Dec. 15 - Cold fronts are starting to move in one after another. This reeks havoc on the green fish especially on the high pressure days. The cure for that is to get away from the high pressure lakes like Fork and head to surrounding lakes such as Monticello, Athens, Pines and Welsh. Of lately, the bass fishing on these ponds has been nothing short of fantastic. Lots of days with numbers ranging from 30 to 60 bass per outing. No super giants but a ton of fun nonetheless. Had a trip a few days ago to Welsh and boated 36 with six over four pounds. Several patterns worked but the drop shot brought home the bacon.

Water temps on Fork are descending as of this writing and are registering around 56 on my temp gauge. Bass are being caught right now on flutter spoons and jigging spoons deep with square bills ruling the roost in the shallow zones. The lure needs to be retrieved very slowly to elicit a strike and this will be the game of choice until the water temps fall into the upper 40's. At that point, I will dig out the big sticks and tie on the A-rig where hawg hunting will then ensue.

I plan to take clients down to Lake Falcon in January and February where the water temps will be more favorable. The spawn takes place much earlier at that venue and ten pounders are a plenty. Give me a call at 409 u782-4269 if you want to jump into the action.

October 31, 2015 - Fall  is upon us and the big green fish are starting to feed up for the winter. All types of patterns are working but the shallow water bite is dealing us a gob of small fish. The spawn this year was excellent and there is a billion six inch bass on Fork right now. You can throw a crankbait in a creek, have one hit it, and ten more will be following it to the boat. Kinda cool actually! After catching about fifty of those, I will head clients back out to the main lake and work the deep fish for a giant, especially during the afternoon. Same locations apply, humps, ridges, structure but now add road beds into the mix. October is a month where bass will congregate on these locations feeding on barfish. The Alabama Rig, 10XD and flutter spoon are the go to baits when you are after the green monster. Shallow brush becomes a target at this time of the year also as crappie and bream gather up to feed on passing shad that are on the move in the fall.

The other lakes are still in play in the fall and one of them dealt two of my clients the dream fishing day of life. They landed 80 bass in one day using the drop shot and seven of them were over seven pounds. The largest tipped the scales at 9.08. I stayed busy all day netting bass and giggled away the entire day. On one trip to Athens, my client caught 55 bass on that Friday and thirty on Saturday. No giants, most all fish between two and four pounds, but a ton of fun. October is a great month for numbers as bass want to get fat for the winter.

September 30, 2015 - As with seasonal patterns, Fork transitioned into it's annual turnover during mid month. This is when the cooler upper layer of water sinks through the water column toward the bottom of the lake. This anomaly stirs up the bottom layer forcing the bass to scatter making bass fishing a little tougher. This also screws up the oxygen content throughout the water column forcing bass to seek refuge in I don't know where! We did fight our way through it and deliver some great days. A lot of bass were shallow during this change over time giving us the opportunity to throw flukes, senkos, swimjigs and chatterbaits. The big ticket was covering water using these patterns and it was hit and miss till you stumbled upon a large school of bass. The mid depth bite was still there but not as good as the prior months.

When all this happens, the super giants go into hiding leaving the best of the best scratching their heads. They can still be caught but it requires a ton more patience. Once the red flags pop up, I take clients over to Lake Monticello and Lake of the Pines and we continue blasting the big girls. It's all about being prepared and I think Monticello is the next Fork. Incredible fisheries with tons of quality bass.

August 31, 2015 - The lake has started it's seasonal changes this month and veered away from the 90+ degree water temps as fall is on the horizon. Normally, oxygen levels deteriorate during August forcing bass to suspend above the thermocline making them more difficult to catch. That was not exactly the case this month as fish still hung out on points, humps and ridges. The only difference was the depth they chose to populate. Most of our biggest bass came from 15-18ft of water and a sizable amount were caught suspended in much deeper water. Lake level is falling forcing fish to back out and take up their residence in the mid depths.

The overgrown shakey head delivered some great bass using the Zoom Magnum Trick worm (redbug) to lure them in. The drop shot still had a presence as well as the C-rig. The major change to catch the suspended fish came from the addition of the magnum fluke. Once the fish are located, you would hurl this bait as far as you could, once it hit the water, the countdown started. At the twenty foot level, you would start twitching the bait slowly, pause for eight seconds, then repeat the twitch. Extremely slow fishing b

ut highly profitable.

