Lake Fork Report – 5/03/2012 – by Jason Hoffman
Good day today. The early bite is very good IF you are in the right place. Yesterday, we zeroed on my starting spot and this was a spot that I had 18 on a couple of days prior. Today, we boated a dozen topwater fish early and then switched to the LFT Magic Shad to finish the morning with 18. We are working the Magic Shad with a seriea of quick jerks and a pause. You will see most of the strikes, and this makes for some exciting fishing.
After lunch, we decided to go look for some deep fish and we found a couple of nice schools. The largemouth are mixed in with the white bass, and the action is nonstop. We boated 9 more largemouths and an insane number of whites on a big flutter spoon to finish off a very fun day.
Here are a few pics from the last few days:
Lake Fork Report – 4/23/2012 – by Marc Mitchell
Well the bite here has been on and off, but on for me for the most part. If you want to get after some topwater fish, you had better get there early. The first 2 hrs seem to be the best but if you hit a cloudy day you can make it work all day. Best baits/places are yellow magics,pop r 's and chug bugs. White bellies have been best and most all the fish are around flooded grass and penny wart weed. Pop the bait a couple of times near the grass and let it set. This has worked best.Fluke type baits worked along the grass have been very good but again work it slow around the grass. Now I have had some good days with a swimbait on points and secodary points with solid body swimbaits. Some days the tail has to thump a little more but keep trying till you get it right. Shad patters with a 1/4- 3/8 oz weighted hooks working best. Shallow crank baits like the 1.5- the 2.5 are working on some points in 2-7 ft with sexy shad and other shad patterns. On up in the day my Carolina rig has worked as well as my Tx rig bite. Best baits are rattle snakes,ubershad and 10 inch works. Best colors are green pumpkin and blue fleck, and (green pumpkin magic ubershad by Excite baits.) Best depths have been 8-15 ft on humps and points.Look for the bite to get better as we go in to the summer patterns with the big fish getting bunched up over deep water structure. I hope this helps you on your next trip to Lake Fork. I have a few days open in the next couple of months and I would like to be your guide on Lake Fork. Check me out at www.lakeforktxguide.com or www.mitchellsguideservice.com or give me a call 800-657-1969 / 903-348-3533 See you on the water ``~ <'''><
Lake Fork Report – 4/21/2012 – by Jason Hoffman
My apologies for the lack of reports lately. The honest truth is that the lake has been kicking my butt lately. We're catching 15-20 each day, but it hasn't been easy. I wish I could point you in the right direction as far as a solid pattern goes, but I've basically been "junk fishing" for the past week and a half. I was waiting to post a report after I had things figured out and I could give you more specific information. I've got them figured out now, but there's not one "best" way to catch the big fish right now!!!
There are a lot of post spawn fish right now, but there are still a few prespawn and spawners. I have been trying my best to pattern the bigger fish as I believe that's what most of my clients come to Lake Fork for. These big fish have been next to impossible to zero in on and that's the main reason why I've been trying different depths, areas, and presentations, and that has lead to fewer fish in the boat than what I am accustomed to catching most days for this time of year. I could catch far more numbers each day if I (clients) really wanted to, but most of them would be of the smaller "fry guarding" male variety.
For me, the best time of the day for numbers of solid fish (with the occasional big fish) has been the first hour or two of the day. The topwater bite has been good most mornings and very good to excellent other mornings. The trick is being on the right point at the right time, and that's not always easy. We are bouncing around from point to point hoping to find the school of fish that we're looking for before our window of opportunity closes. Walking baits have been best most days, but it's always a good idea to have a popping bait ready just in case. Squarebilled crankbaits can be highly effective in the right areas on days when the fish don't seem to want to come up on a topwater. And lastly, a Carolina rigged LFT Hyperstick will put some big fish in the boat in the same areas once the topwater bite ends.
After that ends, I've been trying lots of different things. Some days, my best bite is on a LFT Magic Shad in the flooded grass. Other days, I've had good success pitching a LFT Flipper to shallow timber. While other days, we can get them to bite a topwater or frog all day long. The best thing to do right now is to pick your favorite way to catch fish and cover lots of water. There are fish in the backs of creeks, on the main lake, and everywhere in between right now. I can't honestly tell you that one bait or one location is much better than the other.
