Lake Fork September 12th and 13th, 2022

 I took a nice 2 day trip out to Mother Fork for some crappie fishing with Rhandy Simmons.  The weather was beautiful, somehow I did not attract any thunderstorms, and the fishing was good.  I came home with 98 nice crappie fillets.  Bud was his usual helpful self.

Rhandy also hooked me up with James Caldemeyer for a half evening of bass fishing on Monday.  We mostly sat out on Bryant point where we caught a few bass, but nothing substantial.  I did enjoy the bass fishing though, and I may need to do some more of that this fall.

Lake Fork, 5/12 & 13, 2020

Wow, almost 2 years since I had been out to Fork and even longer since I last bass fished there.  It's been too long.  Since we're all stuck social distancing due to the Covid 19, we decided we might as well do it on a boat.  I booked Rhandy for two mornings of crappie fishing and asked him to hook me up with a bass guide for the afternoons.  He set me up with Jason Conn, who did a great job. 

Monty got us into Hook Line and Sinker and we were the only customers who were there.  Sad to see.  He should have been jammed in May.  My Mrs decided to tag along on only her second fishing trip ever.

We met up at Rhandy's back yard Monday night.  Rhandy has a very nice back yard.

Much booze and some ribs were consumed and too much fun was had by all.  Seriously.  Way too much fun.  I was glad my Mrs was there to designated drive me back to our room. I almost didn't make it.

Our Tuesday morning trip started out with Rhandy's boat making a break for it.  Fortunately the wind was out of the south and the ghost ship returned after a few minutes floating around with no captain.

Of course, being the Lake Fork rain God, I worked my usual magic.  Don't doubt my powers!!  The Tuesday morning crappie trip was a bit soggy and we ran back to Rhandy's dock a couple of times to avoid thunder and lightning.  The rain never got real heavy, but it was a bit of an annoyance.  It didn't seem to bother the fishing too much.  Rhandy was on 'em, as he usually is.  Even my Mrs caught a few.

Jason joined us for the last trip out from our thunder pit stops and we ended up with a solid 50 fillets.  Jason caught a few and we sent those home with him.

While Rhandy cleaned fish, Jason and I headed out to find some bass and Vicki headed back to the room to crank up the heater.  We got chased off by a thunderstorm and ended up calling it around 5 pm.  We pitched some swim baits and topwaters near a main lake point but couldn't convince them.  Later we moved to another spot and I threw a Carolina rig.  I did catch a couple of bass in between rain storms.  The thing that amazed me was how crazy thick the sandbass were.  My fluke got pounded by those suckers and I even caught a few sandbass on a fluke.  My biggest green fish was in the 3-4 range.  I am really rusty on my bass fishing.  I never did get a normal bass bite.  What I started doing was ripping it back after getting a bunch of sandbass taps.  A couple of bass grabbed it on the fly trying to take it away from the sandies.  They wouldn't hit a normal slow retrieve Carolina rig.  Or maybe I'm just too slow.  Hey, whatever works, I'll do it.

Wednesday morning dawned a bit cloudy, but warmer and not as damp.  We had periods of clouds and sun as Rhandy moved us around to different piles where we picked up 8 or 10 keepers a spot.  By 11 am we had another 50 keepers plus a 3 lb catfish that wanted a jig.  We would have been done sooner, but we had to run across the lake to jump the battery on another guide's boat.  My Mrs was the perch queen.  I don't know how she did it, but she kept catching bream while Rhandy and I caught crappie on either side of her.  She has skills.

Jason had a full day trip so we went back to the room to wait for him to finish up.  I met him down at Rhandy's dock at 1:30 pm and we headed out to go find some more green fish.  We started off at a great "public" spot I had fished many times with Dale Stokes.  Jason graphed some bass and we chunked Carolina rigs at them for a couple of hours.  No sale.  There were tons of sandbass there, too, and Jason tried to wear them down a bit.  They kept tapping on my fluke and I think I hooked at least one of them reeling up.  Stupid sandbass.

After awhile Jason decided he wanted to check out the spot we had fished the day before.  We found it open and I snagged a 3 pounder on my first cast.  It was the first normal bass bite I had this trip and it sure felt good!  

After one more cast I got a 5 pounder and another satisfying bite.

