I live on Lake Athens, typically fish up beyond 2495 where what I have seen are smaller schools that pop up here and there.

Cody S. and I chased them all around last week (kayaks) in the cove between the ramp and the 2495 bridge, caught several in the 2 lbs. range. Up in our cove, NW corner of the lake, they were schooling heavily until a few weeks ago, less so now I think. But, even then the schools seemed smaller.

There was a day last year, perhaps many, but the one I recall was boats launching from the ramp and never even leaving the area. Pretty nice sized schools were popping up everywhere. "Never leave when fish biting" was working though for some, of course, they have no interest in catching 1.5 lbs. bass and they head out to deeper water, other places looking for size.

Brad

P.S. The heaviest schooling I have ever seen was on Wheeler Branch. I have seen schools that were sort of circular shaped, 40 feet in diameter with what appeared to be a fish every square foot. And, often more than one working at the same time. Clear water . . . Bill Wilcox said that lakes with clearer water tend to have bass that are more sight-oriented feeders, that they school up tight. BR

More fishing pressure has that effect on lakes, especially when they are only 1,800 acres with very little timber.

I may have been there that day, there was a school of 3 pounders mixed in there.

Bass used to school on most "clear" water lakes in summer and fall in Texas.
When Fork was new you could set your watch by them in the afternoon in certain areas.

Pressure.

The year Rayburn opened I saw bass schooling that was so large you couldn't cast across it and have caught 4-5 pounders schooling on Fork in the late 80's. Agree, pressure will change everything and the only good thing is there will be more motels and marina's built because of it.

i was on Athens Sunday morning; saw a lot of activity but only 1 or 2 fish at a time. i too remember the days on Fork and others where you couldn't cast all the way across a school; who knows how many bass were involved.

now all i see are 1 or 2 at a time...

We fished Fork in August last year with our Club. Struggled all day long and then a school came up on the 515 bridge. We followed them all the way down. Caught them on swim jigs, spooks, whopper ploppers and under spins. Ended up with a solid limit of unders in 30 minutes.

See, even Youtube videos hurts the schooling bass! ..........Just kidding!

Chris_K, I have caught two big ones, one around 5 lbs. that followed in a schooler that I had caught. Looked like he was trying to eat it. I either caught this one or a like-sized one a few casts later. That was the biggest bass I have ever pulled out of a school. And, this was off my boat house so not in very deep water where big bass often sit below the "kids" and gobble up the stunned shad falling below the frenzied action.

It is really a lot of fun unless they are all 13" long, then, time to move on.

Brad

The early days of Toledo Bend were just great for schooling fish. Big schools would stay up for 2-3 hrs. And size was up to 6 lbs. I wouldn't go anywhere on the lake without a Cordell Near Nuthin tied on. When the school would go down, we would hit them with a 1/4 ounce white marabou jig. Still caught them. Aw, the good old days!