bighed

Those worms were the Aaron's Magic color in a straight 6" floating design. http://www.roboworm.com/srimages/sr8296.jpg I'd love to learn to pour these myself but for $2 a bag they are too cheap.

That's outstanding!!! ;D He's hooked for sure. Enjoy these times, they are the best. My son is my full time partner now at just 13 and a very skilled angler.

Fished the Media Individual T today with my boy fishing as a little leaguer. As I had posted earlier we had found a good bunch of under 16"ers and were able to get a quick limit of them by 10 or so. I went to work culling and was able to cull up five times during the day. I'd hoped to get my 5 up close to the slot early and then finish the day hunting the over but it didn't work out that way. With two share-a-lunkers caught yesterday I expected a couple nice fish to be weighed but no overs were caught. I did hear a few guys say they had one or two 23 3/4" heartbreakers. Chad was only allowed to weigh one fish and his first was 15 1/2" and it held for him all day. All fish were caught on spot removers with robo worms or zoom finesse worms in 1-5' of water. I ended up sixth of 87 with 10.21 lbs. and Chad won the little league. Great fun but hard to pass up all those slot fish on beds right now. big

Just got in from another day on Fork with Chad. It's official, the bass are bedding and the insanity has started!!! Hit Rogers Creek first and the place was full, at least a dozen boats in there. Caught a half dozen off beds on various creature baits between 4-6 pounds. Watched a live baiter pull in several staging fish including a 7 1/2 in on shiners. Decided we needed to concentrate on finding the unders for the T tomorrow so fished senkos, chatterbaits, flukes, and traps over grass in 5' or less but nothing. Moved up to the back of Glade and it was a boat show too. Probably 50 boats in there. Found our unders on spot removers with robo worms in shallow water. If the weather will hold in there we should do ok. The real trick will be finding the over slot fish. Sorry for the short report but had trailer problems and need to go fix and prep for tomorrow. big

I would like to recant my earlier statement that this trip will occur before the spawn.

For bed fish here's what I think from most important to just important: small, lots of movement, easy to flip and guide to a bed, easy to see, weedless. So a small creature bait like a 4" Grande Mutant in white or junebug (depending on conditions) texas rigged or equivalant should do the trick. Tubes also fit the bill but lack some movement. Off the beds fishing shallow I like a senko in watermelon or junebug with a chart. tail fished vertically around timber, a near weightless watermellon lizzard dragged just above the hydrilla, a red or chrome trap fished the same way, and a white/chart spinnerbait anywhere.

I just got back from a quick trip to Big Cedar Lodge after an invite from a friend at work. Big Cedar is one NICE place and I can't wait to return! I had planned to fish Table Rock until I spoke to a guide at their marina and he said the fish were very deep and scattered right now. Decided to give the trout in Taneycomo a try. I had read up a bit on Ozarkanglers.com before leaving just in case but had never been trout fishing in my life. My boy and I put our boat in Monday morning with the plan of going toward the dam into the trophy zone as far as possible. We made it within a 1/2 mile or so of the dam before the water depth had me chickening out. Started throwing crappie jigs and roostertails in the fast moving water and started catching right away. Around 10am they shut off the water and the bite went nuts. We caught around 30-40 fish, mostly 10-15" with the exception of one really nice 21" that bit my 1/32 oz. olive colored jig. All fish were released quickly and carefully to be caught another day. My friend joined us for a second trip on Tuesday and we had equally good results except for the big fish. The water ran all day and we caught fish on all drifts until we were out of the trophy area. I had hoped to put my son on a few fish a day and was really pleased with our results. Thanks to the Missouri fishermen for the use of your resource. It's an awsome fishery to say the least!!! big

Take a look at the Falcon crankbait boxes. Very good way to keep the neat and ready to use.

Saw this on another site and though everybody would like a peek over here. Caught today 13.23lbs SAL.

World record, state record I'd be on the cell calling everybody I know to help. Lake record or personal best probably would slip her back in and enjoy the memory.

I've been outfished from the back and outfished a few from the back. It's has some advantages. Dealing with the wind, avoiding stumps, etc on the tm does take away from the fishing at times. Also, my deck is big enough that my partner for the day is always welcome to join me up front.

Ripped this guide report from another forum, take it for what it's worth: No time for a long report. I am on my regular everyday on the water routine. But, I can say that we have been averaging 20-40 fish a day. We fished an area this morning and caught some nice pre-spawn fish. Went back to the same area after lunch and the beds were everywhere. In 2 hours a wave of big hawgs came in and started laying immediately. I have never seen so many fish spawn all at one time... We have caught a bunch of 4-5 lb fish with some larger, two over 10 lbs. this week. All of the regular spring time baits are working. The key is water temp. Look for some warm water. We caught our fish after lunch in 62-67 degree water. Todays Tip: Dont let the muddy water (from the wind) bother your selection of areas to fish!

What day does the group expect to arrive?

By the way, did you know we often get a secondary spawn in November around here?

I've done plenty of it and have mixed feelings about it. I've not bass fished outside of this area much so these opinions apply to local lakes only. I suspect that it would be very different in places where the fish grow much slower. My first trip to Fork was to go bed fishing back around 1988. At the time not many people were doing it or even knew how to do it. The fish were not beat on the way they are now that everybody knows how. At the time you could flip a lizzard on the bed and watch the fish charge and eat it within a minute or three. Now, if you find the fish as soon as it's on the bed you may experience this thrill. More likely, the fish will have already been caught several times and will have to be knocked in the head for half an hour to get it to strike. I find this a little distastefull. Texas Parks and Wildlife tells us that this has no bearing on the reproduction of the fish and infact that most fish spawn in water deep enough to not be sight fished. A few years ago there was such an abundance that they were actually collecting short fish from Fork and moving them to some lakes in West Texas as I remember. Right now there are more >12" fish in the lake than I've ever seen. Last fall we could easily catch 20-40 in a day. I doubt there is a lake in the USA that has more bed fishing taking place than at Fork. It doesn't seem to be hurting the fish population at all. So I'll be doing some, don't feel guilty about it, but don't feel the thrill about it that I once did.