A couple of more casts and I got another 4 pounder.  I was hoping we were really on to something. Unfortunately that was about it other than the annoying sandbass tapping.  Jason caught one bass on a big worm and he also snagged a bunch more sandies.  We finally called it around 7 pm.

We came home with almost 200 crappie fillets and have some very good eating ahead.  We even got a surprise visit from Dale Stokes before we headed out on Thursday morning.  

Lake Lewisville 9/16/19

I needed some crappie fillets but the weather has been too hot and the wind too high and unpredictable to head out to Mother Fork for a 3 or 4 day trip.  Just for fun, I thought I'd see what the fishing was like on Lake Lewisville and see if I could get some nice crappie and still sleep in my own bed.  As you can see above, things worked out well.

I googled around and found a nice website for Phill's guide service on Lewisville.  He had everything I needed to see, so after some phone tag, we finally settled on a last minute afternoon trip on a Monday.

https://phillsguideservice.com/

We met up on the Little Elm boat ramp and headed out about 4 pm.  Phill uses minnows and, yup, they work just fine.  I don't think I had fished with minnows in 20 years or so, but the proof was in the "dead"well.  It took us about 2 hours to limit out, hitting different crappie piles Phill has set up around the lake.  I hooked one errant 5 pound largemouth and that was a fun fight on light tackle.  We were both convinced it was a catfish til I got it to the surface.  It never did try to jump, which is probably a good thing with crappie tackle and hooks.  She was 19 inches long.

After we got our 25 crappie, we headed out to deeper water and threw slabs at hybrids.  Phill hooked a nice 5 pounder and handed me the rod.  That was a fun fight.

We spent awhile looking for some sand bass to add to our catch but we never found a good enough school to stop.  Maybe next time.  We headed in about 7 pm and Phill got the fish all cleaned up and I came home with a big gallon sack full of crappie.  Tomorrow they will go on the smoker.  I want to see if smoked crappie is as good as smoke salmon.  I betcha it is.

And here's the results!!  http://donobbq.blogspot.com/2019/09/smoked-crappie.html

Week of June 3, 2018

We headed out to Lake Fork again this weekend and Mrs O. tagged along for the festivities.  I was happy to repeat the Sunday evening rib and beer festival on Rhandy Simmons' back porch but this time my Mrs brought along a home made blueberry pie and a home made lemon meringue pie.  We pitched a few crappie jigs from Rhandy's dock as the sun set, but quickly decided the beer and shade were more important.

 

 

 

Monday morning we met David Pippin with his wife, Kim, and son, Tyler, for a morning crappie trip with Rhandy.  We picked the perfect day, which also just happened to be David's birthday!  Temperatures were in the low 80's with cloud cover and a nice breeze.  Conditions could not be more perfect for a trip in June.  Rhandy drove us around to a few of his many crappie piles and everybody caught fish.  David's son Tyler caught the big fish, around 2 lbs, but everybody caught a mess and we had a great time.  I think we ended up with about 50 crappie, and a lot of very nice slabs.  I added about a 4 lb catfish to the mix.  That sure was a fun fight with light 6 lb tackle.

 

 

We came in a little early due to an approaching storm front (The Lake Fork Rain God strikes again) and David and Rhandy filleted up the catch.  We ended up with 2 gallon bags full of nice filets.  Rhandy's cat Bud supervised the cleaning activities.

 

After a short nap we headed over to Dale Stokes' place to take him some ribs and let Mrs O. pet some cows.   She likes to pet cows.  I prefer eating them.  Thanks, Dale!

 

 That evening my rain making powers were proven once again.  Don't doubt my powers!

Week of April 29, 2018

It had been almost a year since I had been out to do some fishing and I was long overdue.  When I called Dale Stokes he told me he had retired from guiding after some medical issues.  However he said he would take me out one last time but would not be able to fish the long 12 hour days I like to do.  He set me up with Lake Fork legend Hollice Joiner for Monday evening and long time Lake Fork guide Jeff Steele for Tuesday and Wednesday.  I planned to do some fun crappie fishing with Rhandy Simmons on Sunday evening.

I made it out to the Lake with no problems around 3:30 pm, checked into Hook, Line, and Sinker, and wandered down to Rhandy's place for some crappie fishing.  Unfortunately Rhandy had injured his back jumping out of his boat.  Dr. O. prescribed internal application of beer and pork ribs while watching the sunset from his back porch.  The miracle healing occurred, but we were in no shape to go out in a boat after that.  Bud got some extra petting instead.  We'll get the crappie next time.

