Lake Fork Marina Fishing Report

Lake Fork Trophy Bass Report
By Guide James Caldemeyer

The spawn is in full swing here at Lake Fork and some really big fish are being caught on a daily basis. Matt Yost from Martin Gas Co. can attest to that as he managed to top his personal best with a fish yesterday that weighed 10 lbs 2 ounces. There are a number of these big fish up shallow right now and they are accessible to the many anglers that are out on the water this time of year.
The wind has been the biggest factor the past few days, with 35-40 mph winds each day. This has made it hard to get out across the lake to certain areas that the fish are in and has made casting a bait to them even a challenge at times. The forecast is calling for the wind to calm down the next few days though. Water temperatures have been conducive for spawning activity at 59-63 degrees. The water clarity has been a big factor with some of the creeks being stained//muddy and some that are fairly clear to about 2 feet. Although there are still fish in the areas that are stained, I have been more successful fishing the clearer water that still holds good water temps.
Key areas to catch these spawning fish have been at the very back of the major creeks and pockets from mid-lake all the way north. With the lake fuller than it has been in several years, these fish are in virtually no water making beds. 5 feet of water or less has been the most productive. Wave Worm Tiki-Sticks http://www.wavefishing.com and flukes in green pumpkin or any watermelon color have been the best producers for me. I am rigging these baits weightless, slightly weighted or wacky style and am throwing them on a 7’2” Shimano Cumara Med. Hvy. rod spooled with 16 lb Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line. A 4/0 wide gap hook will do the job on the flukes and Tiki-Sticks when fishing them weightless and I am using a Mr. Blitz 4/0 Pinacky with a 1/32 oz. weight molded into the hook on my wacky rigs. The key to getting bites has been fishing these baits very slow. Texas rigged lizards and brush hogs are good choices as well for flipping the shallow grass and timber in these same areas.
As most of the fishing crowd is focusing on the spawning fish, you can also retreat to the points, creek channel edges, and first break line adjacent to these spawners to concentrate your efforts on some really nice pre spawn females that are staging. A ½ oz. white or white/chart. Talon spinner bait http://www.talonlures.com , ½ oz. jig, chatter bait, or big swim bait is my favorite for going after a real big one. Especially on the cloudy windy days.
These patterns will remain the same for the next few weeks as the spawn rolls along. The only thing that will change is the erratic springtime weather and with that the locations that are most productive one day, may not be the next. Pay close attention to the weather forecast. The changes that the weather makes from day to day and the effect it has on the lake will greatly increase your odds of catching that big one!
If you would like to book a trip for some great bass fishing on Lake Fork, feel free to give me a call at (903)736-9888 or email me lakeforktrophybass@yahoo.com You can also visit my website at http://www.officiallakeforktrophybass.com I would like to thank the good Lord & my sponsors for their support.

Read 1 Peter 3:18

Tight Lines and God Bless,
James Caldemeyer

The fishing on Lake Fork has been great this last week. Many of those fish that keep getting pushed out by cold front after cold front have finally moved up to stay. This week I have had 4 days over 30 fish and one day with over 40 fish. On the north end of the lake there are a few beds starting to show up and they seem to be healthy and in good shape. These fish that are first on the beds are always pretty easy to catch so its lots of fun if you can located these early spawners. There is lots of flooded cover around the banks that will be great spawning areas for these fish so look forward to a great spawn this year as long as the weather doesn’t turn south again and again.

The pattern is pretty much like it is every year for this time of year on Fork. Look for lots of fish to be cruising the grass flats and spawning flats close to creek bends and deep water. This time of year I like to concentrate on two types of fish. The shallow fish that are active and ready to go or the fish that are coming into spawn that are still holding in a little deeper water. It basically breaks down to the active male fish and the slower deeper females.

