Great idea Brian.

I was in attendance as well. (one of the lucky standing ones) There are a few concerns that were not addressed about the dead mats of hyacinth. Anyone that has ever owned an aquarium knows that the dead, decaying material will rob those areas of oxygen. The fish are smart enought to seek areas with enough oxygen in the water but, it will be intreresting to see how the lack of it will affect other plant life in those concentrated areas. Depending on the state of the decay it could move the spawn to deeper waters.


Yes!! Us duck hunters are the debil

A ton of great information and thoughts on this post. One thing that stuck out to me is that they are not touching the Water Hyacinth until August. I wish them good luck! It is not going to be pretty in 8 months and at that point I bet they will not have an answer to control it.

This years spawn at Fork is going to be very interesting.

It is my understanding that the hyacinth is most vulnerable to the chemicals used during its peak growing times. To spray it before peak you would not get a good kill ratio and would require a 2nd spraying. If it would cause enough stress on the plant so that it would not flower it could be considered a good spray. Once it flowers seeds are released to be taken away by current, wind and other varibles to potentialy spread to other areas.

They usually flower end of August - First of Oct

I've got a cure for that Hyacinth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napalm

Why do some guides seem to believe the lake is your own personal playground. People buy licenses and pay taxes the businesses bring a lot of money to the area probably much more than the guides.

Joe,
Who are you referring to? Hopefully not me! Heck, I've been begging JC Outdoors to let me fish their tournaments for 2 years.
Clint

No Clint I am not refering to you or the majority of the guides on the lake. I have heard the remark made by a few guides that if they had their way a person would have to hire a guide to fish the lake. The one guide I heard make the remark was one that probably don't get two dozen trips a year.

You take care of yourself Joe! See ya soon!

TommyC: Good points and theories being presented here. I will stir the pot with another old adage.

Why in the past has TPW encouraged anglers to keep under the slot fish?
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Great question. I've been to the constituency meeting of TPW in Athens. Anyone can go. They explain everything about game fish management in establishing limits, and slot limits. It is based on scientific studies, not guesswork. They know what the results will be, or are supposed to be when setting a limit on a body of water. They routinely test the results to see if adjustments need to be made to it. Shocking studies and surveys for example, like on Fork.

It is a fact, on any given body of water, that if you do not purge the lake of small fish, it will stunt the growth of all fish. Ever fish a small pond where no fish are removed? They are all the same size. The TPW wants you to take fish under the slot. That is how the lake is managed to make the slot fish grow large. There is no need to worry about small fish not living to reach the slot. That's rediculous. There are way too many small fish in the lake now. It will stunt the growth of the larger fish. Scientific fact. So in that regard, catch and release of "unders", tournaments or not, will undermine the TPW management of the lake and not achieving its desired goals. Sorry but that's a fact. Ask any fishieries biologist, they will tell you are hurting the lake as far as the TPW management goals is concerned,by not keeping the unders.

Joe, I'm sorry you took my quote the way you did. I definitely don't think Lake Fork is my own personal playground. This is public fishery -- and a great one at that, and I just want to keep it that way. I fell in love with Lake Fork back in 1988 and this place has a special place in my heart. I hate the thought if it becoming just another lake.

Again, please accept my apologies. I by no means think guides have any more rights on Lake Fork than anyone else, but it's continued success is extra important to me because I make my living here.

Thats crazy. Not a single guide on here is trying to say that. If your referring to someone not posting here well it is just going to happen. Go back and look at the Roberts post when it was annnounced the slot was going away. The tournament anglers were going nuts thinking the classic would be there every year.

I for one was hoping the slot would stay at Roberts. However it was purely selfish. The fish at Roberts just aren't as smart as Fork fish, and Roberts is closer to me than Fork. So I enjoyed going to Roberts and feeling like I could fish after prime time at Fork.

Deep down I knew though that removing the slot was the right thing to do, whether it benefited me or not. Roberts simply wasn't turning out the trophies like fork, and it will be an AWESOME tournament lake. They will become harder to catch though with so much added pressure.

Fork is what it is b/c of the amount of 8+ fish that come from there. Jason and others have posted very good facts about the mortality rates of tournaments. It would undoubtedly effect the huge number of trophy fish the lake produces. The short term gains of more tournaments would not be worth the decrease in everyday anglers and destination travlers that frequent the lake.

Seems like when I go there in the peak times I see as many boats from Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas as I see boats from Texas. I've even seen a boat with Idaho tags. Those people aren't going to come if the lake produces lots of 5-6 lbers with an occasional 8-9. More importantly me and most everyone else from Fort Worth west won't either. We would just go to Roberts and talk about the great little lake called Fork we used to go to and be amazed when we didn't catch a 10+

Somehow I think we always find a way to screw up a good thing. Roberts is a good example. Fork will follow.

I thought the reason for the slot was so that people would take the smaller fish from the lake and get them out of the food competition for the larger protected fish. I have heard this on Bill Dances show I know. Does anyone know if that is true?