Monday morning I met Dale down at the Minnow Bucket and we headed out to a main lake point.  My first fish of 2018 was a nice one a little over 6 pounds.

That poor fish had swallowed a shakey head at some point and was passing it out his ass.  It fell out while Dale was weighing the fish.  I'm sure that was a relief for that poor fish!

We spent some more time on that point chunking split shot flukes, then headed up into Little Caney for the rest of the day to avoid some high winds.  We caught a few more here and there, then Dale hooked a 9 lb 10 oz monster that pulled like crazy.

We caught a few more through the day, mostly nice little chunks in the 2-3 lb range and ended up with 15 for the day.  I went back to the hotel at 2 pm and got a nice siesta before joining Hollice at 4 pm.  We spent 4 hours poking around the island and park shoreline north of the 154 bridge and caught another 8 fish.  I did catch a fish on my first cast with Hollice.  I hope I get a chance to fish with him again, soon.

Tuesday morning I met Dale again at 6 am and we were off to Little Caney again to get out of the wind.  I caught a fish on my first cast and told Dale we should just go in now because that was bad luck.  Fortunately he just laughed and we kept fishing.  We hit a bunch of good spots catching fish here and there and ended up with 12 for the day.  We mixed things up a bit throwing split shot flukes, baby brush hogs, senkos, shakey heads, and worms, mostly shallow, but never found a killer pattern.  I did love the color, markings, and black spot on this one Dale caught.  That's a pretty fish.

After repeating my most excellent siesta pattern at 2 pm, I met up with Jeff at 4 pm and we were off for some more fun.  Jeff actually went straight back to the same spot Dale and I had finished at, and again I caught a fish on my first cast.  Jeff said that was bad luck, but I reminded him I had already been casting for 8 hours earlier that day.  That broke the ice.  We fished that same area a little differently than I had with Dale earlier and we had a few more fish.  Jeff had me pitch down a shoreline at about 6 feet and I got a nice 6 pounder right where he had called the shot.  It was 6 even on the scale.

We switched back and forth between split shot flukes and carolina rigs and ended up with 6 or 7 more decent fish before dark.  When we went in Rhandy was waiting at my truck with a cold beer.  I could get used to that!

Wednesday morning was dark and cloudy and remarkably the wind was a bit lower.  Dale took us over to the hog ditch and we worked that bank for awhile and caught a couple.  After that we headed up to a high spot near the dam where we had a double.  We saw lots of big fish moving around, but couldn't catch another near the dam.  Chainsaw hump was next and we worked our way around til I caught a nice 7 lb 1 oz fish.   She was a fightnin' son of a gun.  That was a fun fish.

 

We poked around a few more places and ended up with 11 for the day.

I met Jeff again at 4 pm and we headed up in the northeast arm to get out of the afternoon wind.  Jeff caught a 6 pounder on his first cast and hardly fished at all after that.  He worked really hard to get me bit the rest of the trip but the fish were just being ornery.  We hit some great spots and used several techniques but the fish weren't playing.  That never bothers me, it happens sometimes, but it always drives the guides crazy.  When I was ready to go in at 8 pm, Jeff insisted we make one more stop, but the fish remained stubborn.  I think we ended up with 3 in the boat, but I still had a great time.  We did have a few sprinkles of rain so my reputation as the Lake Fork Rain God remains intact.  Sadly, the beer girl was not waiting at my truck when we went in, but my fridge at the hotel room made up for that.  I really enjoyed fishing with Jeff and I hope we get to go again, soon.  He is running to become mayor of Wilmer (again) and I hope he wins!

As  always we saw lots of wildlife around the lake.  Raccoons, snakes, buzzards, nutria, deer, and lots of song birds.  The soundtrack was awesome and we even found some banks with sweet smelling honeysuckle.  I did get a surprise when I looked at this photo I took of a pretty yellow song bird.  Notice the 6 foot banded water snake on the log behind the stump?  I didn't til I saw this photo on my computer!

Lake Fork is full of surprises and I hope to get back for some more at the end of May or early June.  I don't know if I'll get to fish with Dale again, but we have had a lot of good times on the Lake and I really appreciate him coming out of retirement for a couple of days to fish me one last time.