We also took some trips over to Lake Tawakoni and smashed the stripers. These fish are super powerful and will smoke the drag on your reel. This is one type of fishing that is a "must do" during August. Better bring your Advil, you'll need it.

July 31, 2015 - The bite hasn't changed one bit over the past thirty days. The bass are still deep and locked into their summer pattern. We are crushing them on deep structure as well as tapering points, pond dams and humps. The drop shot still holds the crown as being the best way to land a giant bass but the Carolina Rig has done it's share of damage to the bass over the past month. We are starting to see water temps move into the 90's which is a good thing. Bass tend to bunch up as water temps rise making them easier to find. This is backed up by a temp sensor that I have which tells me that the water temp at 25ft is about 88 degrees. This is also why we have been catching bass as deep as 42ft. Pockets of cooler water is where these bass are hiding. Technology is great!

We have also spent some time on other local lakes searching for some different patterns. Found great fish at Lake Athens, Lake of the Pines and Lake Monticello. It's gotten to the point that we can fish your strengths whatever that may be. Many anglers have bested their personal best throughout this year and that's what's it's all about. Incredible fun and lasting memories.

June 30, 2015 - The month of June was insane. We smoked the big fish every day on different patterns and was also able to mount numbers each day. The drop shot issued most of the damage as we found wads of huge bass on points and drains. I have normally been a Roboworm guy when using the drop shot but I was stunned to find out through an experiment one day on a guide trip that the Talon Carolina Worm out fished the Roboworm 5 to 1. This same anomaly happened two other times on trips which has caused me to switch permanently. The Talon Worm is coated with Bassappeal (scent attractant) which obviously makes a huge difference. I now use their 10 inch worms with the same coating on Carolina rigs and Texas rigs. Huge difference!

Water temps are warming and bass are done with the spawn and starting to gang up on the deep spots. I expect this to rock on through July. Pond dams have also played a huge roll in bagging these giant bass. This is a great month for numbers and it also delivers it's share of 10 pound hawgs.

August 4th - I have been doing this for a long time and can't ever remember wearing jeans and a sweatshirt for several days during the last days of July and the beginning of August. Insane weather this year has put the fish on Lake Fork into a tail spin. There have been extremely great days and some brutally horrible days. Usually at this time of year, the fish are on a predictable pattern out deep. The show up at the same time most every day to feed etc. Not the case this summer. I now spend all my days determining the timing windows when the bass move up on specific structure to fill their belly. This past week was the first time that the fish consistently shown themselves at a certain time of the day. I was able to take advantage of that with my clients and dug out some whoppers.

Normally, August sees the oxygen level below 20ft starting to deplete and the fish suspend in the upper water column. You have to scan lots of water with your electronics and look for the huge arches hanging in the mid depths. I target these bass with weightless flukes, crankbaits and flutter spoons and tail kickers. To date, this hasn't happened as of yet. We have, although, managed to catch some suspended fish but the main pattern has been the drop shot on a variety of structure. Light line has been the key and we have had no problems landing green monsters upwards to ten pounds on 12lb test. It's strange that we are forced to fight this battle in this fashion when the carolina rig generally dominates this time of year. You should always be able to find feeding fish on main lake points in 20-30ft but this has been sort of a struggle. Lucky for me, I have  locations that have been replenishing on a daily basis. A lot of these spots have been producing ten to twenty fish per day up to ten pounds. Rather cool I must say. Again, the drop shot has been king. We have used a variety of soft plastics depending on the conditions. Dark colors on cloudy days and plum colors on the sunny days. Red seems to be the all around color any time of the year. Zoom trick worms, Roboworms and any type of finesse worm has landed the lion share of the bass.

There are some areas of the lake with hydrilla and this has been a huge let down as of this writing. I believe it is due to the fact that the oxygen levels in open water are OK which keeps the bulk of the bass offshore. I see this changing over the nest month. I have, although, caught some smaller fish on the grass on texas rig worms as well at the drop shot. It seems that moving baits have been out of the question. It won't be long when the swimbait will take top honors as the season starts to change. In the meantime, continue to check main lake humps, road beds, pond dams and points. If there is bait present, fish the spot anyway, even though you may not mark any hooks on the Lowrance electronics. If you can't locate any fish in the deeper parts of the lake, focus your attention to the 10-18ft range, especially around wood. This may be the ticket.

