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Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? #13291847 09/24/19 07:15 PM
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S Fatherree Offline OP
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Not that this would ever happen due to the large amount of money which Lake Fork Tournaments bring into the marinas as well as other local businesses, but does anyone other than myself think that it would be nice to see a limit on how many new annual tournaments can be held during the prime spawning season?

As we all know Lake Fork is one of the most popular bass fisheries in the country which handles the enormous fishing pressure quite well. In the 10 plus years and I have lived on Fork I have seen a new annual tournament series starting up during the springtime nearly every 2-3 years. The amount of beds which are prop washed and destroyed during the largemouth bass spawn certainly has a negative effect on the overall quality of the lakes bass. Not only does prop washing beds by anglers whom have their trolling motors too deep in shallow water impact the lakes largemouth population, but catching and then bringing male bass that were protecting their beds miles away to be weighed during tournaments also effects the quality of the fishery. Continuing to allow more and more new annual springtime tournament events on Lake Fork will only lead to even more spawning beds being destroyed. At the rate of which these new annual springtime tournaments call Lake Fork home the effects of this added pressure more likely than not will begin to show. When will enough be enough? Perhaps there could be a ban on any new tournaments during a 4 week period during early March to early April. I would love to hear other anglers opinion on this topic.


Respectfully,

SM Fatherree
www.lakeforkguidelanes.com
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Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: S Fatherree] #13291860 09/24/19 07:26 PM
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I believe I read that each spawning bass produces an average of 325,000 fry and each spawning season produces far more fry than the lake can sustain...
this would appear to be true inasmuch as some of our best lakes have numerous tournaments throughout the spring and have had for over 40 years....

Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: S Fatherree] #13291872 09/24/19 07:36 PM
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In my opinion, I would be WAY more worried about the damage the spraying of grass is doing to the lake than tournaments.


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Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: S Fatherree] #13291879 09/24/19 07:40 PM
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it's public water, you got to allow them all or ban them all

Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: Chris B] #13291914 09/24/19 08:13 PM
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Originally Posted by Chris B
In my opinion, I would be WAY more worried about the damage the spraying of grass is doing to the lake than tournaments.



+1

Chaney creek is dead compared to what it was like before they sprayed the grass.

Last edited by ezbassin; 09/24/19 08:15 PM.
Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: S Fatherree] #13291960 09/24/19 08:46 PM
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Tournament pressure has little to no effect if comparing it to just the insane number of people on fork in the springtime. I don't see how the few guys in an event and their propwash would affect beds more than just the general pressure on the lake. If tournament pressure hurt bass population, Rayburn would suck. What does hurt it is when you remove the slot or don't have a slot and the meat hunters show up.

Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: S Fatherree] #13291964 09/24/19 08:48 PM
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Also, the few males that are big enough to weigh is a fraction of the males that are in the slot spawning with females. If anything, the small female chunks would be most affected.

Last edited by Jarrett Latta; 09/24/19 08:49 PM.
Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: S Fatherree] #13292029 09/24/19 09:44 PM
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I think ole Lake Fork will be just fine... she gets more stockings than any other lake on the planet.


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Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: Jarrett Latta] #13292466 09/25/19 10:14 AM
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Originally Posted by Jarrett Latta
Tournament pressure has little to no effect if comparing it to just the insane number of people on fork in the springtime. I don't see how the few guys in an event and their propwash would affect beds more than just the general pressure on the lake. If tournament pressure hurt bass population, Rayburn would suck. What does hurt it is when you remove the slot or don't have a slot and the meat hunters show up.


Let's not forget that Sam Rayburn Reservoir is not only over 4 times the size of Lake Fork but also the number of anglers per acre that fish that lake each year is substantially lower per acre since Fork is only 90 miles East from Dallas.


Respectfully,

SM Fatherree
www.lakeforkguidelanes.com
Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: Chris B] #13292467 09/25/19 10:22 AM
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Originally Posted by Chris B
In my opinion, I would be WAY more worried about the damage the spraying of grass is doing to the lake than tournaments.


