The 50 (mostly seniors) members of the Lake Fork Anglers celebrated the end of their year on Dec 29 with a dinner at the Minnow Bucket Marina, awards and new officers for 2017.

New officers President Steve Chick, VP Terry Thompson, Secretary Bruce Allen, Treasurer Charlie Abresch, Tournament Director (TD) Bob Roberts, Ass't TD Galen Smith and Director Wallace Dyer will began their new duties on Janury 5th.

Awards were given to the winning members for all three entities that come under the LFA umbrella which provides for fishing on every Thursday daytime year round. Not all LFA members participate every Thursday.

Outgoing President Jack White was presented a plaque thanking him for keeping the club on the straight and narrow throughout 2016. 

Outgoing TD for 2014, 15, & 16 Bill Ailes was presented a plaque thanking him for keeping the tournaments running smoothly until an illness forced him to turn over the reigns to Bob. 

Outgoing VP for 2014, 15 & 16 Chuck Roy was presented a unique momento for making sure everything was covered until he had to leave for a little ole newspaper he started.

Members were presented a "poundage patch" which memoralized the total weight that each caught in 2016 as an incentive to do better in 2017. They are to be sewn onto club shirts if we can find someone with a sewing machine. Our 2nd place angler of the year Jack White received one for 275 lbs. That is a lot of fish caught in one year tournament fishing. BUT our Boater Angler of the year Bob Roberts caught 421 pounds.

Awards were given for perfect attendence to Perry Sanders for making 21 of 21 since he joined, Galen Smith for making 22 of 22 since he joined and to Bob And Bruce for doing all 25 since the beginning of 2016.

Faze 4 is a team format where members who own boats fish with other boaters and their ten best fish in the boat that day wins first place. Our boating members who were not really that strong got the opportunity to fish with other boaters to enhance their knowledge of the lake and fishing techniques. What is learned in the boat stays in the boat.

Faze 4 ended with a 2 days championship on Dec 6 & 7. Five teams drawn just for their event competed for the "Founders Cup" and some cash with the winning team of Jack White and Terry Thompson taking the plaques (and cash) by a 1.35 margin over Charlie Abresch and Mac McDaniel. Jack and Terry ended up with 32.39 Lb total.

The Faze 4 lunker of 7.7 was won by Brian Dick.

Hard Core follows the Major League Fishing TV show format and fishes on the 4th & 5th Thursdays each month. Members are drawn for each tournament. No teams and no fishing with the same person two in a row. Every fish you catch 10" and over counts including slots. At the tabulation winners must tell the story on where, with what and how their fish were caught. Boaters and co-anglers are each fishing in their own tournament.

The boater winner of the "Founders Cup" is Don Overstreet with 16 bass for 24.36 with the lunker of the day. A 24" 8.73 lb beauty.

The co-angler winner of the "Founders Cup" is Charlie Abresch with 10.72 lb on 9 fish and a 1.7 lunker.

Charlie also caught the co-angler Hard Core lunker of the year with a 9.03.

And Brian Dick caught the boater Hard Core lunker of the year also with a 9.03.

The 2016 Eddie Dunaway (Lake Fork) Angler of The Year awards goes to:

Boaters: 1st Place Bob Roberts with 6 1st places, 4 2nd places etc ending with 230 lbs and his LFA lunker of the year was a 7.84.

2nd Place to Jack White with 2-1st, 1-2nd, 2-3rds, 2-4ths etc ending with 165 lb and a 7.41 lunker.

3rd Place boater went to Curt Blount who also had a bunch of wins and ended up with a weight of 145 lb and a 4.73 lunker.

4th Place boater was Galen Smith with 2-1st, 2-3rds and 2 other wins catching 108 lb with a personal best 8.88 21 1/8" over.

5th Place boater went to Stan Norton, Jr with 3-1st, 2-2nds, and 4  other wins for 124 lb and his 2016 lunker was a 7.29. This week he also caught a 10.3.

6th Place went to Don Overstreet with 5 wins, catching 108 lb and his lunker for the year was an 8.55 1/16" short of an over.

CO-ANGLERS  were awarded Angler of the year for the first time in 2016. Once we reached our goal of 50 members we felt it was approiate to award both catagories.

First place went to Jeff Wilkerson with 3-1st, 3-2nds, 2-3rds etc. catching a total of 150 lb and his lunker for 2016 was a 8.13.

Second place to Jackie Price who was very consistant in that he only missed one tournament all year long with contibuted to his amassing enough points to earn this award. He ended up catching 43 lb and his lunker was a 3.98.

Third place Jerry Krone with 1 1st, 1-3rd, and three other wins catching 94 lb and his lunker was a 7.56.

Fourth place wnet to Perry Sanders with one win having caught 46 lb and a 4.35 lunker.

Fifth place went to Rick Harvey with 2 wins catching 53 lb and a 4.54 lunker.

Sixth place was a tie between John Berech with 2 wins, 52 lbs and catching a 9.03 on a day when it was NOT the lunker of the day.

And Chuck Roy with 3 wins catching 77 lb and a 5.14 lunker.

The LFA LUNKER of the YEAR went to Charlie Abresch for a 9.35 lb big girl.

Our members did what has always been done on Lake Fork. Caught a whole bunch of bass that any angler would be thrilled to have their picture taken with.

You can too. 903-440-2797 for info.