On the flats look for large areas of grass and sand mixed with some ditches or small creeks running through it located in 1-4 feet of water. For Flats fishing I like to throw several different baits to make sure I pick up every possible fish in the area. I like to start out with a Gary Yamamoto Swimsenko on a 1/8th ounce bullet weight. I will cover lots of area with this by just throwing it out and swimming back in on a steady retrieve. Once I feel like I have worked the area over and picked up the extremely active fish I will switch to a Gary Yamamoto Kut Tail Worm or Lizard. I will throw the lizard on the same rig as the swim Senko and crawl it along the bottom with slight bumps and short pauses. On the Kut Tail I will rig it up weedless on a ½ hook and a ½ piece of an insert weight stuffed in to the head of the worm. Work these baits slow with slight twitches and long puses and pay close attention to your line to detect those subtle bites. On all thes baits I will stay with my natural colors such as the watermelons with any color flake, green pumpkins, and pumpkinseeds with a chartreuse dyed tail.

For those anglers looking for the fish of a life time to get out that flipping stick and spool it up with some 50lb braid. For those big females holding in the creeks I will pitching and flipping a Strike Works Tackle 1/2 ounce Wood Jig in watermelon/red or black/blue/purple with matching Gary Yamamoto Craws. Work the cover lining the creek very well and slow. Work down the creek and then turn around and work it back out. Watch and pay attention to what’s going on as the bites might vary from day to day. Work the creek channels in 6 to 15 feet of water for some good action. Another hot spot will be brush piles located in 8 to 15 feet of water. Work through these very slow using the jig like a texas rig. The bites are a little easier to feel like this but make sure you get the fish out of the brush as fast as possible after you set the hook.

I still have April29, and 30th open and some May dates available along with some weekend dates for those interested. If you are interested in a professional Lake Fork Guide trip for any time give me a call at (903)-216-1867 and I will be happy to help or answer any questions that you may have. You can also catch me at http://www.fishinlakefork.com and email me from there. Gift certificates are available for any occasion.

Guide Jimmy Everett
Jimmy@fishinlakefork.com

Proudly Sponsored by: Sun Valley Fiberglass (www.svalley.org), Fun-N-Sun boating centers (www.funnsunboats.com), Strike Works Tackle (www.strikeworkstackle.com), Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits (www.baits.com), SDMI (www.slickfishlure.com), 2M coating (www.2mcoating.com) & http://www.rockchips.com, Oak Ridge Resort (www.oakridgemarina.com)

A major warming trend has Lake Fork bass rapidly heading towards the first wave of spawning. After recent days of sun burnt customers wearing shorts, it’s hard to believe that we fished all morning in a major snowstorm on March 7th with water temps dipping into the upper 40s. While the bass had been biting very strong in the backs of creeks before the cold front, I’ve caught most of my fish on an “outside” pattern since then–around grass and timber on points and creek channels leading into spawning areas. As the water warmed back up, the bite was slow for numbers most days with a lot of 6 to 10 fish days, although we did manage to catch some big bass. In addition, Fork anglers donated two fish over 13 lbs this week to TX’s ShareLunker program. With a few more warm days and the full moon next week, I expect a major wave of spawners to hit the shallows any day now in warmer areas of the lake. As usual, we’ll have waves of spawners move up through April, with a few stragglers on beds into mid-May.

Lake Conditions: Since a few heavy rains brought Lake Fork up well over full pool, the water level dropped steadily, currently reading 402.84’, about 2 inches below full pool. The current created by drawing water from the lake pulled a lot of muddy water from the very backs of creeks and much of the lake is stained to muddy. Meanwhile, the south end and some protected creeks remain clear. Water temps were reading from 56 to 67 degrees on Saturday, up considerably from last week.

Location Pattern: For prespawn bass, concentrate on points, creek channels, treelines, and inside or outside grass lines near shallow spawning flats. With the water being cold this week, we did better around grass and wood cover in 4’ to 10’ in the backs of creeks or on cover on or near the main lake. In many cases, we’ve caught multiple fish from very small areas, so really work an area over once you’ve caught a fish there. A few spawning bass are currently located in protected bays and typically in the very back ends of creeks. As the water continues to warm, flats and bays nearer the mouths of coves will start holding spawners, too.

