And he did it 2x’s?
Lol, i’m not quite that stupid. I inadvertently threw it back the first time. Thankfully, i was able to catch it again later and take it to weigh in. The odds a big fish like that bites again are low, guessing it was on a deep bed and pretty territorial around the spawn. I actually caught that fish 3 times, once prior in our practice just a couple days before the tourney.
Still a few dates left on my promotion. Following are the dates I have available for January: 16-18, 20-23, 27-31.
Thanks to those that have already booked on this promo. I do still have some good dates in the 2nd half of January if anyone else is looking to break their cabin fever. 
I agree, a great bait, about the best walking popper on the market and a good addition for every tackle box, but cheap hooks. Just not very sharp, but the bait itself only runs about $3.99 retail, so still a good value.
A quick tip on Fork, I think you need to loosen your drag. If you’re bending hooks out on treble hook lures, your drag is too tight. When I fish up north and use 17 lb test or bigger, I just clamp down the drag and winch in the bass. Anything under about 5 lbs comes right to the boat, whether they want to or not. Lots of my buddies up there use pliers to lock down their drags all the way. Clamp down your drag on big bass though, say about 6 lbs and bigger, and they do one of the following:
1) Break your line,
2) Bend out your hooks, including beefy 5/0 superline hooks or ones of heavy duty flipping jigs, or
3) Rip the hook from their flesh.
Big bass pull really hard and something is going to give. Let it be your drag and not your line or hook. I use a pretty loose drag and thumb down my reel when I set the hook and also if I need to stop a fish from heading into cover. Unfortunately, it took me a number of lost big fish before I wisened up. 
Tom
Great story, glad to hear you had a good time. Congrats on the big bass, too bad she came a day early. With all of the grass and wood on Fork, it’s easier to hook a big fish than to land a big fish (but it’s sure fun trying)! Fall’s a good time on Fork for a lot of action and a shot at a big one. If you’re coming back for the big ones some time, shoot for Jan through Mar, that’s lunker time.
Cade, you’re following only 1 of the 3 rules for professional bass anglers:
1) Remove your sunglasses for pics so fans can see your face. 
2) Don’t dump your entire weigh-in bag on your shorts.
3) Always carry a few extra pounds of 1 oz Carolina rig sinkers to feed your bass in case your limit is short of your competitors. 
Just kiddin’, great fish. Sounds like you’re still on them. I feel sorry for those guys up there once you get a bass boat and start entering more tourneys. They might as well just hand over their money before the day starts and save themselves the hassle. 
Yur Rednick Buddee,
Tom
Thanks it was a blast. Those guys were good fishermen with a great attitude and they made my job easy.
Jeremy, drop me a note when we get closer to the tourney and I’ll let you know the latest patterns. By the way, I grew up in Galena, IL, just up the road from you. Tom
The bass will be shallow and deep then, so pretty much any of Berkley’s lures will work. Lots of good fish were caught in the tourney last year on their topwaters, Frenzy Poppers and Walkers. Try them over shallow grass beds and you should catch some good ones. Also TX or Carolina rigged soft plastics from their lineup of baits will get you some action on main lake and secondary points. Good luck!
I stayed moving really fast on the trolling motor and we covered a lot of miles. They were in clumps of grass on 7/17 on the outside edges but slightly higher water and brighter conditions had them tucked way into the shallowest and thickest cover on 7/20. We just covered water really fast until we got a bite, then sat on those areas and really hammered them until the stopped, then kept moving until the next school. That’s about as much info as I can give. My buddy lives up there and has a tourney coming up. Hopefully he doesn’t see this post or I’ll be in trouble! 
Good Fishing,
Tom
Fluker, it’s part of Texas’ Operation World Record. TX would love to have bragging rights as home of the world record bass. If that happened, it would not only be bragging rights, but I’m sure it would draw lots of folks to TX to fish. Out of state licenses fund a lot of fishing programs, and the fishing business, both freshwater and salt water, are big business in TX. Bass are definitely king in TX, though, and most residents want lots of big bass running around in their lakes. The ShareLunker program helps produce that. So I’d say tourism is great benefit, but not the main goal. Our fishery managers are truly trying to make our lakes the best possible fishing for TX anglers as they possibly can.
I was back for Dad’s wedding in Galena and hit Pool 12 and 13 a few times 7/15-20. Awesome fishing, especially on 13. We made it into Browns with my big 21′ Ranger but barely and we drug mud for literally 1/2 mile and I bent the skeg hitting a few logs. I think the water may have come back up some now, though. With the water low, when you find the bass, you’ll kill them. Before the big storms on 7/17, 3 of us caught over 80 bass in Pool 13 in about 4 hours. No BS, it was insane how easy the fishing was. Definitely the best afternoon I’ve ever had on the river!! Only about 10 were dinks, too. Biggest was only 4-09 but lots of 2.25 to 3.75 lb 16 to 19 inchers. Went back to 13 on 7/20 and it was a lot slower in the same areas with no wind or clouds. Still, we only saw one other bass boat all day and we still managed over 30 fish, although it took us about 8 hours to do it. White buzz baits, black and blue creature baits and dark colored jigs all caught them best, as well as a white spinnerbait in the windy areas.
