Tips & Techniques
Fork Tournament Fishing
in the Fall
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September, 2010
By Tom Redington
Fall is tournament season on Lake Fork, with thousands of anglers in
several big bass tournaments, as well as a number of regional trail
events. Due to the restrictive 16” to 24” slot limit on Fork that remains
in effect for all tournaments, anglers’ strategies are a little different
on Fork than on most lakes. Since the vast majority of prizes for Fork
tournaments are won by anglers with fish under 16”, I’ll focus on those
patterns.
During the fall tournament season (Sep-early Nov), numbers of bass are
available in both the shallow and deep sections of Fork. As the water
cools, many bass move back into creeks and onto the flats near creek
channels chasing shad. At the same time, shallow main lake grassbeds and
timber hold lots of bass, too. After spending most of the summer fishing
deep water structure, the shallow fisherman can consistently catch bass in
the fall, so begin your fishing there.
Start your search for productive areas with moving baits, and then switch
to soft plastics to catch numbers from those areas. Keeping in mind that
you’re looking for bass that are 16” and smaller, downsized lures
typically work best. Topwaters are a great starting lure, and the smaller
sizes of poppers and walking baits like Lucky Craft’s Sammy, G-Splash, and
Gunfish are very productive. The G-Splash is a popper that works best on
calm days, while the walking and spitting Sammys and Gunfish work great
when there is more chop. With the G-Splash, you can work it very slowly
like a regular popper, or work it fast and it will spit while walking
side-to-side. Depending on the mood of the fish, they’ll prefer one
retrieve over the other. Remember to cast these on a floating line like
with low memory PowerSilk mono so you can cast these baits a long ways and
still keep them on the surface. A long rod with a soft tip helps a lot
too, with the Dobyns Champion 7’ long 704CB being a good example. After
the sun gets up and bass won’t commit to surface baits, shallow crankbaits
and lipless crankbaits work best. Bass are keying on small shad now, so
chrome or shad colors of LVR Mini lipless crankbaits work all fall long.
While the water stays warm, wider wobbling crankbaits like RC 0.5 or BDS 0
and BDS 1 square bill cranks move a lot of water and catch fish. Once
water temps cool into the lower 60s, tighter wiggling cranks like the SKT
Mini MR will garner more attention. And certainly don’t forget
spinnerbaits. A ¼ oz Redemption spinnerbait with two silver blades and a
translucent white skirt fools many bass in the fall, especially on windy
banks. Cover water with these baits until you get a couple of bites in an
area and locate a school.
Once you’ve found a few fish in an area, soft plastics will normally
produce more bass from the spot. The #1 option is a wacky worm. Rig a
Hyper Finesse Worm on the weedless wacky weight system from Lake Fork
Trophy Lures and cast it to the edge of grass, concentrating on points or
along creek channels. If conditions are a little windier, the Hyper
Finesse Worms and 4” Hyper Worms work great on a 1/8 oz jighead, fished
shaky style. Fish these very slowly around areas where you’ve picked up
fish with the moving baits and you’ll be able to seine out more bass. When
the bite is off and bass bury up in the grass a little more, or when
they’re holding in deeper water just off the edge of the grass, a finesse
Carolina rig with 12 lb FluoroHybrid Pro on a 7’4” Dobyns Extreme DX743
rod, a ¼ oz sinker and a 12” leader can be dynamite. Rig a Fork Baby
Creature, Baby Ring Fry, or the Hyper Finesse Worm on the hook and you’ll
be in business. Finally, a 3.5” Live Magic Shad rigged on a weighted 3/0
Ultimate Swimbait Hook will catch neutral bass that are suspended around
the grass. I primarily like shades of green for these lures in clearer
sections of the lake, with green pumpkin and watermelon shades being
consistent producers. In murkier water, June bug does well on Fork.
For a shot at a 24”+ over the slot bass, normally the largest bass are
caught very first thing in the morning before the fish become pressured.
Try a 10” Fork Worm on a TX or Carolina rig, or a ½ oz MPack Jig with a
matching Fork Craw or Pig Claw trailer early in the morning along the deep
grass edge on main lake points.
Best of luck to those of you tourney fishing Fork this fall. If I can be
of assistance, please contact me at 214-683-9572 or e-mail me through my
website,
www.LakeForkGuideTrips.com.
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