Week of May 7, 2017

I finally managed to get out to Lake Fork this week and had a grand time as always.  We never caught any big fish, but we did catch a good number of bass and had beautiful weather to do it in.  Temperatures were in the low 80s all week and winds were mostly light.  Rhandy was booked all week so Dale volunteered to fish me 14 hours a day on Monday through Wednesday, plus a half day on Sunday.

I got out to the lake about 3:30 on Sunday afternoon and found Monty had forgotten to leave me a note telling me which room I was in.  I was able to get into room 2, it was clean, and moved my stuff in there.  When I came out Dale was sitting in the parking lot.  He said there were 3 tournaments happening down at the Minnow Bucket and it was a zoo with no parking.  He decided we would use the ramp at Hook Line and Sinker.  I asked him to call Monty to tell him which room I was in and he said Monty had said I would be in room 2.  I guessed right!

We put in at the ramp and headed out for 4 hours on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  The 3 tournys had shied the fish so we only caught 4.  We headed in about 8 pm around sunset.  It was a slow start, but it sure felt good to have a rod in my hand again.  We fished mostly split shot rigs with senkos and baby brush hogs working pockets and banks.

Monday we headed out about 20 minutes before sunrise and started out on a main lake point.  We had about 20 by 8 am fishing Carolina rigs with flukes and baby brush hogs.  I tell you the fish know when it is not the weekend anymore.  After the morning bite ended, we moved around fishing banks and pockets throwing a combo of split shot rigs and Carolina rigs.  We did find one group of trees that produced 6 fish, but mostly it was ones and twos around different spots.  We ended up with a total of 39 for the day, which is a pretty good bunch of bass.  Nothing over about 3 pounds.

Tuesday we headed out around the same time and again had good results on a main lake point using the same techniques.  I think we had 18 by about 8 am.  After that we spent a lot of the day back in Little Caney throwing split shots and wacky worms.  We did try one deep water spot with Carolina rigs but the fish either were not there or not interested.  We ground out another 15 fish over the rest of the day, with the best bite coming exactly at 8 pm on my last cast.  We were back in a pocket pitching wacky worms and I had pitched out to one side of a tree with no bite.  I decided to try the other side of the tree and was rewarded with a nice fight with a 6 pound bass.  The fish had a huge gut and looked like she hadn't spawned yet.

Wednesday one of my wife's work buddies, Keith, came out and joined us for the day.  He's a much more experienced fisherman than I am and he and Dale got along great.  We headed out about the same time but found another boat sitting on our usual point.  We headed over to another point and caught a few, but not as many as we had been finding on the other point.  After awhile, Dale realized that was a buddy of his sitting on "our" point.  When he checked his phone he found 5 messages from his buddy inviting us to come over and join them.  We did, but after the main bite had slowed down.  We did see an 8.1 caught in the other boat, but we found only solid little 2 and 3 pound fish and dinks.  We moved down the bank for awhile and added a few more with Carolina rigs before switching to split shots and heading back to pockets and banks.  Around 2:30 a small thunderstorm blew up west of us and we ran off the lake and sat it out in the parking lot of the Minnow Bucket.  I am the Lake Fork rain God!  We headed back out after about an hour but found the wind had picked up a bit.  We tied up and threw at a windy pond dam and bank for awhile and caught a few.  Then we motored inside the pond dam and worked the banks til the wind started to lay down a bit.  We ended up the evening hitting some pockets and finished with 33 bass for the day.  Keith hooked about a 7 pound drum in the belly, but we won't count that one.  It was a good fight, though!  I think Keith had a pretty good time for his first trip to Lake Fork.

As usual we saw lots of wildlife along the banks. 

 

 

 

 

109 bass over 3 and a half days makes for a pretty good trip.  Thanks to Dale for fishing me sunrise to sunset, 14 hours a day, for 3 days straight.  That's an extra effort and I sure do appreciate it.

Yes, I have started using a sun mask and I know it looks goofy as hell.  However it is a lot nicer than slathering my face in greasy sun cream.  Plus, if I'm only catching small bass I will be able to maintain my secret identity!

While sitting out the storm on Wednesday we heard that Tony, who runs the Minnow Bucket in the mornings, had suffered a heart attack and was in the hospital.  Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.