I went out yesterday for a few hours, from about noon to 3, before the daily thunderstorms ran me off. I caught one small fish on a Fluke in about 20′ of water, using a large splitshot sinker about two feet in front of it to get it down.
Bass should be schooling pretty soon, but I didn’t see any evidence of this.
The water on Lake Fork is very high because of the torrential rains we have had in the area this Spring/Summer. Many of the locals are saying that this messes up the fishing because they open the spillway to let some of the water out and that seems to kill the bite. I am not familiar with this, but I can tell you that I have not talked to anyone in the past month or two who has had any real success.
It will all come back to life when the weather stabilizes and the water levels are back to their normal level.

At a recent bas tournament I had the opportunity to get out and see a demo of Humminbird’s side scanning technology. What can I say other than WHOA. Their pricey, but you can get a great idea of what’s down under. From the marina where we took off, we went out about 200 feet into some trees and began just idling around. The picture detail was phenominal. You could see trees, grass, perch beads, and supports for docks. At one spot you could actually pick out which post on a dock was holding fish. Simply amazing. After seeing this, I had to get one. So I am now the proud owner of a Humminbird 797 2c. Had to sell off some other hobbies to pay for it though. I’ve only had it out twice, but it has definitely shown me a few things. Other than the massive array of GPS functions and mapping views you can actually purchase a memory chip and follow the cleared boat lanes simply from the display.

Back to the side scanner. I knew where a couple of bridges were before the lake flooded and had to see what this thing had, so I made a few passes and got some amazing photos. I was able to see the guardrails for the bridge and count the number of supports. Next I started scanning around the 515 bridge looking for schools of bass by the pilings and actualy could point out which pilings were holding fish. If only I had some minnows. These things are amazing, but terribly expensive, and tricky to install. Let me know if you have any questions.

Good luck Ya’ll

I sat outside at the house Saturday morning drinking my coffee looking at the incredibly calm, overcast skies thinking, “man I wish I was on the lake fishing topwater”. So I hopped in the car and headed for the lake. By the time I made the 20 mile drive it was about 12:30 and I had bluebird skies and a constant 15-20 mph south wind. The perfect overcast topwater day was gone.

First I went south and worked a few main lake points with a deep diving crankbait and a Rat-L-Trap. No luck. So I headed north of the 515 bridge and worked the same point that produced the small schooling fish last week and got nothing. I was hungry and it windy to comfortably fish the places I needed to be fishing, so I went back to camp and took a break.

I went back out about 6:30 and went to the point where I found the schooling fish last week and caught one decent bass, about 2 pounds I would guess. I missed three others, all of them very, very small. I have switched to a medium heavy 7′ rod for cranks and such and what happens with the smaller fish is that you end up actually pulling them out of the water before they get to the boat and they are able to shake loose because their body isn’t heavy enough to allow for a good hook set. I guess it’s just the same, they get away unharmed and I keep fishing. These points hold bigger fish. I just need to find them. Next time out I will work it with a Carolina rig in hopes of better fish.

I hate to say never, but fishing on a Saturday at Fork is just crazy. There are two to three boats on every point and a frenzy of activity. I much prefer to fish during the week but it hasn’t worked out that way lately. If you can, I suggest fishing Fork during the week. There is a big difference in the boat traffic and fishing pressure and number of people in general on the weekend. I saw two different boats pulling a tuber in the boat row. Other boats are passing and there are big stumps to the right. I have to admit I have never seen that. It might be allowed but it seems dangerous to me.

I went out Friday and fished major points. I tried a Carolina rig, medium and deep diving crankbaits, a wacky worm and everything else I had, but I was unable to get a good bite.

What I did find were a lot of schooling bass about 10-12″ long. All fish I caught were on a Rat-L-Trap. In the morning I used the 1/4 ounce chrome with a blue back and in the afternoon, since it was cloudy, I tied on a chartreuse 1/2 ounce model with an orange belly and a black back. I probably have not fished that color in 10 years, but it seemed to be what I needed.

In the morning, on my very first cast with a Rat-L-Trap I caught a small bass in about 25′ of water off of a point and on the first cast of the afternoon session (after the morning storm had passed) I caught a fish on the very first cast with the chartreuse color. Everywhere I went, I tried to get the larger fish down deeper to bite, but they would not. I ended up catching 10 or so on the Rat-L-Traps but none of any size larger than about 14″.

The morning session was cloudy and ended with a strong storm coming through. I got out of the way of it just in time. The afternoon was cloudy until about 7 when the sun came out just before it went down, creating a beautiful sunset on Lake Fork.

At least I caught some fish. I would rather have gotten the better fish to bite but it was not to be. I threw everything I had at them at all depths, worked the grassline, worked the deep timber but still had a pretty good time catching the smaller schooling fish.

We headed out to the lake on Friday and got all set up around 7 pm. I hit the topwater bite in the evening for just a little while and caught two small bass in the same grassy cove where I have been fishing the evening bite.

