I wasn't spoiled by Mexico, but by Spring Creek in West Texas. I don't waste time when I know I'm not going to get bit anymore either. I'll just wait out the weather and maximize my time on the water.

Cry me a river.. If fishing was easy it would be called catching. I have love hate relationship with lake fork I love it and in return it hates me doesn't matter what boat are who I fish with on that lake bass remain a rumor to me on that lake if I wanted catfish,crappie are sandbass hey I'm good go. I have spent a lot of money more then enough time on that lake hoping catch bass and some reason I keep spending both happily and don't complain about it because I love fishing and that's part of life.

I remember that firetail grape worm, lol!

Us older guys were definitely spoiled by living our peak fishing years in the late 60's,70's, and 80's. I was fortunate to have a job I could get away during peak fishing times. Toledo Bend and Rayburn in the late 60's and early 70's. Novilla, Sugar, and Gurerro in the 70's, Table Rock and Truman in the 80's and a dozen lakes in Oklahoma and Arkansas during this same time frame. My tackle consisted of 3 5000c reels with medium action rods. My lures were Mann's Firetail Jelly Worms by the 100's, Brown and Orange Little N's, Bone and Orange Big O's, and a few Spinner Baits. That's all you needed in those days to have 50 fish days. I am 76 now but I still hit Fork twice a year and got to Falcon last year. Lived in Rockwall from 1988 to 1991 and fished Fork as much as possible. Those were glorious days for a fisherman. My son caught a 9.6 lb. on Fork when he was 12 year old. Ruined him. He now drives down to Fork from St. Louis every spring for 10 days. I will be there next week and still hoping for that next cast to produce a SAL. Every cast on Fork has potential for that fish of a life time. Don't get discouraged, get focused.

Yea, me too. Once you've done Mexico and had that experience, there's not quite anything that compares. Given all the money that we spend on all the equipment, I think privately managed water for a membership fee will be the best way going foward.

I first started tournament fishing in 1974 when I bought my first boat, (Tide craft fish and ski- had to compromise with the wife) that had a 70 elec start Evinrude. My dad said I was going to kill myself in that "RACE BOAT". NO PT&T.You raised it by hand. If you wanted to idle thru shallow water you had to tilt it up and drop the trailering arm down. Then do the reverse to run fast. LOL

Growing up in Southwest La. I started fishing T-bend when it the trees in the middle of the lake still had green leaves on them. About 1966 or 67. The lake had not even filled completely. We use to troll with Cotton Cordell Hot Spots in the gray bar finish. We caught about 50 bass a day. Of course most of them were only about 10" long but for a 14 yr old boy it was heaven. I can remember the Rebel Bass Club held a tournament in 1969 and I saw my first Rebel Bass boat and it thought it was the neatest thing I had ever seen. This guy got out of his boat and had lime green coveralls with patches on both sleeves and on the chest and a ball cap hat that stood about 5 inches above his head. His boat was Orange and even had a FLASHER unit on it. He had "3" rods too. One of the rods had a bait on it I had heard about but never seen, It was a 6" creme purple worm. Form that day I was hooked on bass fishing.

I remember seeing the same man a couple of months later at the Sulphur, La Gibson store during one of their Fishing Weekend sales. He was there promoting Creme worms. He was the first "Bass Pro" I had ever talked to. I do remember one thing that has stayed with me all of my life. I must have asked that man about a hundred questions about bass fishing and he took the time to answer everyone of them. He never tried to shoo me away. I don't remember his name; but, but from the day I got that Tide Craft until today, I have tried to live up to the standards of a Professional Fisherman he demonstrated ever since.

We've all been there. Don't give up, your day is coming.

By the way; Gibson's stores! I hadn't thought of them in years.

God love ya, man you have SOME fishing history!!
This, what he says....hang in there!

It's just the time of year that's all, my advise is take a break from it until you see some consistently warm days and know for sure you are going to see 60 degree water when you go......
That being said I use this time of year to work on my sloooowwww presentation and I catch a few and get blanked a lot. I've caught fish in these conditions rolling a spinnerbait down where the are just fast enough to keep the blade turning, fishing a jig in a spot that I know holds fish and just letting it sit in one spot and twitching it every once in a while, doing the same thing with a Rogue on top, getting vertical with a swimming jig in a 1/4 or 3/8 size.
I also lived through the hay days as well and got to fish some lakes that still had green timber in them in Louisiana and Texas. If you find them schooled up; which young fish tend to, you could catch 30 fish on back to back cast on any lure if you hit the right spot and it didn't matter what the water temp was. I was fishing with a friend of mine about this time of year on one of those "new" lakes several years ago. We both had 5 rods laying on the deck. We bet to see who could catch a fish on every lure we had tied on. We both did it on back to back cast......