Yikes. Sorry to hear that . I’ve only fished Fork around 10 times in my life . I DID catch my personal best bass there in Oct 2014 , 10#- 1ounce, on the east side of the 154 bridge . Last time I was there a guy pulled up with 3 bass boats on a special trailer. One of the boats was pretty cool , a legend 21 w/ a mercury 4.3 stroker on it . I don’t know if he ever put that one in the water, but I did see him with one of the other boats he had try to get on plane and smack a stump . The transom broke and the motor was hanging on barely . He called the marina and a boat came and towed him in. I’ve hit a few stumps there , all roll overs , scratched my gel coat , but never punctured or broke anything. I consider myself lucky….

Yeah man. I had never been in a decent sized boat where a fish actually moved or rocked it .

Yeah buddy. I’ve seen a couple of gators at fork . Where I fish at rayburn , Toledo bend , I see them often . I believe what scares me the most at fork is “ where did that stump come from ? “

I have had good success with suffix braid and power pro . However I only really cast it for any real distance is when I’m using topwater baits or glide baits . I use 40# for that situation . The rest of the time I use it for flipping . I use 50# for that . You might try getting a good line conditioner and spray your braid with it . Just give it a little soak while it’s on your reel . And spray the eyes on your rod too. Line conditioner won’t hurt them . I can’t say about the possibility of it messing up any paint on a rod, because my rods aren’t painted . I use the KVD brand . I spray it on my rod eyes, fluorocarbon line, and my braid on my topwater and glide bait rods . Does it help ? I think it does, so I will keep using it.

Yeah . I agree. I just don’t know how big it was that it bounced the back of his boat like that. Lol

We just did a topic about biggest fish we ever caught . We got some good interesting responses . How about a fishing experience that really made you think w.t.h. ?

My experience happened back in 1998. Me and a guy named Harvey that I worked with took his boat ( 25 ft / 2 motors ) out to the short rigs out from Port Arthur Texas . Probably 35 miles out . We were catching specks and if remember correctly Harvey caught a ling. Anyway, just for s—- and grins, he brought a ham that he had frozen , but didn’t want it. He had an awfully big hook in that ham , attached to some kind of weighted stainless leader , and that was attached to a length of parachute cord coiled up in a 5 gallon bucket . Threw the ham over the back of the boat , we were in about 40 ft / water . After some length of time , the cord started coming out of the bucket real fast . Harvey grabbed the rope and managed to get it around a cleat . Whatever it was pulled the boat backwards for a short distance, then the transom started going down . I was getting tense because Harvey was trying to hold the other end of that rope as it was slipping on the cleat . So I was saying “uh, Harvey , Harvey “ ….. and he finally gave up and cut the rope with a small hatchet ( gouged his boat ) . Whatever it was went it’s own way . I was just trying to figure out what had just happened….😬

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I’m pretty sure the really big ones are female, you are correct , but I believe unless they get above a certain size it could be either one. But I’m no biologist …lol

My biggest fish was a 34 pound bull red I caught when I was on Meacoms pier in the Gulf of Mexico back in October , 1983 . About 2 AM , me and a few guys I worked with at gulf oil were on the pier , when somebody’s clicker went off . I was the lucky guy . I was using a homemade Calcutta pole and a Penn reel. I can’t remember the model , but it was a dark red , no level wind . Maybe a 309. Anyway , long story short I finally managed to get that thing close enough to the pier and one of my buddies used a really large net with a really long handle managed to net it . It took both of us to lift it from the water to the deck . I weighed it , used some channel - locks to get the hook out and we put it in a cart , hauled it to the shallow end on the pier , picked it up and put it in the water . That thing took off like a torpedo.

Wow Fred ! That’s a cool story ! Starkist get in touch with you about a sale ?

Thanks , Nr. Whitereb.

Roger that . There are a bunch of us guys in here with a zillion years of fishing experience .But there’s always more to learn .

I totally agree.

Thanks , RJ…

Thanks Mr. Fred. Will look at some of those guys, will see if they have something available I can look at .