Famous Lake Fork Giants

This is similar to asking where the holy grail or ark of the covenant lies but thought it would be Interesting to see what or who chimes in….in which areas of the lake or names of coves that have produced our record bass?
Ethel, Valentine and others….go.

Yes everybody chime in to give away all the secrets.

I don’t think talking about where a fish was caught 20+ years ago is giving up secrets. Especially since the lake no longer produces that size fish.

To my ( knowledge) most if not all the fish over 17 lbs, Except the state record where caught NW of the 515 West bridge.

Back in the good ole days of course.

State Record was caught out front of Chaney Branch on a minnow 40 plus foot of water.

With all this being said , you know how fisherman are ... I caught it over there or in the mouth..... ????

So do we ever really know Where,When, How ??? Just Saying .

A man told me "If you want to catch big bass, learn to crappie fish"...

I was talking to Larry Barnes who caught Valentine. He went into great detail about his fish catch. This was some time ago however. I wanna say he caught her just inside Birch creek. It would be awesome to see a map with pins of giants caught.

I fished with Galen Poe that used to own Val's. He netted the fish for Mark Stevenson. He showed me the exact tree where Mark caught Ethel in Nov 1986. It was on the edge of a main creek in 12' near the 20' creek channel.

Is the lake no longer producing fish of that size because it gets so beat up by tournaments? I know delayed mortality is a real thing that hurts lakes.

There's a pretty dang good point in White Oak that people have found to be VERY productive for VERY large basses over the years.

To the OP, lots of olds and has-beens here that still hold on to the hope they have some secret on lake fork. Back when they caught them on Fork, literally anyone could catch fish on Fork, lol

I caught 3 DD at fork in a bass buster with one 12V battery and 30lb TM and never got farther than a cast from the bank in the 80's when I was in high school.

It was easy

Thye used to just jump in the boat.

But where is the tree?

isn't that something.....

There used to be a map showing approximate location of lake fork sharelunker fish. I cant seem to find it now but there were several areas that have produced 20+ entries over 13 pounds

https://goo.gl/maps/t2pXbHb1LNPGzHLE6

Always heard a story about Valentine coming out of Little Penson

You would be correct

Lol

It is obvious why Lake Fork doesn’t produce 17+ lb fish anymore. It is because of all those high school tournaments. 😳

Awesome post-Now I have coordinates to use my crappie minnows for the next state record bass

Back when the big ones were being caught as I recall, there was tons of hydrilla in the lake. Now they were not caught in the hydrilla but it sure made Fork a lot more fertile than it is now thats for sure.

Ken - My first tournament partner in the old Anglers Choice tournaments was Kenny, Vals son, Galen's step son. I spent from the late 80's through the 90's and beyond practically living at their trailer and helping out at the Restaurant on weekends. Me and Kenny knew all of the guides back then and Galen and the rest of them shared some great stories and we made a few memories back then especially all of those years where we spent so much time night fishing especially the Axton's Night Tournaments although it seems like all we did was donate to Dreabon Joiner most of the time.. I also got to fish with everyone but my all time favorite was all of the times I fished with Ronnie Byrd. He was an awesome Jig fisherman and a HOOT to fish with. I still think about a lot of my personal best fish during those days and still remember areas where they were although the lake definitely has changed.

Rick, there were a few things that I really remember about the prime time period on Fork when it was filled with Hydrilla. The time period when you would be throwing a Popping Scum Frog and a giant would blow up and scare the [censored] out of you on those things. Ripping a big old Trap through the grass early in the year. And slow rolling those Hilldebrandt Spinnerbaits above the Hydrilla at night and going in some nights with what felt like broken ribs from fighting so many of those big old strong fish.

I remember Kenny. Galen & Val were good people, all of them.

I remember he was running the troll motor on my BassCat up in Garrett Creek about a week after he had netted Mark's record. We were pitching jigs at trees along the creek channel. As we worked down the creek he said, "I swore to Mark I've never tell where he caught Ethel, but it might have been right there" as he pitched his jig at a stump.

YES!!! I know this tree.

Mine would be that chic named Carla I met at Neon Moon.

LOL...olds? And you were in high school in the 80's! You're at least 50 and that qualifies as an "old"!

Yeah Doug is in denial.

#midlifecrisis

Me and Kenny were fishing the Century Bass Club Open in Val's Bass Cat that I ended up buying. We headed right to that tree. I was throwing a big Red Trap and got it hung on that tree. As Kenny was heading there I was trying to pop it loose. We got about 8 feet from it and I managed to pop it free. When I started reeling my line in I noticed it was moving off to the side. I set the hook on a 9.6 lber. We came in to weigh in with high hopes but it was only about 6th or 7th place in those days. Larry Barnes brought in a big fish but then somebody, I wonder who, brought in about a 13 lber.

Hydrilla and a million trees were a huge thing that made it great. The brood ponds that were there before the lake filled was another along with the soil in E. Texas. Another thing a local told me was that there used to be many small to medium sized cattle ranches around the lake. A number of them were shuttered according to the story. Was there any correlation between the ranches and the lake fertility? According to his story this made a big difference.

Thats a Cool story! I think I know the guy that brought in the 13 pounder.

It's just overall pressure, has nothing to do with tournaments. It'd be a different argument if the lake had the same cover as it did in 1992, grass, etc

https://goo.gl/maps/n34KzP1HoiawTh919