After three unsuccessful trips due to weather, boat falling apart and other conflict. Plan to finally make the trip to bass Mecca next week.

Trying to make sure I am tackle prepared before the trip. This time of year is it more Senko worm or brush hog? Most all of my soft plastics are pumpkin or watermelon. Suggest something different.


On hard baits shad colored? Seems like I've read about orange or red colors being popular but not something I've got in the box now.

Spinner/chatter have a few white/sexy shad that produce well in the summer but not sure about this pre-spawn fishing.

Any other must have baits?


On yeah and GPS coordinates if you want to help an 80 year old finally hook a DD bass.

you'll love it! stick to boat lanes running and idle elsewhere until you figure out where you can run. Lake is about 4.5 feet down now.

Most fish are being caught north end of lake any cove in the grass 4-6 feet. Look for coots to find grass. Especially with this cold front they should still be there.

Rattletraps are probably the favorite hardbait now in the grass, red, but also caught some silver.

Our hardbait bite slowed and I picked up a c-rig with ringfry losing a 6 pounder and caught 3 others on a tough day.

I would also play around with chatterbait, senko, fluke, shallow cranks.

That is my limited experience right now, there are guys that know 10x more, but they may not want to say anything.

Hire a guide for half a day, you'll get more than enough good info that will actually help you for that time you are at Fork.

The problem with getting random "help" from random people is some of them have not a clue what is actually happening on the lake at that time.

^^^^^ True that!

Super cold at lake now. Sleet/snow/ice and cold temps for next four or five days. Fish we starting to move up and getting active but this will push em back till next week when we are going to get warm again. Red or orange traps will be good in grass on north banks.. If your looking for numbers or wanting to catch some on plastics wait till at least next week to come.

It's going to be in the high 50's Wednesday and 60's by Thursday, so this little bump in the road won't do a lot to the fish, I M O ...

Going to be the week of spring break, figure there won't be many out at all...


On the chrome traps does that not attract sandies. On lake worth that's all that will bite a chrome trap.


The guy I'm going with fished the lake often quite a few years back and claims where he remembered leaving some nice keepers. Figure they have to be SALs by now.

Ummmmmm ^^^^^^ ?????

Watermelon candy is always good color and maradi grais.

Don't expect much. Go and have fun.
First couples trips years ago we went expecting
sharelunkers.

Needless to say everything went wrong including
catching fish.

We were flagged down heading home by a citizen
near Brookshire with
flaming trailer tires. We sat there for hours
until the stranger who apparently helps alotta
"tourist" in trouble make it home got
us fixed up.

He was quit the character in suspenders.

Long Branch, Possom, Bell, Glade, Rodgers, and Running creeks are all holding numbers of fish if you hit it right.
Look for the warmest water you can find, it will take some looking so be patient it will come your way in time.

As mentioned above take a couple half day trips with different guides to cover productive ground in a hurry. JM2C's

Caught around 15 yesterday on red traps following the coots

Give Eddie Garrett a call and book a half day or a whole day with him. It will be money well spent if you have never been to Fork. Cause a lower unit or fixing your boat is a lot higher than his fee. LOL And you will have a lot better chance of catching some fish.

Fished Saturday half day in afternoon and fish were biting. Birch and glade are getting hammered but there are fish in there if you want to fish with half the boats at the lake. I did go up in birch late and had one small one water was 57-60 but I did not go all the way to the back. Interesting thing is I found 62-64 water in areas with no grass and caught mine on chatterbaits on first break around wood and there was a ton of bait in the area. Fish came from 3-6ft. Colors....white/chart, black on spinner/chatterbaits Red, gold, sexy shad, blue chart is always good on cranks. Silver/blue and clown on stick baits. Watermelon, pumpkin, red, black blue, browns are good on jigs and plastic. I thought the last cold snap would have the temps running lower but they were still up. It was close to 80 satureday and 71 at midnight.......Right now it's 19 in Dallas and we have had rain/sleet/a little snow today and it looks like they had heavy sleet around the lake. I bet this cold snap brings the temps back down but they are wanting to move up. So back off to the first break/secondary points/creek bends and break out the jigs and keep the trap, chatterbait, stick bait, shallow running square bill etc if it on a warming trend when you get there. I have marked deep fish but they have been suspended and tough to get bit but hear some are getting them on a-rigs. I have thrown the fluke in the crowded back creek areas but have not got bit and the water color is not quite like I like it for a strong fluke bite yet. Do not forget a cr rig and drop shot. I hate throwing it but I know the drop shot works doodling around the wood on the breaks when the bite gets tough and they nose into the timber. At current level I have even able to run all my out of the boat lane runs on pad with no problem and the lanes are clear. A half foot drop and I'll start taking the long way around again. It has been pretty tough the last few weeks and finding a big group of fish ganged up on a spot has been tough for most but with the warm weather last week they were starting to act the way we want them too. Good luck and have a blast. It should only get better the next few weeks.

Ive been out once in a boat and several times in a jon boat staying in one cove. Ive caught fish but on April 8th I will be going out with a guide for an early birthday present to myself and I couldn't be more excited or pleased with this choice. I agree with what people are saying hire a guide I have more confidence in his ability to put me on fish and teach me how to catch them. A guide is a great tool and teacher and I'm looking foreward to learning.