Presentation Pattern: For prespawn bass, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and lipless crankbaits are still catching a lot of fish, especially on overcast and windy days. For a big bass, go with a ½ oz chatterbait with a shad colored 4.5 Live Magic Shad trailer and swim it in the same areas you throw a trap or spinnerbait. On calm days, you’ll typically do better by switching to a suspending jerkbait or pitching a jig and a Texas rig. Go with gold jerkbaits on cloudy days, while silver color schemes work better on sunny days. Work these baits with a few twitches and long pauses. For a real prespawn monster, pitching heavy cover along the first breakline and creek channels is the way to go. I go with a 3/8 oz Mega Weight black and blue or green pumpkin jig with a Lake Fork Craw trailer in the blue bruiser or watermelon candy colors. For the Texas rig, I’ll pitch a Lake Fork Flipper or Top Dog Lizard in black neon or watermelon/chartreuse with a 1/8 to 3/8 oz bullet weight and slowly work it around cover. For bass that have moved onto spawning flats, weightless Texas rigged or wacky rigged soft plastic jerkbaits like Magic Shads, Live Magic Shads, Twitch Worms, and Ring Frys become your best option. Shades of green pumpkin and watermelon are normally top colors, with green pumpkin baits with the tail dipped in chartreuse being the top producer lately.

For spawning bass, white or watermelon Top Dog lizards, Flippers and Craw Tubes work great. White baits allow you to clearly see your bait on the bed, while more natural shades of green are often needed to catch the more finicky bass. Most spawning areas have water that is too muddy to see bedding fish, so pitching Texas rigs and weightless soft plastics to any wood cover and holes in the grass will catch the spawners that you can’t see. Work your bait very slowly and keep it in place on the bottom for a long time or you’ll pass up all but the most aggressive fish.

Here’s hoping you catch the lunker of your dreams. If I can be of assistance, please contact me at 214-683-9572 (days) or 972-635-6027 (evenings) or e-mail me through http://www.LakeForkGuideTrips.com , where your satisfaction is guaranteed.

Good Fishing,

Tom

I’m not being negative, just shooting it to you guys straight.

Water temp is perfect, low 60’s

Lake is nasty muddy. You are a hero if your pulling 6 fish a day right now, while 3 of those 6 may be over 5lbs you are not going to show up in the next few days and have 25 fish on that predictable fluke bite like last year at this time. The SRA thinks it is necessary to keep releasing water SLOWLY (I’m guessing to not flood down stream?) through all gates. I am not sure if and when they are going to stop since rain is in the forecast mildly Monday and Tuesday.

The traffic is horrendous right now during the day, as I am writing this (12:45am Saturday morning) 4 tournaments are going to be boosting off in a tad over 6 hours. I’m not sure why exactly they all scheduled the same day, but there is going to be some major competition for the text book spring holes tomorrow. Don’t expect to be standing on your “spawn” box and start pitching to beds in the next few days. I’m not kidding about the water clarity, it is nasty nasty.

If you are planning on coming down to Fork in the next 2 or 3 weeks and planning on giving it a shot at that ONE fish of a lifetime:

A.) Weekday, Wednesday seems to be our “turnover” day this year for motel customers. Monday and Thursday are the busiest weekdays. Saturday and Sunday are almost not worth fishing in my opinion. There is almost no where to escape the traffic, no stump is left unturned UNLESS you venture to shotgun pass or the far far north end on the east arm where the buoys don’t really mean much.

B.) Fish at night. We had some guys from Tennessee that hammered the night bite. 1/2 oz black blue Jigs and trigged black sapphire brush hogs in the popular day holes backed off in 10 foot.

C.) Fish SOUTH. If your planning on going to White Oak, Glade, Pension, North of the highlines in Birch ect you are fishing over territory already been covered 500 times by most of the guides, locals and regular week end warriors. The water will be cooler, but the pressure is tremendous on the north ends of both arms right now. (Not to mention the chocolate milk water clarity the farther north you go)

Cameron

Hit the lake from 8:45am to 4:00pm today.

Partner and I had an 8lb 0oz and a 7lb 10oz almost right away on a jig on north end of the lake fishing the mouth of a creek in 10 foot.  Water temp was 48.5 when we started and as soon as the chop on the water disappeared so did the bite.