The good news is that we have had an incredibly good spawn this year. I have seen A LOT of fry from one end of the lake to the other, and with the higher water levels, there is plenty of shoreline cover for these youngsters to hide in.
Also, the deep bite will be picking up soon, and that makes for some fantastic fishing on Lake Fork.
Lastly, we have opened up the comment section on our reports, so if you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the comment section below each post and we will be happy to answer them for you.
Look what I found!!!! Hydrilla!!! This is the second piece that I have found and they are in different areas of the lake!!!
Lake Fork Trophy Lures Magic Shad with 4/0 Mustad KVD Grip Pin Hook
Hook slot on LFT Magic Shad. This is part of what sets this bait apart from some others.
Lake Fork Report – 4/15/2012 – by Ronnie Kelley
Hey guys, hope your getting a chance to get out on the drink every now and then. Fishing has been good, and a lot of fun the past few days. We have had lots of clouds and wind and that has made the early morning topwater action incredible. We are throwing spooks and 1/2oz Yellow Magics and then some square bill crankbaits. The target areas are main lake clay points with lots if shell. Keep an eye out for birds as that's a dead giveaway that the fish will be present. As the bite slows down I'll throw a big c-rig; 1oz weight with a hyper-stick in watermelon/red or a Magic Shad (same color), throw it shallow on the same points. Later in the day we have been fishing the flooded grass with 1/4oz Yellow Magics, weightless hyper-sticks & magic shads. The main lake fish will move out and the big c-rig will still get em. Hope this helps. As of right now I still have Monday & Tuesday open. That's April 16 & 17. If interested in coming out to Lake Fork give me a call at 903-574-5796, or check out my site at www.LakeForkProFishingGuide.com.
Lake Fork Report – 4/09/2012 – by Jason Hoffman
The early morning bite is very good with topwaters producing both size and numbers. It is important to bounce around until you find an area that is holding fish. If they are there, they will let you know in a hurry. Some areas will only produce a fish or two while others will have a big school of hungry largemouths.
The afternoon bite has been very slow the last few days. On days where we have heavy clouds, the topwater bite will last throughout the day. When it is sunny, it has been tough, but we have been able to boat some nice fish on a LFT Magic Shad worked quickly in the flooded cover.
Here are some fish from the last few days:
June 3, 2011 – by Jason Hoffman
If you like to fish deep structure, now is the time to be on Lake Fork. We're catching good numbers of fish from 15 ft all the way out to 37 ft of water (depending on the day and/or time of day). My best bait has been a football jig, and the average size of the fish we're catching is right at 4 pounds. We haven't caught any giants in the last few days, but we're catching quite a few fish in the 6-7 lb range each day. I'm running a Humminbird 998c SI on my Ranger boat, and I really like it a lot. I seem to be having a much easier time distinguishing largemouth bass from white bass (sand bass), and this has made me much more efficient in finding areas that are holding fish that we want to catch.
I had been catching some fish the last couple of days in 28-31 ft of water and today, I was surprised when my graph lit up with fish in 36-38 ft of water. I knew they looked like largemouth on my graph, but I don't remember ever catching bass that deep on Lake Fork. I decided to throw at them a few times to see if we could get one to eat, and I caught one on my first or second cast. After that, it was game on, and we left them biting since my clients are fishing the Skeeter Owner's Tournament this weekend.
For you guys that prefer to fish shallow, there are still a lot of fish in the 3-12 ft range. Three to 4 ft has been best for me when fishing in the upper ends where the water has a little less clarity. I'm still pitching the Netbait B Bug around the shallow timber and our numbers are very good when we've decided to fish this way. Our average size isn't nearly as good as it is when fishing the deep fish, but it's still pretty good.
My topwater bite is almost non-existent. The lack of grass has really hurt it in my opinion (at least it has for me). We caught 3 on a popper this morning, but the size wasn't that great so we picked up our jigs!!!