Lots of action on Pool 12, too, but more dinks.
Good Luck,
Tom
The replies have described the program well. No Florida bass wouldn’t likely make it up there, as there is a famous study where bass from central IL were tested in MN waters and most couldn’t make it through the winter. Still, the program would work up there. It’s no different than cattle or dog breeders selectively breeding for the desired traits. For fish, in TX we take 13+ lb females and spawn them with 5+ lb males, most of which are descendants of previous 13 lb females from the program. It doesn’t take a biologist to figure out that if Shaq has kids with a 6′ woman, the odds are most of the kids will be pretty tall. Of course with humans, most kids make it to adult ages. For fish, if a 15 lb’er spawns in the lake, only a very few of her eggs make it to adult sized bass. In the hatchery, if she spawn successfully, most of the fry survive, so 1000s of potential Shaq bass get stocked into the lake. AFter the fish spawns in the program, most are released back to the lakes they came from, while a few are kept permanently for breeding purposes by the state and a few others are stocked into other areas (the angler’s private pond or Bass Pro aquariums). The fate of the fish is the dontating angler’s decision, thankfully, most go back to the lakes so we can catch them next year when they weight that much more. As for the fry, 50% go back to the lake where the fish came from and the other half are stocked where the state chooses. So, the lake where she came from benefits and other lakes that have good lunker bass potential also benefit.
TX is working to track the offspring in the future to see what type of impact this program has. One would assume it has a positive impact but nothing has been proven so far. After having lived in IL & WI in my earlier years, it is very nice to now live in TX where the Parks and Wildlife Department actively works to improve bass fishing through the ShareLunker program, slot limits on trophy lakes like Fork (16-24″ protected slot) and many unique limits on different lakes to try to optimize bass fishing for size and/or numbers. Not all of it works, but it’s good to see them try and they truly do listen to angler feedback.
Tom
Thanks for all of the help guys!!
I could use a co-angler as well. I guide on Lake Fork (you can see me fishing reports in the reports forum on IDA) and would be glad to give you fishing info on Fork if you ever headed this way as payback for signing up with me. 
Shoot me an e-mail at [email protected] or you can call me on my cell at 214-783-1795 if you’re interested.
Thanks,
Tom
Nice fish! Sounds like a good trip. 
East TX is home of great bass fishing and some world class crappie fishing. Of course, I’m a little biased towards fishing for lunker bass at Lake Fork, but Sam Rayburn, Toledo Bend among many others are full of 4+ lb bass. The gulf is good for redfish and speckled trout, too. If you are going to be in a specific area, I can give you a heads up on the places I know of that are good.
Tom
This is the pic from the ShareLunker program. Probably not clear enough in my post. She was caught by a local angler, not by one of my customers. She’ll spawn with a monster male at the TX Freshwater Fisheries Center and their fingerlings will be stocked back in Fork and other primo TX lakes. Hopefully their superbabies will be the next state record bass of TX.
By the way, his fish was 1/4″ shorter than my 12.3 lb’er (mine was 25-1/2″). Talk about a fat fish!!!
Thanks guys! Glad to be part of IDA. For those of you that like big fish, check out this picture of a local Lake Fork angler. He caught a 15.5 lb’er yesterday, in 8′ on a Senko. Not too shabby considering we just had our worst cold front of the year. It ranks as 39th, I believe, in the Top 50 bass of all time from TX (over 35 of those have come from Fork). Big bass season is starting to heat up here in TX!
Mike,
For the biggest bass, prespawn (Jan-Feb) and the spawn (Mar-early May) are your best odds. Late May through July is best for day in, day out good numbers of fish from 3-7 lbs, with a decent shot at a bigger fish with topwater early and worms, carolina rigs and cranks out deep. There are 10+ lb’er caught every month of the year at Fork.
AC Jeff, you probably know my cousin’s husband and his brother, Stuart and Steve Ohms. They are in the bass club out there. I usually fish at AC Lake and Lake Galena a time or two every year when I’m home. Great little “secret” lakes.
Quote:
If you ever make it this far north, give Bob and I ring, if you think 12 lb. are the cats meow, try a 40lb Musky
!
Amen to that! I grew up in Galena, IL and spent a few years in Milwaukee and Madison, and it is hard to beat catching a big muskie. I had a few 40″ fish, but nothing anywhere close to 40 lbs. Although, I think those high-flying 4 and 5 lb smallies on Sturgeon Bay may be the best freshwater thrill of all!
Best get running, have to go back to “work” chasing those green fish.
