Dock Talk - Lake Fork Crappie Catchin'




"Had Kent and Chas out yesterday on Fork. Started off in an area with very few fish. Made a jump and landed on some but they did not want to bite. That was how the day went. Lots of fish but they were not aggressive. We had many come off and thats a sign of them just not inhaling the bait. Only thing we could do was keep dropping and one would bite here and there. In the end they ended up with a cooler full and got off the lake before it got too hot.

"Our best depth was 20-25’ water with most fish suspended 12-16’ deep. My shallow bite has gone cold. Need some cooler weather to push more fish up.
Hancock’s Guide Service

"Had an old schoolmate Rowdy out with me on Fork yesterday. We took it easy and had a fun day.

I knew catching his 25 was going to be easy so we checked out a few different areas. Couple paid off and a couple didn’t but we had some nice fish before it was over.

The past few days have not been without some struggles with the moon. More fish refuse to bite then do bite. How do you combat that? Well you cover water and just drop on more fish. I can tell if the fish will bite after his first reaction. If he chases it and doesn’t bite or turns away I just move on. Most that do bite will do it immediately. Make that first presentation count and cover water and you can put together a good box of fish.

Mack Curry 903-474-5339

"Had Bob out again this morning on Lake Fork and today he brought his duck hunting buddy Mike with him. Mike had never caught a 2 lbs crappie and we were on a mission to get him one.

The first few hours were terrible. Same pattern and area as yesterday but just a different tree line and tree after tree we either didn’t see fish or saw a few fish that wouldn’t bite. Don’t know that we had more than 2 fish the first 2 hours.

Finally started to pick up a fish here and there but they had to work for them a lot. Decided to abandon the 18-25ft trees and made a big move. It paid off with some giants up shallow and Mike didn’t end up with a 2 lbs crappie but he caught 2 over 2 lbs and 2 just under as well. Not bad for his first trip with me.

Those big fish were up as shallow as 10ft in some trees. Some as close as 4-6 ft to the surface. A few were mixed in with channel cats as well on the same shallow tree. So different than yesterday’s pattern. They still caught everything on minnows today and ended up with 42 fish on the table when the dust settled.

Jacky Wiggins Guide Service

Photos courtesy of Guides




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Lake Fork Current Weather Alerts

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Lake Fork Weather Forecast

Tuesday

Sunny

Hi: 89

Tuesday Night

Clear

Lo: 60

Wednesday

Sunny

Hi: 89

Wednesday Night

Mostly Clear

Lo: 59

Thursday

Partly Sunny

Hi: 87

Thursday Night

Partly Cloudy

Lo: 64

Friday

Mostly Sunny

Hi: 87

Friday Night

Partly Cloudy

Lo: 68


Lake Fork Water Level (last 30 days)


Water Level on 10/14: 401.16 (-1.84)



Lake Fork

Fishing Report from TPWD (Sep. 24)

GOOD. normal stain; 85 degrees; 1.29 feet below pool. There is good topwater action early in the morning around pond weed with topwaters and frogs. Then use flukes and soft plastics stick baits along the edge of the pond weed most of the day. There are still a few groups of fish offshore, but bass are primarily scattered from 12-22 feet in roadbeds, humps and long points. Deep crankbaits are good over points and humps in 18-25 feet. Report by Marc Mitchell, Mitchell's Guide Service. Early and late topwater bites around grass lines and isolated cover on main lake and secondary points. Try frog and mouse patterns for topwater. Bass are schooling in creeks, so a hard-bodied popper should work. Bream are shallow, try small hoppers. Sand bass are schooling mid-lake. Report by Guide Alex Guthrie, Fly Fish Fork Guide Service. Lake Fork crappie fishing is heating back up as we begin to head into early fall. The black crappie are stacking up in huge numbers this week on brush piles and other structures. The bite for them is still a little finicky but small hand tied jigs swam over them or small jig heads tipped with minnows are working to get them in the boat. Still having to go thru numbers of fish to find the larger ones. The white crappie are also showing up on timber along creek channels in 18-28 feet. That bite has gotten stronger and the minnow tipped jig heads are working well on those fish. Have caught some fish on soft plastics the last few weeks. We should see the bite getting even better when water temps drop down as we begin to cool down more. Report by Jacky Wiggins, Jacky Wiggins Guide Service.

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