May 5 - April was an incredible month capped by a 12.26 behemoth caught by Zach Turner on April 25th using a M-Pack Lures Pack Mule swimbait. The water conditions were perfect and Zach worked the fish to perfection. This fish was close to the Share a Lunker program and we all thought he had it once the big girl was in the net. Reflecting on that stellar day, we managed an eight plus into the boat and lost two nine pounders at the net. What a day to remember.

Early April was nothing to sneeze at. We had several excellent days on the Alabama Rig, shaky heads and chatterbaits. The bite was on for most of the month with the exception of a few cold fronts followed by high pressure. On those days, the numbers fell off substantially but the quality was still outstanding. On the average day, the harder the wind blew, the better the bite was. You just have to trust me on this one as most anglers opt to hide from the wind in protected coves. You just have to deal with taking the waves over the bow and make sure you don't drift into a stump while you are handling a big fish.

May has started off with a bang as my partner and I fished two tournaments this past weekend.The first day we had thirty-three fish and the second day, well over fifty. Plenty of fish are shallow and on the beds. They will react to a weightless fluke or senko worked shallow. Also, a large majority of pre and post spawn fish relate to wood for a short time and can be caught on shaky heads, jigs and drop shots. It's all a matter of being in the right place at the right time. The remainder of May should be spectacular. Post spawn fish will start to move out to the deep humps and ridges and gang up in large groups. This is when my Lowrance electronics will help to locate these large groupsand set the stage for the best drop shot bite of the year. Also, the 10XD will come into play if your arms can stand it.

All of this action will carry over into early June so you better call up and get booked for the fishing excursion of a lifetime. The next six weeks is my favorite time of the year and I plan to land some double digit giants. Come join the fun.

Mar. 25 - Lake Fork has finally turned the corner and is ready to explode. The harsh winter has had all of us scratching our heads about fish position being as we have had a cold front every other day for three weeks. High pressure is brutal to deal with. Yesterday's trip proved to be the turning point as we had 14 fish during a half day trip, most all were over four pounds. Four of those were over six pounds. Quite entertaining. Fish are starting to show up on beds across the lake in protected pockets and the next full moon should usher in a major movement to the shallows. Flukes, senko's, texas rigs and shaky heads have all produced big fish. Use dark colors on cloudy days and watermelon red on sunny days. I am finally starting to see back up patterns develop when cold fronts drive us out of the shallow pockets.
     Main lake and secondary points are holding the larger prespawn fish and the Carolina rig is holding it's own capturing these monsters. Lizards, flukes and hyper sticks in green pumpkin or chartreuse pumpkin will get the job done and be sure to work them slowly. Main lake water temps are still in the mid fifties while the backs of the creeks are showing low to mid sixties. I foresee the spawn trailing well into late May this year but the biggest females will gang up on this next full moon. It won't be long and the shad will be spawning leading us to throw squarebills, big swimbaits and Alabama rigs to harvest the huge sows. I believe the next several weeks will be amazing so give me a call to book a trip. I still have a few days available in April and my favorite time of the year, May, still has plenty of spots available. Come join me and take a shot at the fish of a lifetime.

Feb. 22 - The trap bite has carried us through for the past month in one main area of Lake Fork. Word has gotten out and the pressure in this area of lately has been incredible. Even though the quality on a daily basis has been very good, the numbers have fallen off drastically. Fortunately, the water temps are warming and other patterns are starting to come in vogue and other areas of the lake are starting to open up. The pre-spawn fish are moving up and wood will become the best target for the next three months. Bass love to spawn next to stumps and jigs, shaky heads and drop shots will the presentations of choice. Use dark colored plastics on cloudy days and more translucent colors on sunny days.

As far as locations, it's time to start checking the backs of creeks. I have found that the water color in these areas is far better than the mouths of the same creeks. The large females are setting up on secondary points while the bucks are scouting bedding area toward the backs of the creeks. This next couple of months is going to be a blast.

Jan. 27th - Prespawn action is heating up. I have had some excellent trips over the past eight days where we have managed to catch plenty of four to nine pounders in shallow grass on rattle traps. The bigger females are starting to stage in areas that lead to the spawning flats. Subtle points and ditches in the grass are also key areas at this time and the afternoon bite is getting better each day. I have managed to win two tournaments this month on Fork and we targeted the small under fish in 30 - 35ft on sloping points. Those under fish have really been a pain to find this month and all the tournament anglers have been suffering.

