I'll be fishing a club tournament with my Dad next week (Thu - Fri) on Fork. He is 84 yrs old and still fishing tournaments. This is a seniors club that he is a member in (I think you have to be 70 yrs or older). Hope I am able to fish like he does if I make it to 84. My brother and I generally fish one club tournament with him a year and since I live on Toledo Bend, I generally fish that one with him and my brother would generally fish Fork. We switched up this year and I get to go to Fork with him.

We'll be leaving Lafayette next Wednesday so won't have much (if any) time to pre-fish so any info on patterns to fish would be greatly appreciated, or any websites with local fishing reports. We'll be fishing in his Skeeter bass boat that he won when we fished a tournament on Toledo back in 1998. Boat is still in amazing shape. That was his second bass boat to win.

I know the pro tournament will be going on at same time so we will have to deal with all that unfortunately. He generally likes to fish Little Mustang.... heck, in the 30 or so yrs we've been going up to Fork, I believe we've pretty much fished Little Mustang exclusively. My brother and I have tried to get him to try another part of lake but he won't have it. I know the lake is still low so we'll have to be mindful of that. Been hearing about the theft problem (we have it here at Toledo too !) so I got one of the motion detector alarms from Harbor Freight to put in boat at night.

Also, any info on some good restaurants to try would be appreciated as well. Thanks in advance for any info.

Points

BASS Elite is there Thursday thru Sunday. Full field on Thursday and Friday. Cut in half for Sunday. Plenty of room to fish. They will have beat everything easy to death the first two days.

Veronas is decent for Italian. Usually go to a Marina Restaurant such as Lake Fork Marina or Oak Ridge. Easy after riding with them as a judge. Food is decent.

Judge flex?

Captain Jacks right at the turn off for Popes Landning is fantastic for breakfast.

Marshall's bbq and the mex food restaurant across the street in Emory

Carolina Rig a Zoom chartreuse pumpkin lizard in 2-9 ft of water. We like to eat at Lovells(formerly Tiffany's) Fri and Sat at Bro's is good and Veronas as already mentioned. Oak Ridge closes at 3 so don't plan on an evening meal there. They fix a pretty good burger and other hot sandwiches as well as pizza at the pay and save there in Alba. Good luck..

Thanks for all the responses !! I’ll be sure and give an update on the trip when we return next weekend. Haven’t fished with Dad since last October so looking forward to the trip. My brother and I always trade notes on the challenges for these trips. Dad gets pretty excited when I have a fish on and starts jumping around to get the net. We’ve lost about 6 rods from him either kicking overboard while netting or knocking them in water WITH the net ! Lots of great memories for sure.

Concentrate on secondary points with deeper water close by. Early 3-6 foot but after an hour or two move out to 8-12 foot of water and stay in that depth range. Remember to work plastics very slowly on Fork, fish are extremely bait shy.

Got it... Thanks ! I know a perfect spot in Little Mustang we usually fish while there

The Legends tourney is this weekend.. Id imagine it will be pretty tight especially with Bass being there may be more spectators than anything
Although looks like a good week for weather after a month of wind
If you have the chance to make the drive Seth's is top of the list for food out there
Close to the lake Veronas for Italian, Lovells and oak ridge always good, AJs fish house there's several good places to eat around the lake

Merci' Beaucoup !!

I thought AJ's closed down? Maybe they just moved, I don't know for sure. Good luck

Big Smith's operates AJ's now.

Legend is tomorrow. Fri-Sat-Sun at Lake Fork Marina

BASS Elite is next Tue-Wed practice and Thur-Fri-Sat-Sun tournament at SRA headquarters