We didn’t really get into fish again until 3pm, we got on a good scrape (2 6lbers 4 small swimmers) of fish in Mustang on docks with bandit 200’s and 1/2oz red/purple rattletraps.  We had to pull off the fish biting to end the day, but I know we could have stayed and maybe picked up another half dozen or more fish.

Fishing is about to take off…

February is coming to a close but the pre-spawn bass
fishing at Lake Fork is wide open! Now is a great time
to be out on the lake pursuing the fish of a lifetime.
The big females are making their annual migration
toward the shallows in preparation for another
spectacular year of spawning activity. I always look
forward to this time of year as Lake Fork gets to show
all others why it remains the “Bass Capitol” of Texas.

The weather has been like a roller coaster lately,
which is typical in February. Stable weather
conditions and the front side of cold fronts coming
through have been the most productive periods even
when the wind is blowing hard. The water level at Lake
Fork is sitting at 403.08 which is great. The draw
back is that with the recent rains bringing the lake
above full pool, it has stained a lot of the water up
in the creeks. Finding the areas in the creeks that
have clearer water are key places to focus on.
Water temperatures have ranged from 51-55 degrees in
recent days depending on the evening air temperatures.
With so many fluctuations in weather conditions, it is
important to monitor your surface temp gauge in the
areas that you are fishing. The most active bass are
amongst the warmest water available to them on a given
day and sometimes these areas can change overnight or
from morning to afternoon. This can definitely make it
a challenge to keep up with those “big mamas”.
The best approach to locating the fish has been
targeting the staging areas such as main lake points,
secondary points, creek channels, ditches or drop offs
that are adjacent to spawning flats. I will throw
“search baits” such as the rattle trap, spinner bait
or a chatter bait over the grass beds to entice a
reaction strike. The ½ oz. or ¾ oz. rattle trap is my
favorite and by far the most productive right now.
Red/orange crawfish patterns, white/red, gold, or
chrome/blue all have their place. Cranking over the
grass and letting it fall down in it then ripping it
out will trigger most of your bites so keep it in
contact with the grass. Change the colors up also to
see which one they want best on a given day. As the
days warm up, a double willow Talon spinner bait in
chart./white or red will catch them as well.
http://www.talonlures.com
Once you have found an area that is concentrated with
fish, slooowww down and fish the area thoroughly! I
have been fishing a black/blue Talon ½ oz. to ¾ oz.
jig tipped with a matching trailer and backing out to
about 10-12 foot of water for some big fish action.
The jig bite has been a little bit inconsistent but
give it a fair chance because when they get on it,
they GET ON IT! Keep the senko/fluke rod handy.
Shimano’s new Cumara 7’2” Med. Hvy. rod and 50mg reel
spooled with 16lb. Gamma Edge Fluorocarbon is the
perfect combination and man is it light. A 4/0 wide
gap hook, Texas rigged or Mr. Blitz “Pin’Acky” wacky
style hook http://www.mrblitz.com rigged with a Wave Worm
Tiki Stick and Tiki Bamboo Stick in black/blue, green
pumpkin, watermelon red, or sweet potato pie has
produced some good fish lately as well.
http://www.wavefishing.com Dead-sticking this bait from now
through spring will be a very productive technique for
catching a big bass. Just throw it out there and let
it soak!
If springtime has you itching for a new ride out on
the water, you need to go by and check out the new
line of Rangers at Diamond Sports Marine on Hwy 154
while you are at Lake Fork. I gave two different guys
demo rides in my new Z520 on Saturday and they were
both so impressed in the boat that each they had to
get one. This new boat is that amazing so go by and
take a look at one!
If you would like to book a trip to come fish Lake
Fork this year, feel free to give me a call
(903)736-9888 or you can email me at
lakeforktrophybass@yahoo.com . I do not have any
availability in March or April but I do have a few
dates open in May and June. These are excellent months
to catch late spawning bass and get in on the
tremendous post-spawn action!
I would like to thank my proud sponsors for their
support and the opportunity to promote the quality
products that they produce. A special thanks to my new
sponsors, Mr. Blitz and Wave Worm. Please pray for my
good friend and fellow guide John Tanner as he
recovers from a kidney stone. Read Philippians 4:6

Tight Lines and God Bless,
James Caldemeyer

The fishing this week remains good for size although the numbers have dropped a little from last week. I have still been catching several 5-8 pound bass this week but this week hasn’t produced any almost share a lunker fish. The patterns have changed slightly from last week with the cool weather but look for it to get back to the way it was in the next couple of days with the warm weather.