Good Fishing,
Tom
Not sure if you can get a cheap flight from there to Mazatlan, but Mazatlan is close to El Salto, some of the best bass fishing in the world. I’ve been there with Ron Speed before, he has a nice camp there. Here’s more info if you’re interested. Mexico Bass Fishing
Thanks guys! I caught her Saturday, 2/4. She came on the old winter lunker standby, a black/blue jig with matching Lake Fork Craw. I caught a dink right before that and she swam right at me, so she felt like a dink, too. She came up right at the boat and I started screaming stuff like “she’s huge, get the net, hurry, hurry, hurry”. Like a lot of my big fish, it was all a blur and over really quickly. When she was doubled over in the net and hung over the side, I knew she was a monster.
We used a rubber landing net, dipped her back in the lake between pictures and between weighing her and handled her as little and as quickly as possible. We measured her at 25-1/2″. She was in great condition (fat and full of eggs, without a mark). With a little luck, maybe one of us can catch her next year when she’s 14ish or in ’08 when she’s a 16 lb’er. Gah!
Fishing has been really good for prespawners at Fork lately. For those that want more info, here’s my weekly fishing report, with all of the details on how to catch your own lunker right now.
Michael braved 30 mph winds before catching his biggest bass ever, 6 lb 8 oz, on Feb 5th 
A couple bass over 7 lbs on Jan 31st:
A week of warm sunny days has the big ones biting at Lake Fork. We had a number of big bass this past week, including a 12.3 lb lunker on Saturday. The big bass came on a day of fun fishing with my brother—what a rush! You can check her out and a bunch of other good fish we’ve caught lately on the pictures section of my website.
We’ve been catching a lot more bass near shallow spawning areas, although the cold front and cool-down this week will likely push many fish back to the points and creek channels. Although the fish likely won’t be as active after the cold front, the bass will be consolidated in key areas. Methodically work these staging areas and your chances of catching multiple big bass will be very good at Lake Fork in February. Meanwhile, a number of big bass over 7 pounds were caught in 25’ to 40’ last week on deep structure. Shallow or deep, it’s hard to pick a bad time to catch a lunker on Lake Fork for now until mid-summer.
Lake Conditions: After another good rain last week, Lake Fork’s water level rose 3” to 398.97’, or 4’0” below full pool. The water clarity is clear to stained in most areas, although the high winds and runoff have muddied some areas. Water temps are running from 50-56 degrees in most locations, perfect temperatures for prespawn bassin’.
Location Pattern: As I’ve done for the last 45 days, I’m concentrating on prespawn and staging fish on points and along edges of flats or creek channels. Areas with submerged vegetation (primarily hydrilla, milfoil or coontail) or wood cover will typically have the most active fish; however, don’t overlook coverless points and channel bends as we approach the spawn. Key on stumps, docks, and laydowns within the grassbeds or on any irregular places along the edge of the grass. Main lake grass beds near the mouths of these coves are holding a lot of fish now, as are main and secondary points inside the coves, provided there is deep water nearby. During warming trends, follow bass back into the creeks and check the edges of grass flats and creek channels.
For deep structure enthusiasts, points, roadbeds, humps, flats and ledges in 18’ to 45’ will produce some big fish well into the spring. Since many big bass on Fork don’t spawn until early May, these late bloomers won’t be moving shallow for quite a while. Use your electronics to find the schools of bass and baitfish and work them over with spoons and dropshots. I personally prefer fishing shallow in the spring, so my presentation pattern will focus on that.
Presentation Pattern: My prespawn arsenal is pretty simple for fishing along grasslines and creek channels. First and foremost are red or orange lipless crankbaits in ½ or ¾ oz. Stick with the ½ for grass that is near the surface and go with the ¾ for grass that is deeper. ¼ oz traps work well on the shallowest grass. Buzzing these over the top of the grass on a quick retrieve is working best now, but after cold fronts, letting the trap fall and ripping these out of the grass will trigger most of the bites. ¼ to ½ oz spinnerbaits with double willow blades in white, red, or chartreuse and white will produce some really large bass in the same areas that the lipless cranks work, especially on windy and cloudy days. When the bite slows or the conditions are sunny and calm, I’ll switch to a suspending jerkbait or a jig. Gold jerkbaits with orange bellies and black backs are my primary color. Work these with long pauses over the grass and along the edges. The jig bite is good on some days, especially for big bass. ½ oz black and blue jigs with Lake Fork Tackle Fork Craws in the Blue Bruiser color have been working best for me. For a few bonus fish, work a wacky rigged Twitch Worm or Magic Shad in the areas where you caught fish with the other baits. Shades of watermelon are a sure bet for the plastics.
Cover lots of water until you get bit. Once you catch one, work the area over thoroughly with multiple passes, employing several different baits. Fish tend to stack up in key staging areas during the winter and these spots will replenish themselves with more fish during the prespawn as more and more big bass move shallow.
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
