My first time to fish Fork was in 2003, So I cant comment on the glory days but I remember when HYDRILLA was plentiful and in every creek on the lake. Ahhh the good ole days!

Lunker Lodge
hydrilla in the back of Mustang
Vals Landing lunch plate
sluggos would catch a fish anywhere

What I remember....
Total 3rd person as I was growing up in SoCal in the 80's, but the stories in Field & Stream/Outdoor Life that came from Fork, & stick marsh, & home lakes like Otay, Hodges, the Delta, etc. are the things that I deeply remember longing to get to.... someday.
My "someday" for Fork was May 8th, 1999. I was nearly 32 & I can still remember feeling like a 7 year old @ disneyland. from what I had read (pre-internet) this was the epitome of bass habitat. I remember my fist cast, as if I was somehow not worthy of this place.
3rd cast on the hydrilla got me a 6#'er. I loved that lake,
all the way until I got hooked on stripers.
some kinda history on lake fork. awesome place.

i remember i was about 7 or so and it was me, my older brother, my father, and my mother in the boat when we were in the trees and a huge wasp nest fell in the boat. Man over-board we hit the water. my dad got stung the most cause he had to get back in the boat and dig the paddle out of the rod box. Hopefully that was the first and only time a wasp nest lands in the boat.

Watching the sun come up enough to see while sipping coffee at Vals Landing

Fisherman's Cove when Joe and Sarah still had it !!!!!!!!!

No kidding.... I loved Val and Gaylen, good people.. Man, that was what 85-86 when they opened up on 515.. Then moved to the present location.. I remember Mark Stevens guiding out of there when he caught Flo in Nov 86

I remember the sounds and smells, early in the morning launching off the roads and gas pipeline easement in Lynn and Briar creeks completely surround by trees and tea brown colored water that was clear as a bell.

The endless line of trees bordering the boat lanes in Coffee and Running creeks, it was absolutely beautiful.
Those images are burned into my memory like it was yesterday.

Dodging trees while running on the north end of Birch Creek.
The first McDonald's Lake Fork Big Bass Classic
Bird Island (154 Island) still had trees
Little Caney covered with grass
Cheeseburgers at Rainswood
Lance Vick's light brown Suburban and maroon and silver skeeter with a 200 Mariner.

All the Bagley baits at Lunker Lodge.
Star Mart when Linda and her crew ran it
Running anywhere on the lake cause all the timber was unbroken and up
Catching 220 bass in 7 hours fall of '85 or '86 with 3 fisherman
The slot was 14-18. Think it changed to 21" in late 80's.
Shotgun Pass and the creeks up there

double doubles at Rainswood, carolina riggin' the 2946 roadbed. schooling bass caught on pop-r's and rattletraps, and jigging and crankin' the edges of that wonderful hydrilla.

Hate to say it but those days are gone forever. Still some great fishing to be had but the large fluctuation of water levels have ended the great grass years and the pressure has ended the number of trips you'll have with great #s caught. I guess all things change but dang.

How many of you guys have had knee replacements? Old farts!

I may need one after the next time I see you! Lol.

Fished it from fall of 81,in a Skeeter hawk 60 evinrude....In 84 bought new Skeeter Starfire 150 ,140 evin. danged near sold it,icouldn't get to my best spots cause it was so wide. Went to Quitman and bought a bowsaw so i could cut trails to my spots.....First bass was 6lb.14 oz. fished two to three days a week from jan.1-may 1. i had 11 bass over 10 lbs when i stopped fishing it in the fall of 91....Too damned many rude and stupid people,and didn't want to end up in jail for drowning one of them....Can just imagine the circus now with some of the people fishing now...

Yep. Still have the aerial video (VHS) and picture "book" from approx. 1986. Amazing when you look back at it then and now.