The City of Tyler and TP&WD deserve their share of the credit for killing all the hydrilla.

Enjoy your home. If you frequent the lake during the week, it is absolutely wonderful with minimal pressure (excluding feb-april/spawn). I really enjoy fishing out there during the week. the weekends are something else. The madness drives the local economy that is built upon the angling revenue. It will never change. If that bothers you, I would spend the weekends exploring the country for nice places to brunch or shop with the family. The whole area out in that eastern part of Texas is beautiful. I hope to retire on the shores of Lake Fork one day. That is my goal. So if anyone has a 1/2 acre lakefront property for sale... hook me up LOL!

I was a little disappointed in the direction this post was taking. there are a lot of people who get on here and heckle you over something you post. As for living on Lake Fork, after the tournament is over there is plenty of open water and hardly anyone one in sight. The spawn is the by far the busiest time of the year out here. After 3:00 pm on a Sunday afternoon you have the lake to yourself. Most any day during the week you will find very few boats on the water. Between October and the second week of February the lake is almost a ghost town. The boats show up starting in January and really pick up in February. Have fun and enjoy all that time everyone else is at work.

I spoke with a man who was the the head of the Texas state water board at one time and He said they would pump all the water out of Fork if needed to supply people with water and Fork was not built for fishing or recreational use at the end of the day . ( IT IS A BLESSING THAT MOTHER FORK IS AS GREAT IS IT IS TODAY ) The lake is healthy and full of fish with grass and hydrilla coming back in some areas . Fork is like the Masters coarse to me and brings butterflies each time I fish it . The understanding about the dynamics that drive the Bass fishing on Fork ? I would say the stocking report for the past 20 years would explain most of it . I think it would be a great place to retire and you have several other lakes close by as well if Fork is not fishing well .

W. There may have been a time when Dallas thought they could drain the lake, but they lost that court case a couple of years ago. They can take a few feet every year. We loose more than that to evaporation.

in a nutshell this is like moving from west tx to dallas an then complaining about the traffic.

20 percent mortality? Are you fishing with live minnows and they're swallowing the hook? Sujective assumption. Ive fished fork before and after major tourneys. I have a friend that fishes there every weekend np matter whats going on, including the Elite series. Some of those tournaments weighed in a crazy number of bass and we would notice hundreds of floaters the next day if 20 percent of those fish die.

Not sure what it is about that lake but it is definitely something special. I drive 7hrs one way just to fish it. Did it just a couple of weeks ago. Most pressured lake I have ever been on. Some times even hard to believe the amount of boats but I will still keep going.

I don't think he ever indicated that he hates Fork.

Do you have an axe to grind with the guy?

Ok here's some stats on fish that die at the "big" tournaments. Since our association provides the live release boat (LRB) at 95% of these big tournaments we have an idea of the mortality rate of fish that are left to waste..
It's ZERO.


Now you might say that is impossible because you know for a fact that some are hooked deep or in the tongue, while others are stressed out from being caught deep or from riding around in a live well all day long in hot water, and not all live wells are created equal so there might be some problems there. The LRB uses chemicals to sooth and relax the fish, to help with sores and wound repairs, icing the water down about 5 degrees and oxygen to help revive them.

Generally on the really big tournaments, which are hourly events, we get to hold the fish in our big tanks for up to 4 hours before they are released. We observe and inspect all of them. Usually the ones that have issues come to the surface and float. Either on their sides or upside down. We address each of these fish individually removing hooks, fizzing, or having their gills held in the water over the oxygen diffusers. 98% of
those fish right themselves and swim upright and/or down.

Fish that are not going to survive we deal with in another way. If we get a fish in with pink or even white gills it is going to die. If we get a fish in where you can look straight down the mouth and see the hole leading to it's stomach is open it is going to die. About 1% of the bass that fall into this category are disposed of in the most wonderful way. They are immediately put on ice in a cooler and they are eaten by a family in need.

A good example of that would be a recent tournament in May that the LRB attended there were over 500 fish caught with an almost record number of over 24" fish brought to the scales. We had 7 dead fish on a three day tournament. But unfortunately 2 of them were big fish. One was a big slot that was brought in dead by the angler. (He did get a ticket and was DQ's from the tournament). The other was over the slot that our wonderful game wardens wanted held for further investigation and it did not make it over night in the unattended LRB tank. Our fault.

When we drive out to release the fish and we open the bottom doors on our tanks we observe the fish as they are swept out. Dead fish of which there are rarely any are recovered to the cooler. We then observe around the LRB for any floating fish while we are refilling the tanks. And there haven't been any that I can remember in the last 10 years.

First off congratulations on becoming part of the great community surrounding Fork! Your living my dream as I hope to retire there one day.

I love to bass fish Fork but I am a novice bass fisherman at best. In response to your observation that the catfish are under attack. Fork is an awesome catfishing fishery and there is really no pressure on them. Having fished catfish tournaments for the past 30 yrs, I can�t recall any Tournament were the fish were not released and emphasis has always been keeping the fish alive. The annual catfish tournament raises money for the local Yantis Volunteer Fire Department and helps local commerce during what would normally be a slow time by filling hotels and restaurants.

The catfish population at Fork is in no immediate danger in my opinion and bass fishing is really good even for a layman like myself.

Just think positive, You will have the advantage of fishing during the week and periods of less boats on the water on one of the best bass lakes in the country.

Word of advice, don't build to big of a home. The taxing authority out here has gone crazy. They will tax you right out of it. They have almost double our appraised value and keep incensing the assessed annually. At this rate we could be paying $600.00 a month for taxes and insurance by the time we reach retirement age. We may have to sell our home and move into an RV park.

Welcome to Texas, it ain't just there.

Very well said Mark.