Karl Kastner with a nice 10.2



I caught this 9.5 while scouting

Date: 04/03/06
Lake Fork Conditions
Surface Temperature: 61 � 67
Water Level: 2� 3� low at 400.72 feet with a normal level of 403 feet.
Water Clarity: normal / stained

The cold snap is over and the bass are moving back into the shallow waters of Lake Fork. Bedding activity can be found midway to the back in most of the creeks and protected coves especially the north ends of both arms. The big females are moving onto the beds and can also be found staging in 5 to 12 feet of water in timber next to bedding areas. Good numbers of males can be caught in the 1 to 5 feet of water with a few mamas mixed in. April is shaping up to be one of the best spawns I�ve ever experienced since the fish kill. I just hope mother nature doesn�t throw us another curve. If you�re going to fish beds, do not waste your time on fish that are not locked on the beds. You�ll just get frustrated and not have a good time. What I mean by being locked on is the fish hold tight, they don�t swim more than a few feet from the bed, and or they make tight turns when a lure is presented. I know it is hard to pass on a big female, but if she isn�t going to play the game, move on to the next one. Just remember where she was and try again later. You just might get lucky. Positioning your boat can be another factor to catching a big one. For example, we were working a big female and she wouldn�t come into the bed when the boat was positioned to the east side of the bed. We moved to the south side with same results. Then we moved to the north side with the same results. We finally tried the west side and a couple of feet further away, and she moved to the middle of the bed. We got her to bite and she weighed in at 10.2 lbs. Well worth the effort. Another hint to catching the females is to catch and hold the male away from the bed. If it is under 16�, use the livewell; otherwise, get your buddy to hold it in the water on the side of the boat. If the female leaves or doesn�t come back, let the male go and hopefully he�ll move her back in and wont bite again. Also try multiple lures until you find one that gets the most reaction from the female. Craw worms, lizards, jigs, grubs, and or tubes � anything might work. For those of you that do not wish to sight fish, I suggest you back off the banks and fish the 5 to 12 feet of water around the areas holding bedding fish. Wacky rigged worms, weightless cigar type baits (senkos, tiki sticks), Texas rigged lizards and craw worms, suspending jerk baits, and shallow running crank baits would be my choice of lures if I wasn�t going to sight fish. All in all, the fish are biting great, and there are lots of folks trying to catch them. Just remember to be respectful and as courteous as possible, so everyone will enjoy their fishing trips. I would also like to mention the CATT BASS Tournament we�ll be having on Lake Fork. It will be on Tuesday nights from 6 to 9 pm starting on May 16th and runs through July. It is a team trail with 90% payback at the ramp. $50 per team and you must be a member of CATT BASS to participate. It is a divisional trail and for those who qualify by points or number of tournaments fished it leads to a championship that offers a new Nitro with a 150 Mercury engine with no entry fees. That�s right � no entry fees for the championship. Come on out and join in the fun! Now, let�s get back to catching fish on Lake Fork this week. Here are some of the lure catching most of our fish since my last report.

Wacky rigged watermelon/red Zoom Trick worms slightly weighted. We�re using a 2/0 Gamakatsu finesse wide gap weedless hook and a small nail weight. We�re presenting the lure next to timber, letting it sink to the bottom, giving it a few small jerks, and then trying the other side of or the next the stump. That is when we�re not reeling in a fish.

Weightless cigar baits like the Tiki Sick and Senko, Super Flukes are catching fish when we�re fishing grass beds or grass beds and timber where the wacky worm can�t be fished effectively. We�ve been working them very slow in 1 to 5 feet of water. Watermelon/red/cloudy � Watermelon seed/sunny dipped in Spike-It.

While sight fishing, we�ve been using either a Texas rigged pink craw worm, a white lizard, and or a � spring perch Viper XP jig with a Zoom Salty Pro Chunk crawdad colored. The pink and white baits are so we can see them more than anything. However, we are, like I stated previously, using multiple baits to see what might make them mad enough to bite. We�re using a � oz weight on the Texas rigs with a glass bead. Tick tick tick � rattle rattle rattle. The jig also has rattles and we�re using the � oz because we can shake it without moving it too much.

I hope the above information will help you catch more and bigger bass on Lake Fork, and let me know if there is anything I can do to assist. Being that I�m headed into my 3rd year of being a full time resident guide on Lake Fork, I currently have the following days open during April - 6, 7, 9, 20, 21, 24, 25, and 27. So, if learning Lake Fork, catching big bass sight fishing and having a great time doing so sounds good to you, then give me a call as soon as possible and schedule a Lake Fork fishing trip and get the dates that work best for you.

Well, the fish are biting-got to go.
Until next week remember,
Don�t catch �m all, let �m go, and let �m grow.

877-347-4668 (toll free)
rayvereen@yahoo.com
visit: www.fishonlakefork.com
Enjoy life - always and thanks for reading,
Ray

Good post. I fish the spawn on Fork every year, and have never kept a bed fish, no matter how big. Hope all does the same, its whats makes it so good.

Just a tip, I always use a large white soft plastic. I dont have a preference of bait, just one I can see. If the fish will lock, present the bait to her far away at first, the get closer and closer with until you are dropping it on her head. Do this fast, hit her, pull it out..throw it back in...The idea is to make her mad. If she will hold, she WILL hit. Always works for me.

Good Luck

Thanks for a great report Ray!!!

lol @ the newbie telling a Guide how to fish...