Submitted by Jeff Kirkwood (ip 69.41.95.221)

Date Fished: 7/24/2008
Water Clarity: 0

Lake Fork Water Temp: 88-92 Water Clarity: Clear

Well, summer is definitely here! At least when I’m on the lake now the wind completely stops, which is not a good thing. I really hate having to tell customers this time of year how often they have to drink water. Heat-stroke can set in really fast this time of year when it’s this hot and I tell my customers every hour to hour and a half that they have to finish a bottle of water in the next 30 minutes. I know it makes some of them mad, but I’m doing it for their own good. This is not the time of year to neglect drinking water. While replenishing electrolytes are a good thing, water is better. Also, sports drinks don’t quench your thirst like water does either. And one more thing to remember, when fishing a full day this time of year take a break and either go into one of the marinas for a few minutes to cool off or take a lunch break at one of the marinas. Then when heading back to the boat get another bag of ice, cause most likely the bag you bought earlier that morning has melted.

Fishing the last few days has not been a stellar performance for the fish or the anglers in my boat...including myself! While the fish we’re catch are mixed with some really nice fish after about 9:30 a.m., we’re really having to work for them. Getting bit while it isn’t a tough thing to find is still hard trying to coax the fish into actually taking the bait. Once the sun is up high enough they just peck at it, like they just want it out of their way. We’ve tried setting the hook just as soon as you feel them and most of the time you can’t even pull the worm down. The fish are still hanging in and around the first break-line and on the edges of creek channels. One thing you must remember to do when fishing a Tx-rig or C-rig this time of year is to fish it S L O W!

I’m NOT even starting out with topwater’s or moving baits. We’re going straight to either a Texas-rigged worm or to the finesse’ rigs, both being worms. For me, this is the very worst topwater bite I’ve experienced on Lake Fork. Now that’s not saying that you can’t catch fish on the surface or with surface baits, but past catching just a bare few on the surface I’ve decided not to waste our time with topwaters unless we start our day with cloud cover. As for catching fish on Bandits and Rat-L-Traps that bite has waned, you can still feel the fish brush-up against the bait, but they’re just not taking it consistently. I feel that should change the hotter it gets as you can see baitfish being chased just about anywhere on the lake. As for the worm colors, basically you can pick your poison and go from there but here are the colors we’ve been throwing over the last week; watermelon, watermelon red, June bug, watermelon candy, blue fleck and motoroil/chartreuse. The majority of the fish we’ve been catching have been coming out of the areas with timber, but a little grass hasn’t hurt any either.

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