I know exactly where the Share-A-Lunkers are. About 10' out of casting range and staying there, lol. Those kind of fish just seem to happen. A guy at work caught one almost 16 lbs. Still way up on the 50 biggest list. I was told he was just an average fisherman who got lucky. Best way to increase your chance of hitting that jackpot is to play often. I'll add this, the guys who catch the biggest fish during the spawn back off the beds and fish for the females. The females may be on the beds but usually only for a few minutes at a time. If your pounding the bed your usually fishing for male (smaller) fish. The females are near by, sometimes you'll look over your shoulder and they are watching you. Fish the closest weed bed, timber, or ? to the area the beds are in. That's where the better fish are IMO. big

Sorry for the typo's, was trying to hurry, lol. Also wanted to say all the water I saw was pretty well stained. May be due to the wind lately.

I made a short trip to Fork today to do a little scouting for signs of life in the shallows and good hydrilla. Put in at the West 515 public ramp. I don't recommend this if your alone. Since the lake came up you have to put the boat on rocks to park the truck. Anyway, ran up to White Oak and fished the North point. This area has lush grass in warmer weather and I wanted to see what was left of it. Water temp was 54. Not much grass there but did pick up a 15" on about the fourth cast on the red trap. Changed over to my brand new never thrown LC Pointer and hung it on a tree never to be seen again. Bummer! Fished the North shoreline a little ways into the cove and found better grass in front of the first boat house. GPS'd the junction of three creeks and motored over. Threw jigs and worms working the ledges in 16' and channel bottom in 25' of water. NADA. Decided to work back through the very thick timber hugging the shore to see if there was anything shallow. Same as last week, nothing, no bass/perch/shad/gar/or anything else but turtles. Didn't make a cast while doing this but saw another boat pick up an under on a chrome trap and a different boat pick up a slot on a jig I think. There was fair grass from about 8' and shallower in the back of the cove. Decided to run up to Birch to continue scouting. Pulled into the last little creek on the East before the 514 bridge as it holds above average bed fish usually. Again scouted the shallows all the way to the back and nothing. Worked my way back out throwing the Rogue until about 6' and then started with the trap. Noted that some homeowners took advantage of the low lake levels last summer to dredge around their boat houses leaving some interesting new structure. Just about back to the mouth of the cove, tearing the trap out of the grass it got pounded. Fish was hooked for about 10 seconds before coming undone. This would have been a nice one judging from the way the rod was doubled over. Bummer #2. Moved to the first creek on the West past the 154 bridge as it hold good numbers of spawning fish. Didn't spend much time there but found the grass only fair and mixed with snot grass. Nothing shallow. Moved up to the point NE of the power lines and tried to fish the creek channel close to the point but the wind was too much and I was running low on time. Water temp there was 56.6, highest of the day. Wanted to check out the North shore of the island between Little Mustang and Williams because it holds BIG spawners. The wind was kicking pretty good and got soaked on the ride over. The place was already covered with boats trying to get out of the wind so made a few quick casts along that shore and packed it in for the day. If there are no more bad cold fronts the bucks should be making beds in Birch in about two weeks and the females will show up a few days later. I think Glade will be about the same time. big

Sorry to hear of the tough conditions. Looks like some of the same that I experienced last week. Between the weather conditions and the fact that the fish are some of the most educated in the world it can be brutal at times. You made a good call to get off the water Saturday. We spent about 8 hours in DFW Saturday night trying to get to the Classic. They had shut the place down for about 6 hours due to gusts to 60 mph. I heard a boat was lost during the Texoma Media T the same day. big

My home state...kind of. I was born in Aurora back when it was a nice little town. I hear it's not much now from family that are still there. I was raised in a army brat kind of situation. Moved from base to base, dad worked for DOD. I've got a buddy that comes down from Anna or Carbondale just about every year to fish fork in the spring wiith me.

Mine's a Triton aluminum so it had to be transom mounted.

I just put a 332c in my boat so I may be able to help. First the unit has to be powered. I've got a main power switch on my dash that sends 12v to the fuse block for all the pumps, electronics, ect. I attached the provided fuse to the unit hot wire and attached it to this switched 12v's. The ground and shield wires tie together and go to a ground strip also on the fuse block. Second, the NEMA cable has to be powered also. I attached it the same way as before being sure to use the provided fuse. This provides power only when the switch is on so the battery won't go dead without adding any switches. The four little data wires are not used. Once this is done the antenna can be connected to the unit being sure to use the T with the 60ohm termination on one leg. big

Sorry Kelly, brain far# on my part. I 'll probably be around atleast once during those days and will look you up. Where are you coming from? I'm going to try to go tomorrow or Tuesday if my kitchen pass is still valid. big

Well here I am at home. Spent about 8 hours in the airport yesterday but we had a bad wind storm that shut down the flights. I can't express how disappointed I am that this trip fell apart. My boy spent the bulk of his birthday sitting around the airport, there will be no meeting the pros/ watching the launch/walking the show. I've lost the cost of the hotel rooms and rental car I pricelined and have not been able to get through to American to see about a refund. So I sit here watching day old coverage on ESPN. All I can say is DA#$ IT! I'll drive next year and go for the whole show. big

Triton, I should be at the Classic today but the wind cancelled our flight. I'll be over to Fork in the next couple of days and will look you up!