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Message
This is why you go to Lake Fork...
Posted on 4/22/19 at 9:28 am
Posted on 4/22/19 at 9:28 am
In a recent thread, someone was asking about Lake Fork with regards to some of us NWLA OB'rs. Well, we went this weekend, so I was going to give a little run down and answer any questions y'all may have.
I live in Shreveport. Lake Fork is about 1:45 drive. For comparison, it's about 1:15 from my house to mid lake Toledo.
There are lots of great lodges, from really high class places, to simple places with a bed, shower and shitter. We stay at a place called Trophy Lodge at Lake Fork. It is within 1/2 mile of a public boat launch, and a gas station called the Minnow Bucket that has bait, breakfast and most of the essentials you may need. The lodge is only $50/night Sun-Thurs. and $70/night Fri-Sat. It's not much, but it has long parking spots to back your boat in right in front of your room and recharge batteries for the next day. Some pics of the place...
About the lake...
You can see the Minnow Bucket and public launch on the map above in the lower right hand corner. It's a good location for me, because it's the first place you land coming from Shreveport.
Lake Fork was impounded in the early 1980's with the specific goal of creating a trophy bass lake unlike other lakes who's primary goal is electricity generation (*cough couch... Toledo
). The most mind blowing fact of all is the current large mouth slot of 16-24 inches. You can keep anything under and only 1 over per day. A 16-24" slot protects 3.5 to 9 pounders basically, so the lake has a heck of a chunky average.
Fork is full of stumps. In the early days it looked like this...
Most have rotted away down to water level, but they're still there so you better know where you are going, or take it slow if you don't. Only a main channel is marked in the lake. Creeks leading into pockets and coves are not marked.
Even though you can't see most of them, this is what it looks like when the water is down.
This is the most accurate picture I could find of what it looks like now.
So we get there this weekend and the water is a little stained from recent rains, but the water temp is 66.5 degrees and the bass are shallow and active. On Friday afternoon I threw a wacky worm the first hour and a half without a bite, threw a spinner bait for a while and finally picked up a fluke. Got bit within 5 minutes. I adjusted colors as I went, but I did not put down the fluke for the remainder of the trip (all day Saturday).
While I didn't smoke them, I did manage to catch 12 over the day and a half we fished, and had many more swirl and slap at it protecting beds/fry.
So it was just like any other trip, where we were catching a few, but nothing heavier than 3-4 lbs. until the afternoon of the last day. I was able to increase my personal best on the lake by about 3 additional pounds.
6.86 (6 lbs. 14 oz.) 21 3/4 inches. (We had a scale and tape measure)
Released her after measurements and a couple of quick pictures. While it's not a giant for that lake, it's my new personal best out there and has reignited my interest to fish that lake again.
That's what you go to Lake Fork for.
I live in Shreveport. Lake Fork is about 1:45 drive. For comparison, it's about 1:15 from my house to mid lake Toledo.
There are lots of great lodges, from really high class places, to simple places with a bed, shower and shitter. We stay at a place called Trophy Lodge at Lake Fork. It is within 1/2 mile of a public boat launch, and a gas station called the Minnow Bucket that has bait, breakfast and most of the essentials you may need. The lodge is only $50/night Sun-Thurs. and $70/night Fri-Sat. It's not much, but it has long parking spots to back your boat in right in front of your room and recharge batteries for the next day. Some pics of the place...
About the lake...
You can see the Minnow Bucket and public launch on the map above in the lower right hand corner. It's a good location for me, because it's the first place you land coming from Shreveport.
Lake Fork was impounded in the early 1980's with the specific goal of creating a trophy bass lake unlike other lakes who's primary goal is electricity generation (*cough couch... Toledo
). The most mind blowing fact of all is the current large mouth slot of 16-24 inches. You can keep anything under and only 1 over per day. A 16-24" slot protects 3.5 to 9 pounders basically, so the lake has a heck of a chunky average. Fork is full of stumps. In the early days it looked like this...
Most have rotted away down to water level, but they're still there so you better know where you are going, or take it slow if you don't. Only a main channel is marked in the lake. Creeks leading into pockets and coves are not marked.
Even though you can't see most of them, this is what it looks like when the water is down.
This is the most accurate picture I could find of what it looks like now.
So we get there this weekend and the water is a little stained from recent rains, but the water temp is 66.5 degrees and the bass are shallow and active. On Friday afternoon I threw a wacky worm the first hour and a half without a bite, threw a spinner bait for a while and finally picked up a fluke. Got bit within 5 minutes. I adjusted colors as I went, but I did not put down the fluke for the remainder of the trip (all day Saturday).
While I didn't smoke them, I did manage to catch 12 over the day and a half we fished, and had many more swirl and slap at it protecting beds/fry.
So it was just like any other trip, where we were catching a few, but nothing heavier than 3-4 lbs. until the afternoon of the last day. I was able to increase my personal best on the lake by about 3 additional pounds.
6.86 (6 lbs. 14 oz.) 21 3/4 inches. (We had a scale and tape measure)
Released her after measurements and a couple of quick pictures. While it's not a giant for that lake, it's my new personal best out there and has reignited my interest to fish that lake again.
That's what you go to Lake Fork for.
