Been a tough few days on Fork

Been having to work to get big but its been fun. Tuesday was by far the toughest. Yesterday was great on size and numbers were better today. Literally have 2 techniques working and any deviation for me ends up with no bites. Got a couple of spots holding fish and looks like the shad are finally moving up. They had been suspending in 10-15` with no fish around them. Finally started seeing some surface activity up close but top water still is dead. Thinking its about to bust loose though. Got 5 more days to chase them around though. Weather is great and absolutely no crowds at all.

looks perfect for next few days,..cool, maybe some sprinkles, and light winds...I see a hawg in your future..

Had 2 good ones yesterday that were nice to get but I want a DD...lol

Good luck! I'm thinking about coming down tomorrow...

I think they are getting fitted for feed bags and its about to be great. The amount if shad that moved up shallow was huge today. You could not even get sand bass bites hardly either the last few days. Deep water was barren and shallow was dead. Reminded me of postspawn.

It's almost that time!! I think I'll be targeting the 6-10 ft range, pitching jigs tomorrow. Maybe I'll see you out there...

All joking aside I have only had 1 jig bite in 4 days and I have thrown one a lot. Also it seems 5` or less is the deal for me.

hmmmmm......good info, Mark. .....thanks for sharing. ...would like to be there. ..

I'm going to be out there tomorrow too to try some shallow stuff up on the north end of both sides. Maybe it'll work out, maybe not but it sure beats working.

I don't doubt it. Last week, most of the better fish I caught were on 5" swimbaits.

Just got in from 4 days at Fork, I experienced pretty much the same thing as we caught 4 in 4 days. Like fishing in the dead sea,bazillion baitfish moving up,in,and on a few humps, but no fish around them. the 4 we caught were on weightless watermelon flukes around grass and they were pretty much on the bank

Thanks for the tips! I was out there Monday for the first time, and only hit one dink. Was sounding bass at 6-10 suspending, but not biting. Good to see the shad are about to move up, that hits my favorite type of fishing! I will catch ya`ll out there on Saturday!

I'll be down tomorrow for the weekend. Hope to find a little something.

Just hang in there. It will get better. Everyone I talked to is struggling. I had to put down the jig and junk fish a bit till I lucked on what seems to be how they want to bite.

I agree with Mark, the fishing should start heating up very soon. Lots of baitfish have moved onto the flats and the bass seem to be getting a bit more active. In a week or two the bite should be much more consistent with some topwater mixed in! The best days will probably be the cloudy rainy ones when the fish will be chasing up shallow all day long...those are my favorite this time of year!

Looking forward to that. Nothing like good fishing and no crowds. Love fall and winter out here.

Mark we need to hook up and fish. I just pulled in to our cabin

Mark are you going to fish Berkley?

I am glad to se that it is not me, I have found a ton of shad working but no fish, I have been moving to several areas and find shad but the bites are way down for the size of schools I am finding.

Yes yes yes.

With the lake in turnover and fish moving shallow for the fall it can be tough. Look for grass.

So far better numbers along with 2 good ones. Idling through some stumps now.

Sigh'....wishin' I was


Tear 'em up, Mark!!

Looks like nothing but cloudy/rainy days all week. 60% Saturday at the berkley! Little rain never hurt nobody

Anything on "nuclear melon"?

Ive caught some on spinnerbaits around what grass I can find but not many. I pitched a Havoc Craw Fatty w/ 1/4 oz weight around timber on points and secondary points last Thursday and caught nothing. Bart

I didn't get skunked today but it was one of the toughest days I've ever had out there. I think I'm going to leave Fork alone for another month or so until they get out of their funk and get settled into a cooler pattern.

Ended the day with 10-15 bites and got all but a couple in the boat. Had 2 good ones but managed to lose the only jig bite I had up in No Name. Looked to be 5-6lbs when it jumped off. Still a grind but getting better. All were in 5' or less.

All next week should get them squared aware .....Wednesday or so after Berkley it ought to be on

You're probably right but I'm fishing the BLT on Tyler next weekend so I'll probably spend most of the week on that gar pond trying to find something worth weighing (don't know why, they'll move within 6 hours anyway hahahaha)and I'm headed back to work the next Tuesday so I'll just let Fork be til November.

