Posted By: Tom Redington
Lake Fork Mini Report & Pics—July 15, 2011 - 07/15/11 08:45 PM
Jim and Debbie with a couple nice ones:
John and Kevin with a couple good for chunks:
I’m scrambling to head out the door for my final FLW Tour stop of the year on Pickwick next week, so I’ll cut to the chase in an abridged fishing report for Lake Fork. The lake is dropping fast, already pushing past the 4.5’ low mark. The 154 and 515W public ramps are in good shape still but you’ll want to ask locally about a lot of the other ramps before launching. The water is clearing and remains warm, reading 86 to 92 in the day. A little bit of grass has grown up around the lake but stumps and timber are still the main deal in most of the shallower areas.
The offshore structure bite remains good for both numbers and size. With the thermocline setting up about 28’ right now, a few more fish are suspending and they aren’t eating on almost every spot like they were in most of May and June. You’ll have to do a lot of graphing and hunting to find the key spots out deep, but once you find them, it is normally a very big school and you can work on them for a couple hours. Humps, ridges, points, bridges, and roads in 18’ to 28’ have been best. Shallower channel bends and high spots near the creeks have been better on some days near the mouths of creeks and in the main lake, with bass in 5’ to 12’. Worms of various types and rigs have been best for me. Drop shots, TX rigs, and Carolina rigs are all working and I’m primarily using Hyper Finesse Worms and 8 or 10 inch Fork Worms, along with Ring Frys and Baby Rings Frys. Watermelon, red bug, green pumpkin, plum, blue fleck, and chartreuse pepper colors have all worked at times. Fork Flutter spoons, deep diving cranks, and football jigs also work sporadically, but the worm rigs have been the most consistent. I love using the Dobyns Extreme DX744C for my worm rigs, as it will throw any worm rig from light TX rigs up to heavy football jigs and Carolina rigs and the rod is super sensitive and a joy to fish. If you’re looking for a good worm set up, check it out, it is one of the most loved of all the Dobyns sticks.
A little bit of a surprise to me right now is the strength of the topwater bite. We’ve had consistent topwater bites a number of mornings until 9 or 9:30 AM, well after the sun has gotten high and bright. It’ll take a little scouting to find good areas, but a dead giveaway is a lot of shad activity and breaking fish. If you see a lot of shad running around and fish chasing them from time-to-time, you can definitely get them to come up for a bait. Poppers have worked some days but walking baits like Sammies have been far better for me. American Shad and Ghost Minnow colors have worked well. If you don’t know how to walk the dog with Sammies and Spooks, check out the video on my site for a bit of how-to.
For more details on my patterns and techniques, you can look around my website at my articles. I have a current article on tips for fishing the flutter spoons. In addition, the forum on my site has past fishing reports and the summer patterns are very similar to what was working a few weeks ago. www.lakeforkguidetrips.com
A final bit of congratulations to Diamond Sports Marine (DSM). DSM is the Ranger dealer located on Lake Fork and also in Rockwall. Ranger recently honored them with the award for the top Ranger dealer in the US for the 2011 model year. The award is not only based on sales but also on customer service, so a job well done to the guys at DSM for their accomplishment!
Best of luck on your Lake Fork adventures. Hopefully the Pickwick ledge fish will play nice like the Fork ones are. Keep the Fork bass company while I’m gone.
Good Fishing,
Tom
John and Kevin with a couple good for chunks:
I’m scrambling to head out the door for my final FLW Tour stop of the year on Pickwick next week, so I’ll cut to the chase in an abridged fishing report for Lake Fork. The lake is dropping fast, already pushing past the 4.5’ low mark. The 154 and 515W public ramps are in good shape still but you’ll want to ask locally about a lot of the other ramps before launching. The water is clearing and remains warm, reading 86 to 92 in the day. A little bit of grass has grown up around the lake but stumps and timber are still the main deal in most of the shallower areas.
The offshore structure bite remains good for both numbers and size. With the thermocline setting up about 28’ right now, a few more fish are suspending and they aren’t eating on almost every spot like they were in most of May and June. You’ll have to do a lot of graphing and hunting to find the key spots out deep, but once you find them, it is normally a very big school and you can work on them for a couple hours. Humps, ridges, points, bridges, and roads in 18’ to 28’ have been best. Shallower channel bends and high spots near the creeks have been better on some days near the mouths of creeks and in the main lake, with bass in 5’ to 12’. Worms of various types and rigs have been best for me. Drop shots, TX rigs, and Carolina rigs are all working and I’m primarily using Hyper Finesse Worms and 8 or 10 inch Fork Worms, along with Ring Frys and Baby Rings Frys. Watermelon, red bug, green pumpkin, plum, blue fleck, and chartreuse pepper colors have all worked at times. Fork Flutter spoons, deep diving cranks, and football jigs also work sporadically, but the worm rigs have been the most consistent. I love using the Dobyns Extreme DX744C for my worm rigs, as it will throw any worm rig from light TX rigs up to heavy football jigs and Carolina rigs and the rod is super sensitive and a joy to fish. If you’re looking for a good worm set up, check it out, it is one of the most loved of all the Dobyns sticks.
A little bit of a surprise to me right now is the strength of the topwater bite. We’ve had consistent topwater bites a number of mornings until 9 or 9:30 AM, well after the sun has gotten high and bright. It’ll take a little scouting to find good areas, but a dead giveaway is a lot of shad activity and breaking fish. If you see a lot of shad running around and fish chasing them from time-to-time, you can definitely get them to come up for a bait. Poppers have worked some days but walking baits like Sammies have been far better for me. American Shad and Ghost Minnow colors have worked well. If you don’t know how to walk the dog with Sammies and Spooks, check out the video on my site for a bit of how-to.
For more details on my patterns and techniques, you can look around my website at my articles. I have a current article on tips for fishing the flutter spoons. In addition, the forum on my site has past fishing reports and the summer patterns are very similar to what was working a few weeks ago. www.lakeforkguidetrips.com
A final bit of congratulations to Diamond Sports Marine (DSM). DSM is the Ranger dealer located on Lake Fork and also in Rockwall. Ranger recently honored them with the award for the top Ranger dealer in the US for the 2011 model year. The award is not only based on sales but also on customer service, so a job well done to the guys at DSM for their accomplishment!
Best of luck on your Lake Fork adventures. Hopefully the Pickwick ledge fish will play nice like the Fork ones are. Keep the Fork bass company while I’m gone.
Good Fishing,
Tom
Nice Bass and some Happy Anglers. Good Job and a Excellent Report! 
I bet Debbie caught that on here zebco H2O reel,with a blue gill Hag's Tornado worm.Jim's maybe a little bigger than Deb's today."Congrats" sure was hot out there today! 
