Lake Fork

First I just want to say, that Jimmy Everett is a Professional from the word go. I thought for quite some time for a word to describe his performance as a guide; he is extremely knowledgeable about the lake, his clients use top of the line equipment, fish from a new fully decked-out Skeeter with top of the line electronics, and topping it off Jimmy went out of his way to make sure every detail of our trip was smooth and effortless for us. Basically all we had to do was get up on time and cast our rods, everything, I do mean everything else was completely taken care of, to include baiting our hooks. Jimmy Everett is a True Professional in every aspect of the word.

Lake Fork is only about a 2 and a half hour drive from Bossier City but to make it easier on us we headed out Friday night. Got to Axton’s Bass City, the marina that Fishin’ Lake Fork Guide Service works out of, with out a flaw (I can get lost easily but Jimmy’s directions were very specific). Jimmy had already made reservations for us, so getting checked it was a snap. The room was very clean and comfortable. The restaurant at Axton’s is only open for breakfast and lunch, but Jimmy gave us very simple directions to several other very nice dining facilities with in 5 minutes of where we were staying.

Finally the alarm clock goes off, the moment I have been waiting for. We walk over to the restaurant where we are supposed to meet Jimmy for breakfast. As we are walking up there are several folks there as this little restaurant is the morning ritual for several people and after breakfast I see why, very good! Anyway as we are walking up I am thinking, man I have seen his picture on the website (fishinlakefork.com)  I hope I can recognize him in all these folks, but that was not a problem, Jimmy was waiting at the door for us and you could tell he was just as excited to meet us and go fishing as we were. We ate a great breakfast and conversed about the day we were going to have over a cup of coffee or two while we waited for the sun to come up. Finally it was time, we all jump in his truck and head to the ramp. Now Laurie and I are both very accomplished fisher folks and we could help out in anyway but Jimmy wouldn’t have it. He took care of everything as we stood by on the bank watching the sun brighten the sky. Once on the water, we idled over to a spot pretty close to the launch to try for a quick shallow water bite since a layer of fog came across the water and Jimmy didn’t feel safe running in it. Later that day it was obvious how well he knew the lake and I am sure he would have had no problem running in the fog with his GPS electronics but I am sure his Professionalism wouldn’t let him scare the daylights out of us like that. Back to that first spot. Jimmy said that we should throw a senko at this grass line, well I am not a very accomplished senko fisherman and was hesitant but he took two rods rigged them up and gave us a description of exactly where to cast and how to work them. We only worked about 75 yards of that bank and had 3 other boats work the bank right around us. Jimmy said that this was a popular bank this morning, probably because of the fog, which had lifted enough to see. Jimmy took our rods and locked them down and we were off. Our next spot was off a large point that had a roadbed running across it in deeper water. This time we were Carolina rigging soft plastics. Again we didn’t touch a thing he pulled out two Carolina rigged Shimano 7 ft heavy action fast tip rods equipped with Curado CU200 reels. Now Laurie doesn’t care for the long rods much, and we both have favorite rods that we like to use so we asked Jimmy if we could bring them and he said no problem. So I grabbed Laurie’s rod and went to rig it up with a Carolina rig and Jimmy took it from me, that was his job and I wasn’t to do it. Again very Professional all the way, Jimmy’s clients are to fish and enjoy their self that is it. So Laurie’s rod rigged up and ready to go, I used one of Jimmy’s fancy rods. Jimmy took the time to explain all the features of the water we were sitting on, pointed us in the right directions to cast, explained what a bite was going to feel like and how to set the hook. Now I thought that was a little much as Laurie and I have both fished Carolina rigs before, but there were two distinct bites that we were going to get and it was important to know the difference. First would be a series of pecks or taps and that was the over abundant yellow bass that fill the lake, Jimmy said that when you start feeling those to just ignore them and don’t set the hook because you will never hook them. But if we were patient the activity of the yellow bass would draw the Largemouth Bass to the bait, and that strike would be a much stronger thump and then you would feel the bass pulling on the rod. And sure enough it was just like he explained. That first spot didn’t pan out too well but it did serve a very good purpose in teaching us what to feel for, not that we didn’t have our opportunities we were just unable to hook up with the couple bass strikes we had. We hit three more spots that morning, and had very tough results managing only a couple smaller bass. At each spot Jimmy took the time, while he was re-rigging our baits, to explain the lay out of the water and exactly where to cast. His boat positioning was impeccable, even after the wind got to blowing he made sure that Laurie and I were always positioned perfectly to cast into the strike zone. Every time we moved Jimmy would take our rods and secure the baits, literally all we had to do was sit down for the ride and get up to fish, Jimmy did everything else. Again very Professional, he was extremely alert to our baits and our casting, through out the day if one of our baits was even slightly mess up he would fix it, he was constantly pointing out the exact place to cast, and always kept a watchful eye on our retrieves and coaching us threw ever aspect of what to do to make these bass bite.