The creek bend bite has been terrible to this point but I think that will change over the next several weeks. Big prespawn females will be traveling to their favorite birthing locations and they will stage just outside of these areas in deeper water for a few weeks before moving up when nature calls. At this time, the jig will be the best attack to land a trophy as they are feeding up for the spawn.

Look at your map and find areas where a creek might swing close to a secondary point. Work that area with a fine tooth comb and it should pay off.

Jan. 5th - Currently, the deep bite is sporadic with most black bass being caught mixed in with schools of sand bass. They all after shad and it's first come, first serve. Crankbaits, jigging spoons and the A-rig have all been working well for these fish. You may have to weed your way through a lot of sandies to come up with a good large mouth but it is a ton of fun.

The best bite for black bass has been on the grass later in the afternoon. As the sun warms the water, the fish move up to feed and this is the time to throw a trap, jerkbait, spinnerbait or even a swimbait. These fish are ambushing prey from points of grass as well as the many ditches. Most all fish we will catch range between four and seven pounds. Water temps are hovering around 46 degrees and this has an affect on the number of bites. Ten bites in this class of fish is a good afternoon. As the water warms, the bites will increase exponentially as the females feed up for the spawn.

Weather is always the big issue at this time of year. Always dress warm and a good pair of insulated boots are priceless. For those who brave the conditions, this is also the best time of year to land a true giant. Several toads over thirteen pounds were caught in January and February of 2013. You can't join that club unless you are on the water.

Nov. 15 - Water temps are starting to inch down and the big bass are beginning to move deep and congregate. We have been catching them, of lately, on the 17 - 22 ft break lines which are attached to deep secondary points in the large creek arms. The key to finding these fish rests solely on the shoulders, or wings, of the birds. Gulls, loons and cormorants will show you where the the bass are feeding as they drive the shad to the surface. My best presentation for these fish has been a weightless fluke. The fish are suspended over these break lines and in the mouths of the creeks feeding up for the encroaching winter. Find a ball of shad with hooks surrounding them and it's game on. The drop shot also continues to work well and I have also landed some fish on the 10XD. Find the shad, you'll find the fish.

The shallow grass bite has not truly materialized to date. Kind of strange. They should be jumping all over the chatterbait and spinnerbaits but it's just no happening, for me at least. Most of the shallow fish have been coming off no nothing banks that have mixed scattered grass or no grass at all. Hmmm! Maybe these fish are smarter than we think. As the water temps slip to the mid fifties, I will continue to check the grass on the warm sunny days. Traps should start to factor in to the equation and I expect this to be a solid pattern through January. Time will tell.

I plan to spent a lot of time in December -January on Lakes Monticello and Welsh. These are power plant lakes with warm waters year round. The spawn will take place on these ponds much earlier than traditional lakes and the shallow bite will be awesome. If anyone would be interested in fishing these lakes or Fork for that matter, call me at 409 782-4269 or e-mail me at skeet21c@aol.com.

Oct. 31 - Fall fishing on Lake Fork is just about ready to explode. Water temps are dropping to the the mid to low 60's over the past week. A little bit of everything is working right now, shallow, deep and structure. Everyone's favorite, the spinnerbait, is starting to show some numbers along with the swimbait and chatterbait. Location is everything. Straight line runs of grass haven't been producing as well as bare shorelines with scattered grass. Fish will always be in the backs of small pockets and drains, especially when it is cloudy. Look for them on the corners when the sun is out. As the water temps drop into the 50's, lean on the rattletrap. those straight runs of grass should start working

The larger fish are starting to gang up deep. Main lake points are the best target at the moment and as water cools, look at the first secondary point in the major coves. I am a drop shot fanatic so we have been using the larger profile worms to garner the bigger bites. Any 7" or 8" straight tail worm will work, dark colors for overcast and translucent colors for bright sunny days. Find the points that have some architecture to it. By that I mean a small indention on the points as well as a point on a point. There are plenty of those on this lake. Look for the fish to be shallower early and off the sides of the points later in the day. The 10XD should work well as well as the c-rig for these fish. The Lake Fork Tackle Hyper Stick is a great bait this time of year and don't be afraid to use a 3 to 5" swimbait on the c-rig also.

I have attached some photo's of recent trips where all these anglers were able to achieve their personal best. All of these fish were caught on the drop shop in various depths of water.