bighed

Mike, r u fixed????

Headed to Fork for a roadtrip warm up!

I'm a get a limit kind of fisherman. I shoot for my 5 early and usually one or two will be 3-5 pound fish that won't cull anyway. Then when I have four or five, I'll try for some bigger fish. The confidence having a limit in the well gives you allows you to slow down and really take your time for that last bite or two. Works for me.

Post up what bite you find. We'll be there Wed. and want to hit the water by noon.

Been watchin Pickwick clips on Youtube. Talk about ready to hook up the boat!!

Nice baits!! I get to fish Falcon a couple times a year and find that even the smaller fish are very aggressive. I think you could catch good numbers and large fish on that bait. The fish in my avitar is a 9-8 from the number one community hole on the lake, lol!

Have the fish spawned up there yet?

Thanks Glenn!! It was the discussion at the Classic dinner that has been on Chad's mind ever since. We are both excited to be attending!! He has to be back to work at Cabelas on Sunday so we will miss Saturday dinner unfortunantly. We have a steep learning curve on Pickwick. Hope we can get on a good bite. Got the lodge booked today so there ARE rooms left

Thanks for the welcome y'all and we will do our best to arrive in time for Wednesday's party!

My son Chad has been bugging me to get in on this trip so we're jumping in last minute! Mike, I'll have the forms to you ASAP. Look forward to fishing and fellowship with everyone!

Ended up fishing on the Patriot on a 6 hour salmon trip. Only one was caught out of 12 anglers. I never touched my rod all day as the deck hands rigged them on the down riggers and mine never went off. Did stop by TW. Small retail shop but friendly staff. Best part of the trip was the Tri Tip sandwiches and the farmers market!! Pretty town and nice people too!

Thanks again. I'll report back in a couple weeks!

Here's a message I sent another member several years ago about Fork bed fishing. Hope it helps a little! I'm sure you've read the posts that the spawn has been going on for about 3-4 weeks already. The next full moon will be during your trip and should pull a new (but smaller) batch of fish onto the beds. If you like bed fishing here's my take: Bring sunglasses with brown lenses, this is important if you want to be able to see fish. I'd expect to see some fish that have been bedded and are almost done. These fish will have probably been caught multiple times already and will be very hard to catch. If some new fish move up with the moon they will be pretty aggresive until they have been caught a couple of times. I like to bed fish by anchoring the boat as far away from the bed as I can and still be able to see the fish. On a shallow bed in clear water on a calm sunny day this may be 30' away. If it's cloudy, windy, stained, etc. move only as close as you need to see the fish. I like to use a small frog or creature bait on a Texas rig. Some use white to aid seeing the bait, I like a watermellon or pumpkin. Flip the bait into the center of the bed and twitch it hard when the fish gives it a look, pull out and repeat. The bigger fish usually bed deep and are harder to see. For non bed fishing I'd throw a T rigged lizard with the smallest weight you have and slow swim it over any grass you can find in 2-7' of water. Reel just fast enough to feel the bait hitting the top of the grass. There's plenty of grass up in Glade but I think the fish up there are mostly post spawn. Just watch the graph and when you see puffy looking bottom that's a grass bed. We caught several fish on pumpkin Senkos the other day fishing them tight to cover like timber and dock pilings in 4-10' of water. Pitch the bait past the timber, reel it back to the stump or ??? and just let it fall on a slack line watching the line the whole time. If the line jumps a bit set the hook hard. The top water bite is getting started so a popper or buzzbait early or on a cloud day will work. I think I'd stay in the lower part of the lake, south of the 515 bridges right now. Some good places near Fishermans Cove to try would be: North shoreline of little mustang west of the 17 bridge. The old brood ponds in the back of No name creek. The brood pond at the mouth of Dale Creek. The island between Little Mustang and Williams. Cow head cove on the east side. Should be pretty good all over. When it gets late in the spawn like this sometimes you'll even find fish bedding on main lake shoreline. Some things to remember: bring your A game and grind hard all day. These are some of the most pressured fish in the world and sometimes you really have to fish long and hard to have a good day. Too many guys give up and hang out under the bridges crappie fishing when they should have been grinding out a good day one cast at a time. Be carefull motoring around the lake. Go slow, wear your life jacket, and expect to have contact with the stumps. The game warden has been out alot so be sure you have a license, life jackets for everybody, a throw cusion, and a good fire extingusher. Always unload all your tackle from the boat and take it to your room every evening or it may end up at the local flee market. Lots of petty theft this time of year. Good luck, enjoy the fork

Thanks for the feedback! I'm not finding much info about the lake on the web. Do you know of any boat rentals or guides on the lake?

Have a free day on an upcoming business trip. Any fishing around there fresh or salt?

7" robo FL worm in A's magic on a 3/16 spot remover gets it done like none other for me. Seems to be particularly effictive around docks.

Drive through Oak Grove park, Katie Mills park, and Twin Coves park. Lots of places to get out and fish. Twin coves is one of the few places on the lake that there is timber in the water. Good luck!

Texoma smallmouth are fairly easy to come by. Pretty much from Highport back to the dam on any rocky shore. They mix in well with the lm on this lake. We've caught them on dropshot, shakey heads, crankbaits, jigs, jigging spoons, etc. Just not on bigger baits like a DD22. They used to be mostly down on the dam end of the lake but I think being relocated by tourneys has changed that. I've also caught a couple out of ray roberts which is a bunch harder to do.

A couple thoughts for you. Grab a guide at Lake Fork and catch plenty of "slot" 2-6 pounders. For free you can fish local ponds. There are a ton around with plenty of fish. Use Google maps to find them. Take a drive by and stop to fish if it looks good. Lots of golf course communities around here with great fishing ponds in them. Avoid crossing greens. I live in the area so feel free to message me for more info.

Try to figure out how I can make this happen for my son and I. Lots of excuses but I know those are not accepted here!

Thanks for the link Glenn!

Thanks Chris for standing out in the cold to redirect us. Chad and I enjoyed meeting everybody and the food was awesome!! Bert

Yeah, nasty! I'm taking the boat to the classic for the first time but think I'm going to leave it on the trailer Friday. Supposed to warm up a little Saturday and Sunday.

I'm staying out at the lake but will try to attend with my son Chad.

My son and I will be there. This will be our 6th year attending. It falls on his birthday and we look forward to going all year! We're staying at the lake this year and plan to chase the anglers around the lake one day and spend a day or two at the expo.