It’s 12 o’clock and time for lunch. We head back to Axton’s Bass City where we got to sit down, relax and eat a very good hamburger. Now the menu is full of different options but I went with the burger and fries and it was excellent, so big you could hardly put your mouth around it to take a bit, and I have a big mouth just ask any one that knows me. As we ate you could see the wheels turning in Jimmy’s mind, he was a little disappointed in our morning catch, I on the other hand was thinking we had plenty of bites seeing how we had a major front move threw last night and were dealing with blue bird post front weather. We had fished deep water all morning and except for the first 20 minutes we had not attempted the shallow water bite. So after lunch we went to a grass line that he had been catching some fish on during the previous weeks guide trips. As we were pulling up to this new shoreline, he told us that we would be fishing a senko and flukes. Again he rigged up the rods handed one to each of us and explained where the grass line started and stopped, where to cast and how to work the bait. We managed a couple of fish but again Jimmy wasn’t satisfied with the size of bass we were catching. With the post front conditions, Jimmy decided to go back to fishing deeper water to get some larger bites.

Jimmy made a couple passes over a large flat point and pinpointed some fish taking time to explain what we were all seeing on the electronics as he was doing it. He positioned the boat, and handed out the Carolina rigs. It only took about 2 casts and I caught a nice 2 pounder. Over the next 2 hours we proceeded to land several good fish between 2-3 pounds. Now it wasn’t on every cast but it was fast enough that we were expecting strikes on every cast. I say that but, Jimmy took the time in every spot we fished to point out exactly where to cast and how to work it and you always felt as if you were going to get that BIG strike on every cast.

We hadn’t had that Big Bite yet. You know, that one bite everyone going to Lake Fork is looking for, a chance to get that big fish. Just as the sun was starting to set it finally happened. I had pulled up on that Carolina rig and felt very strong pressure almost as if you were hung up, but something told me to set the hook. As soon as I did you could tell it was a good fish, but she started coming in pretty easy so I let my guard done. Then she makes a run stripping a little bit of drag on a reel that I could barely pull the drag on myself. With 25-pound test, Jimmy keeps his drags fairly tight to help with hook sets when making long casts on a Carolina rig. I get her turned back at the boat and at this point decide that this is a much larger fish than the 2-3 pounders we were catching. As I get her close to the boat she makes a final run and I guess the excitement of catching a really big fish overwhelmed me and I tried to horse her to the boat and she broke me off. Now I am not saying this fish was a lake record but it sure was big. Jimmy quickly grabbed the rod I was using and inspected it for anything that could have damaged the line, he handed me another rod with the same set up and I was instantly fishing again. On that very next cast I hooked another 3 pounder and almost forgot about the monster I lost.

The sun is down behind the hill side and Jimmy takes us to a grass flat for the last little bit of the day, we caught a couple more smaller fish on flukes, nothing big but a great cap to a very impressive day of fishing.

Again all I can say about Jimmy Everett, Professional. He took care of every little detail during this adventure and made us feel like the V.I.P’s that he thinks every single client of his are. With out a doubt the most impressive guide trip I have ever been on. If you are going to Lake Fork, whether you are a seasoned angler or a first time fisherman, you will be extremely happy with the services Jimmy Everett provides. I highly recommend you take a day and enjoy the knowledge and experience Jimmy Everett provides. You can visit fishinlakefork.com for more information.

Mike Cork