The shallow water pattern has stayed the same for now. I am still throwing lipless crank and picking up several good fish. The colors will be few but I will almost always start with a lipless bait that has some orange in it. If it seems to be some start messing with your chrome, blue, and with a little red on it, chart/ black, yellow/brown, and gold/black. All these colors will produce fish but almost always one will be a top producer. With these baits start throwing around grass located in 2 to 8 feet of water. For the 6 foot of water and less I will throw the 1/2 or 5/8 ounce models and for the deeper grass from 6 feet and deeper try throwing a 3/4 to 1 ounce models. I will be working these baits on a steady retrieve with a slight twitch while I’m reeling it in. I will give it this small twitch about 3 to 4 times in a single cast. Another good method has been almost letting it get tangled in the light grass almost on purpose and then ripping it out and letting it float down for a second or two. Start looking for areas around the lake that’s has large grass beds. It can be different from day to day especially with the days temperature on deciding where to fish. The main lake grass all the way to the back of the creeks will produce at anytime so don’t be afraid to move. Another tip is to work the water very well if you catch fish and the bite goes south. You might have to pull out a suspending stick bait in clown or black/gold/orange to pick up a few extra bites. Remember to work these baits slow.

This week has also pushed some fish into creek channel bends. Find the bends of the creek with your graph and kick out a little bit and start throwing. The best way I have found to catch them has been a down scaled carolina rig with a 1/4 to 3/8 ounce weight with a leader ranging from 12 to 18 inches in length. On the back of the rig I have been throwing a 5inch Gary Yamamoto Senko or a Zoom Super Fluke in watermelon/red with a chart. dyed tail. The key is being slow. Most of the bites have come while in the middle of a long pause. Look for the bends in 6 to 12 feet of water for the best results..

For those anglers looking for the fish of a life time to get out that flipping stick and spool it up with some 50lb braid. I have landed both of those toads along with many other big fish this week pitching and flipping a Strike Works Tackle 1/2 ounce Wood Jig in watermelon/red or black/blue/purple with matching Gary Yamamoto Craws. There are a few places to catch these big fish this time of year. A almost no fail is along the edges of the creek channels and creek channel bends. Work the cover lining the creek very well and slow. Work down the creek and then turn around and work it back out. Watch and pay attention to whas going on as the bites might vary from day to day. Work the creek channels in 6 to 15 feet of water for some good action. Another hot spot will be brush piles located in 8 to 15 feet of water. Work through these very slow using the jig like a texas rig. The bites are a little easier to feel like this but make sure you get the fish out of the brush as fast as possible after you set the hook.

I still have March 2nd & 30th and some April dates available along with some weekend dates for those interested. If you are interested in a professional Lake Fork Guide trip for any time give me a call at (903)-598-2505 or (903)-216-1867 and I will be happy to help or answer any questions that you may have. You can also catch me at http://www.fishinlakefork.com and email me from there. Gift certificates are available for any occasion.

Guide Jimmy Everett
Jimmy@fishinlakefork.com

After the rain we had last week and the flood gates being open constantly for the better part of the week, the lake is finally getting back to normal for big fish.  Numbers have been down and the local tournament weigh ins haven’t been as good but there have been more 8-10lb fish in the last few weeks than I remember last year.  Most ALL of the fish I have heard have been north of the 515 bridge (both west and east arms)

Half oz jig 10-15 foot around main lake points.

Suspending Rouges around bank

1/4oz traps for shallow muddy water

3/4oz Excalibur traps in Royal Red for the deeper grass.