I’ve been out there since 89 fishing. Have had trailers in 3 different parks and built a house in Glade 5 years ago. The number of big fish over 13 has declined a lot over the years. Lake still has a heavy number of fish between 7 and 10 lbs. and still lots of numbers. The low lake levels the last few years made it tougher on people cause the fish set up different than they normally do. Then when the lake came back up, there’s was so much cover for them they were spread out all over the place. So most people will say it sucks cause they can’t or didn’t adapt to the new conditions out there.
As far as real estate goes, it’s one of the top 10 bass lakes in the US on a yearly basis. Which means if you own land or a house on the lake, your value just keeps going up!

I appreciate you"ll responses.
It helps to get your ideas on where to go.
Thx again

Fork is going to look like all the other developed lakes in Texas. Nothing but retaining walls and developed shoreline. Will look just like Cedar Creek and the metroplex lakes. Only difference is all the flooded timber should keep the wake boat traffic much lower. Fork will still put out some big fish for a long time, but nothing like it did in it's prime. All lakes go through this cycle in some form as they age. Also, the more developed the lake gets the harder it will be to regrow any vegetation. Take this last drawdown as an example. Every time i went out on the lake there were countless lakefront landowners down below their retaining walls cutting brush and mowing down to the water line. I get it, but all that adds up to less spawning cover for bass. Also any submerged vegetation that grows will end up pissing some boat dock owner off because it will be in their way. Just the way it is, but it all adds up to less bass in both size and numbers.

bois d'arc has lots available, not gonna find any lived in for sale there.

due to parking I don't see this lake being the crowd problem fork can be, bois d'arc can't field large tournaments.

Look into moving to a community that has private lakes. I always said I would retire on Fork or Rayburn, but now that I have land in a private community with 5 very different private lakes that have big fish that don't get pounded on day in and day out, I really don't fish reserviors anymore.

I just went through this decision not long ago. I chose Fork. I decided any lake you chose will have it's plus and minus issues. Any lake will have it's cheerleaders' and detractors.
I choose Fork because of it's access to the metroplex, ability to have a boathouse and dock, eating places and some level of shopping in the area. The bass fishing is still pretty good. I wasn't here in the heyday so I see Fork with different eyes. I caught a 6 pound bass yesterday . That's pretty good in late December for me. The crappie fishing is as good as anywhere and catfishing is very good as well. There are not a lot of ski boats .
Yes, it is heavily pressured, and I hope the new Bois d Arc will take some of the traffic. The tournaments are in my opinion a big part of the problem. I believe the
terminal rate of the bass released is much higher than suggested. The fluctuating water levels haven't been detrimental. I think they will ultimately help with the young bass recruitment.
There is still a good bit of undisturbed shoreline, but it is for sure disappearing. I have seen some grass returning to the lake.
One more thing to consider, Lake fork is one of the stars of the Texas parks program. It is stocked often and has had supplemental stocking by the local support group.
Is there better bass fishing ? yes .. how much better and how far are you driving to live there??. You will need health care in the future and airport access matters. Lastly, I looked at some of the lakes mentioned and was concerned they are too small. I could fish the whole lake in a couple of days and grow bored with it.
Maybe it will improve, maybe not.. But when you fish here you know a DD is possible on any cast and the ambience of the area says bass fishing,

I've fished almost all of the major lakes in east Texas and I'd love to have a house on any of them but my favorite would have to be Lake Holbrook. No it's not a major lake but it does have Florida strain bass and doesn't get beat to death. It's nestled in some rolling pine hills and reminds me a lot of Lake of the Pines, my other top choice. LOP would be at the top but I've been on it during a summer weekend and it gets pounded by the recreation boaters. My second choice would be Bob Sandlin.
My parents owned a house on Caney Lake in Louisiana and it sure was nice. The back porch faced west and we'd often drive down and sit on the back porch with our supper just to watch the sun go down. We did a lot of fishing too. Caney is also a pine hills lake. It's one of those deals where if I took you down there not telling you where you were going you'd think you were in the southern edge of the Ozarks. The lake is usually extremely clear, this time of year you can see as high as 10 feet deep or better. If you follow MLF you know what it can produce. It holds the majority of the state record bass. If you are willing to change states I'd highly recommend this one too. Owning property there is on my bucket list.

I've had a place on Bob Sandlin for almost 20 years. I'm really not ON the lake but a few blocks off. I could not afford being on the lake. My subdivision has a private ramp so I can be on the lake within minutes. I can also be on Cypress Springs, Monticello (when it was open), Welsh and Tankersly in less than a half hour. Within an hour I can be on Fork. Hawkins, Holbrook, Pines, Lone Star, Gilmer, Winnsboro and Quitman (I'm sure I've missed a few).

I like being there with so many options on where to fish.

this is absolutely true. I saw it big time in the 2011-2012 years guides were leaving saying fork was dead and going down south to fish as the border lakes were hot that year. We were catching 30-50 fish a day back then in the heat of the afternoon. on c-rigs. My buddy wanted to post picture I threaten to drown him if he did. I new most had not figured it out. I had a couple good guides that knew we were doing well and wanted to know what we were doing. We had probably 20 spots over the lake we could do that on and no one was fishing like we were that we knew of the guides weren't for sure. Sometimes especially in the summertime just take a day and go graph and find the fish. The graphs don't lie. Fork absolutely can be tough anytime of year but you can always find fish if you study your patterns and depths. Most guides and long time fishermen on fork go to spots they fished last year, that all changes in low water conditions. Every spot we where fishing was within 100 yards of where you would normally fish and no one looked. We fished in early August one year and there was a big guide trip on fork with three of the best guides on the late fishing in it. I think most of the guides had less then three fish a few had none. Three of these guides were well know big fish guides on fork. Me and my friend had 60 fish that day and none of all those guides ever came close enough to us to even see us. Folks Fork will never be like the hey day but it's also a long way from dead either.
this is all just my opinion of course

I just started fishing it again about 2 years ago after being off it for almost 20 years. Back in the 90's I fished it two or three times a month or more and had actually gotten fairly good at catching fish out of it. Just before I shut things down to raise my family was about the time the fish kill hit it. That was really strange to experience, you could see massive schools of shad in almost any part of the lake you went to and there would be nothing chasing them. The lake also has double or triple or more the number of houses and boat docks it had on it when I came back, had some shoreline and shallow flats I used to fish covered up with boat docks and boat houses. This time around ; like you said the deep bite moved because of the low water and that threw me off. I was on it a little over a month ago and it finally began to click with me again and I caught few fish out of it. Thinking about hitting it next week for the deep bite.

Dont tell them...

which community? Sounds good.