This post was edited on 4/22/19 at 9:32 am
11
Posted on 4/22/19 at 9:39 am to Clyde Tipton
quote:
the bass are shallow and active
And you didn't throw a swimbait, buzzbait or frog?
ETA: nice fish
This post was edited on 4/22/19 at 9:41 am
Posted on 4/22/19 at 9:44 am to Clyde Tipton
Congrats on the big girl, and great pics.
Posted on 4/22/19 at 9:44 am to Clyde Tipton
-thanks for sharing
-congrats on the nice fish and by beating your personal best
-its a little bit of a hike for me but will def. revert back to this post if I ever decide to make a trip up
Posted on 4/22/19 at 9:44 am to Clyde Tipton
Clyde, you know Black Face ain't cool dontcha? 
Great write up btw.
Great write up btw.
Posted on 4/22/19 at 9:45 am to Wtodd
quote:
And you didn't throw a swimbait, buzzbait or frog?
The guy I was with got 1 on a frog and two other short bites. He threw a frog about a quarter of the time. So I wouldn't say it was the most efficient use of his time.
Neither of us ever threw a swimbait or buzzbait.
Posted on 4/22/19 at 9:52 am to Clyde Tipton
I stayed at the same lodge in 93 or 94. Doesn't look like it changed one bit.
Posted on 4/22/19 at 9:54 am to Clyde Tipton
Best trip of my life was there. Guide trip. We sat over a deep hump and sunk swim baits on lead heads. Our best 5 would have easily been over 35 lbs.
Posted on 4/22/19 at 9:59 am to Clyde Tipton
quote:
Neither of us ever threw a swimbait or buzzbait.
The next time you go and they're active in the shallows, throw at least 1 of these......you'll thank me later
This post was edited on 4/22/19 at 1:20 pm
Posted on 4/22/19 at 10:01 am to AlxTgr
quote:
Best trip of my life was there. Guide trip. We sat over a deep hump and sunk swim baits on lead heads. Our best 5 would have easily been over 35 lbs.
I've only been fishing it a couple of years, and mostly in the spring. Talking to locals and studying my maps, I'm ready to make a mid summer trip over there and drag a carolina rig on some deep humps and points for sure.
Posted on 4/22/19 at 10:04 am to Clyde Tipton
Spoon the road beds too. Our guide swears he has a world record on that ate his yella bass on the way up.
Posted on 4/22/19 at 10:26 am to Wtodd
quote:
And you didn't throw a swimbait, buzzbait or frog?
You splittin hairs baw, they want what they want when they want it. Last few days have been post-frontal as hell anyway, odds are that lazy moving fluke would have outfished the aggressive stuff.
This post was edited on 4/22/19 at 10:27 am
Posted on 4/22/19 at 10:32 am to Clyde Tipton
I cant wait to go back. My first and only time I've been, I got to fish with James Niggemeyer. Unforgettable experience getting to fish with at the time an elite angler and fishing one of the best lakes in the country. Our biggest was only about 4lbs but we caught tons of fish really deep on alabama rigs which I had never done before. Learned so much on that trip and am going to try to plan a trip during next year's spawn.
Posted on 4/22/19 at 10:39 am to TheDrunkenTigah
quote:
Last few days have been post-frontal as hell
That and water clarity were our biggest factors between smashing them and just doing okay. I was able to find clear enough water to see fish on beds, but I couldn't do anything about the air pressure.
Truthfully though, the fish on beds were not worth fooling with in my opinion. We stopped on a couple of decent ones and burned some time, but most if not all of our fish we caught were just off the banks in deep enough water to conceal themselves from polarized glasses. In other words, you could see beds, but where the bottom disappeared was the line where one would come up from underneath and turn on it. Usually next to a stump or laydown in 2-4' of water...
This post was edited on 4/22/19 at 10:47 am
Posted on 4/22/19 at 10:51 am to Clyde Tipton
quote:
the fish on beds were not worth fooling with in my opinion
Man a fish visibly locked down on a bed, especially in those conditions, can be damn near impossible to catch. It's like they don't care about anything else but the task at hand. Those fish hanging off in the shadows like you described are what every tourney fisherman dreams of, big females that are full of hormones but either haven't quite spawned out yet or just did. Those are the fish that in three days will head back out to deep water and may not see another bait in 2019.
Posted on 4/22/19 at 11:32 am to Clyde Tipton
Congrats man, lake fork is a wonderful fishery. Nice catch, I bet she fileted up good.
Posted on 4/22/19 at 11:39 am to RickfromArizona
Bossier pls
Posted on 4/22/19 at 11:41 am to RickfromArizona
quote:Baked.
fileted
Posted on 4/22/19 at 12:03 pm to TheDrunkenTigah
quote:
odds are that lazy moving fluke would have outfished the aggressive stuff.
If the fish are "active" which the OP said they were, then make 'em go batshit over moving baits.
Posted on 4/22/19 at 12:05 pm to RickfromArizona
He released her.
Released her after measurements and a couple of quick pictures. While it's not a giant for that lake, it's my new personal best out there and has reignited my interest to fish that lake again.
Released her after measurements and a couple of quick pictures. While it's not a giant for that lake, it's my new personal best out there and has reignited my interest to fish that lake again.
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