We had the two dogs so we had a motorhome full and lots of walking and peace-keeping to do as well. It was overall a very nice weekend. Fishing time was cut a little short as you will see in the video. I spent much of Sunday afternoon riding around White Oak Branch and marking creek beds and structure on my GPS. The bites I got Saturday and Sunday were on a Rogue. I prefer the non-suspending version. I was working it and keeping it no more than a foot deep. I generally like to work a Rogue where I can always at least see the flash of it. Cloudy conditions change this of course and you have to pay closer attention at that point. In this instance, I was working the Rogue over grass in about 18 feet of water. The grass seemed to come up about 8 to 10 feet high, so the fish were no doubt coming out of the grass after it. I also fished a Carolina worm and a wacky worm through the grass but the Rogue was all I could get them to bite.

All of my topwater bites were all on Yellow Magic. I caught a few Friday evening and a few Sunday evening as well, all on the same lure.

I had the pleasure of meeting many of our new neighbors at the lake. We are the new kids in town so there are lots of new names to remember. The brotherhood (and sisterhood too ladies) of people who fish never ceases to amaze me. At one point during the storm I found myself lending a hand to someone who needed it and at the end of the weekend when I went to put my boat on the trailer and realized it was completely out of gas, a neighbor was there to help me get it on the trailer. What a dummy I was to let that happen in the first place. I don’t keep a lot of gas in it because I don’t want to have gas sitting in the tank for too long. I learned a lesson here about uping the acceptable minimum fuel level :)

I hope you enjoy the video. I will be out later this week and hope to have more fishing tales and videos for you.

We went to the camp late yesterday and stayed the night. I fished the evening with topwater and caught only two, both about 2 pounds. The mosquitos were so bad, even with Deet, that I had to come in. They were worse than I have ever seen them here. My guess is all of the rain we have had recently is to blame.

I went back out this morning at 5:45, just before sunrise and caught 3 more on topwater (Yellow Magic) by about 7 but I lost them after that. I tried deep, I tried shallow, I tried soft plastics, I tried a spinnerbait… They just seemed to shut off.

Over the next few trips, I am going to do a fair amount of graphing and plotting. I am not real familiar with the summer patterns on Lake Fork as this is my first summer to fish it. I believe the fish on this lake tend to be deeper that I am used to. I need to find those grass lines and structure in 20-30′ of water and work those. I will spend some time finding them using my trusty Lake Fork map and setting those points on my GPS.

The lake was absolutely beautiful this morning pre-dawn. The western sky had an orange glow and the water was like glass. Even though the fish weren’t biting real good, what a beautiful way to start a day!

I have no videos to show you for this trip. I bought a new camera and the wide angle just doesn’t work on the boat, it is not a wide enough shot and the videos looked terrible. It is a very nice camera, a JVC Everio that I got a GREAT deal on at Vanns, but my trusty Sony Cybershot will be the fishing camera.

Lately it seems that when the weather is right, I am busy and can’t leave the office. When I am done and ready to shut the phone off and sneak out, it rains :(
I know that the fishing on Lake Fork is good right now. I am seeing reports from some of the folks over at Texas Fishing Forum and I know the fish are coming alive. The summer patterns are starting to work and the in-between post spawn blues are fading away until next year.
Sooner or later I will be able to get out there and catch more bass, but I guess sometimes we have to be patient about these things and the right time will come sooner or later.
A note to all of you out there who aspire to be self-employed. Sometimes it’s great, other times it will drive you crazy. I am in a period of the later.
See ya on the lake soon!
Scott

I just couldn’t stand to stay home this afternoon. I could hear the Bass calling me, so I went to the lake. I decided to fish only topwater and see what I could find. I found 4 nice bass and missed another one.

First off, I mention a Silver Magic topwater lure in the video. It is Yellow Magic. I am not sure why I insist on calling it the wrong name. The Yellow Magic topwater lure is a quality lure that works very nicely on top of the water. It shoots a nice spray ahead of it when you work it and that stirs up bass.

Most of my bites tonight were very easy. The first fish I caught really attacked the lure, but the others simply sucked it in barely breaking the top of the water. A Gar hit my lure and when I set the hook it cut my line. That’s why I switched from the Yellow Magic lure. I will get another few of them. They are somewhat pricey but they really do work well on top of the water.

I went out today about 1:30. It was windy as you can hear in the first part of the video.

The trip started in my favorite cove and I had no luck there, so I went north to a point about 1/2 mile due north of point #48 on the map, Wood Bridge (a submerged roadbed and bridge). I fished around this point and caught one good fish. I had no more bites in this area for a few hours after that and headed back south of the 515 bridge to scope out a few new coves just south of my favorite cove at Little Point (spot #46 on the map). I liked the other coves, but I knew the topwater bite in my favorite cove would be there…and it was.

I got a few small bass on the topwater and didn’t bother taking video of them. I also caught a few nice slot fish on my trusty Pop-R. It’s funny how a tough day can turn into so much fun when the topwater bite turns on. Catching bass on topwater has always been one of my favorite things to do and it has only gotten to be more fun during my time fishing Lake Fork.

I saw no activity of bass on beds today and the fish I caught on the worm was well off the bank, suspended in some grass. This tells me that the post-spawn period is here, at least in this part of the lake. The south end of the lake might still have some bedding fish, but not for much longer. Back off of the bank during the day, find some good points to work. That’s what I will be doing for the next several trips, finding good points to work for suspended bass.