Good point sir! Do you and others think spraying to kill the invasive species of grass is the main reason why the hydrilla and milfoil has not yet returned to the lake since the drought nearly 8 years ago dropped water levels below the depth of which the majority of this healthy grass used to be growing in?


Respectfully,

SM Fatherree
www.lakeforkguidelanes.com
Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: S Fatherree] #13292480 09/25/19 11:04 AM
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Originally Posted by Stephen M Fatherree
Originally Posted by Chris B
In my opinion, I would be WAY more worried about the damage the spraying of grass is doing to the lake than tournaments.


Good point sir! Do you and others think spraying to kill the invasive species of grass is the main reason why the hydrilla and milfoil has not yet returned to the lake since the drought nearly 8 years ago dropped water levels below the depth of which the majority of this healthy grass used to be growing in?

Not a doubt in my mind the spraying is what has killed all the subsurface grass. The sad thing is all it takes is one cold winter to kill all the invasive grass. Spraying didn't kill 95% of the sylvinia in Caddo. A freeze did.


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Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: Chris B] #13292631 09/25/19 01:38 PM
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Originally Posted by Chris B
Originally Posted by Stephen M Fatherree
Originally Posted by Chris B
In my opinion, I would be WAY more worried about the damage the spraying of grass is doing to the lake than tournaments.


Good point sir! Do you and others think spraying to kill the invasive species of grass is the main reason why the hydrilla and milfoil has not yet returned to the lake since the drought nearly 8 years ago dropped water levels below the depth of which the majority of this healthy grass used to be growing in?

Not a doubt in my mind the spraying is what has killed all the subsurface grass. The sad thing is all it takes is one cold winter to kill all the invasive grass. Spraying didn't kill 95% of the sylvinia in Caddo. A freeze did.



That sucks, Fork was so fun to fish when we had that healthy grass growing!


Respectfully,

SM Fatherree
www.lakeforkguidelanes.com
Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: buda13] #13292663 09/25/19 02:00 PM
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Originally Posted by buda13
I think ole Lake Fork will be just fine... she gets more stockings than any other lake on the planet.


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I have been saying that for years and I think if the bass didn't spawn on fork you would never know it TPWD stocks it every year , that's fine but they need to share the wealth with other lakes you never know what lakes would be like if they were stocked the same.

Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: S Fatherree] #13292686 09/25/19 02:14 PM
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Originally Posted by Stephen M Fatherree
Originally Posted by Chris B
In my opinion, I would be WAY more worried about the damage the spraying of grass is doing to the lake than tournaments.


Good point sir! Do you and others think spraying to kill the invasive species of grass is the main reason why the hydrilla and milfoil has not yet returned to the lake since the drought nearly 8 years ago dropped water levels below the depth of which the majority of this healthy grass used to be growing in?


I do. When I came to Fork in 89 there was hydrilla everywhere. All the way out to 20+ ft. And hardly NO houses on the lake. Now, there are houses everywhere, and Ive personally seen people spraying [censored] in the water to clean their shoreline. So I think its had a huge affect on the grass in the lake.
As far as prop wash goes on beds, I think everyone needs to be mindful of it. I see joe blows do it, guides do it, tournament guys do it. So really everyone should just be careful about it. Use push poles, which you hardly ever see around the lake.

Re: Lake Fork Spring Spawning Season New Tournament Limits - What do you think? [Re: beartrap] #13292845 09/25/19 04:09 PM
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Originally Posted by beartrap
I believe I read that each spawning bass produces an average of 325,000 fry and each spawning season produces far more fry than the lake can sustain...
this would appear to be true inasmuch as some of our best lakes have numerous tournaments throughout the spring and have had for over 40 years....


You read wrong. Read all the way to the bottom of the article and see how many bass reach 10 inches. I don't know which would be more beneficial, Stephen. Limiting new tournaments in the Spring or ALL tournaments in the June-August time period.

http://www.bassfishingalabama.com/Reproduction.html

Last edited by fouzman; 09/25/19 04:10 PM.

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