you will not have to deal with the aftermath that we have now on Caddo, which is the lake bottom is covered with dead Salvinia. Caddo averages less than 6 ft of water and much of it, including boat rows, are less than 4 ft. There are several places on Caddo that you can't get a bass boat on plane in a boat row because of the dead Salvinia on the bottom, the motor just bogs down and kicks up nasty black dead muddy [censored]. Granted, the lake is a bit low right now.

But, it is a joy to be able to have an idea where you want to fish on Caddo, be able to navigate there without running through 100 yds of Salvinia Mats, stopping to clean off the water intake, then starting again. Plus, being able to flip to Cypress trees without having to pull Salvina off your line every other cast.

The moral of the story is: enjoy what you've got now, and deal with it IF it becomes an issue, because it can always be worse.

Another indication that this party barge guy is clueless, if you look close in the picture, his trailer registration expired in 2017.

I saw these guys at the ramp and on the water. Crappie fisherman. Boat is registered in LA and the truck pulling it was Registered in OK. They came and anchored down about 20 ft from me while I was spot locked, Which I thought was kinda rude, but they looked like they were having a good time by the amount of crown royal they were passing around..
And they tore up the crappie...

does the red river still have salvina in the back waters, could have picked it up there

The salvinia doesn't last long on the river. It flushes out of caddo via 12 mile and cross bayou,and also out of bistineau via loggy bayou. I haven't seen any at all this year but I have only been in pool 5. I have heard different possibilities on why that is the case but I don't know certainly why this is the case.