I ended up not driving down. At least y'all were out there!

Chunk out a black salty! Fish ON!!!!!

This...

After reading these posts I did not expect much, I had to be off the water at 12:30 and heading home. So I committed to looking at 5 areas and just covering water. Took a close friends son with me, who is just getting into fishing.

Our first stop a long main lake bank with scattered timber produced a 23 inch fish on my third cast, my partner missed three on yellow magic, it was his first time to throw a top water bait. Second stop had a boat on it, so we went to area 3 and blanked there. Area 4 was a new to me, great looking main lake bank with scattered grass and shallow humps, we both missed several bites before I hooked another 23 inch fish. With the wind blowing across the grass, humps and deep water near by I thought we load up here, but one fish was it. Area 5 looked better on a map than in person, so we did not spend any time there. Went into faithful alligator cove, and boated several small fish, and then my partners rod double ups, and comes un buttoned, he cast right back into the area and hooks up again this time boating a nice 20.5 inch fish, which was his largest fish in his young fishing career.

In 5 hours and no expectations I thought we did okay. another highlight was teaching him to throw a baitcaster, it took all of 15 minutes. he never touched his spinning reel after that.

Great job mentoring Syd!
Get them out on the water

That's awesome! Good job on taking a newbie fishing! We need more of this

Had someone in the boat with me on Monday and I had caught some fish on Texas rigs and jigs. We rolled into a sot late that day and started chunking square bills. Quickly realized there was shallow submerged grass out to about 4'. He was catching fish but I was not. I was throwing a H20 in natural shad and he was throwing a 6th Sense. I literally could not get bit on it and he was catching them steady. Realizing I had missed something I asked him what retrieve reel he was using on the way to ramp. It was a 5.1 while I had been using a 6.4 reel.
Fast forward to Tuesday as I struggled to get bit. It dawned on me later that day his crank bait was way more buoyant than the H20 as I kept fouling in the grass. That bait and coupled with a slow retrieve was the deal. I dug out an Xcite XB-1 as it is super buoyant. I used the ghost minnow color and just like that I caught a few real fast by reeling slower. Had 2 really nice slot fish as well as a fair amount of bites. Next day out caught them on same bait reeling super slow just ticking the grass. As the day went on the turned off the bait a bit but that was from beating on same spots. Dug around and pulled out a Jackall Bling 55 in chart. shad. That reignited the bite and again that bait is extremely buoyant which is key right now.
I rode this deal all week and yesterday had back to back 5lb plus on consecutive casts. Halfway back and on either side of Williams or the Mustangs are holding fish on this deal. I cannot stress enough how important reeling the bait slow is. If its fouling you will not get bit. If you get a little grass here and there on your hooks but are coming through clean its money. A trap did not work at all. Seems a crank bait in a natural shad pattern is what they want.
We only had 2hrs hours on the water today as I had other commitments but we managed to lose a toad at the boat on the square bill.
There it is in a nutshell.

Thanks for the update Mark. I'm heading out this morning for a few hours. Regards, Bart

Just hope someone might use the info to catch a few. Headed out in a bit myself.

Mark,
Thanks for sharing such great information. People like yourself, Eddie Garret, Caldemyer, Fork Legend (sorry don't know your name yet) and some others I've noticed on this forum really like to see others being successful. I appreciate you not being so guarded with fishing tips. My buddy Mike (gatorkidd) says y'all are great teachers and great guys. Tight lines. I hope to get to fish with all of you some day.

Not sure I need to be mentioned with those guys. I am just a weekend spare. I am just paying it forward a bit as I have learned a lot on here myself. Thanks

Great report Mark, Here is a little report of what we did today.
The bite got better today we caught them over grass today on a 3/8oz buzzbait under this cloud cover, the key was reeling it real slow just enough to keep it on top, that kinda goes along with what Mark was saying. During the turnover and lack of oxygen in the water the bass want it slow, they won't expend much energy chasing bait.

Headed out in the AM to see what they are doing. Wife and I just hung out today and rested up a bit.

I fished Saturday and found them in the grass lines and timber lines up in Glade and the cove by the golf course.. Only thing they would bite on was a bait fished color trick worm and LFT Hyper stick rigged wacky style. Good enough pattern to win some money at the IBC.