It’s November 18, and this is Artificial Lure, bringing you today’s Lake Fork fishing report straight from the banks and inlets of one of the best bass fisheries in Texas. If you’re heading out this morning, bundle up—it’s starting off crisp under overcast skies with temperatures dipping into the upper 40s at dawn, warming up to the mid-60s by afternoon. Winds are out of the northwest around 10 mph, steady but manageable for working your favorite coves and structure.

Sunrise clocked in at 6:54 AM, with sunset expected at 5:23 PM—a good, solid window for both early bird and late afternoon anglers to get lines wet. No tidal swing here since Lake Fork’s a reservoir, but barometric pressure is holding steady, which generally helps keep the bite consistent through midday. Fishing forecast services, like Fishbox, peg bite activity as excellent, especially with this cooling trend pushing bigger fish into shallower cover.

The word along the marinas and from recent guides is that the big bass are definitely moving shallow. Just over the weekend, there were catches reported in the 5- to 8-pound range, with some even pushing double digits. Several folks have been lighting up their Instagram feeds with solid largemouth catches—lots of photos from the past few days showing fish landed on loaded swimbaits, spinnerbaits, and the ever-reliable Yamamoto Fat Ika. Catfish are still biting strong in deeper drops, with some folks hauling in box fish on cut shad and stink bait.

For bass, your hot ticket right now is a white or chartreuse spinnerbait, slow-rolled around timber and grass—several anglers, including a few multi-species guide trips (see Bill Lewis Lures and Buckeye Spinnerbaits in recent social updates), have been catching both numbers and quality with this approach. Swimbaits mimicking shad are also killer, especially in the main lake points and secondary points just inside the creeks.

If you’re after numbers, a Texas-rigged creature bait like the Fat Ika, rigged with a 1/8 to 1/4 oz weight, is working great along the edges of hydrilla and near docks. Best bite times seem to be just after sunrise and again from mid-morning through midday, as the water creeps back into the mid-60s. For catfish, bait up with cut shad around the bridge pilings in deeper water or drift the flats near the dam.

A couple of hot spots worth your time right now:
- The mouths of Little Caney and Birch Creek are consistently turning out quality largemouth, especially with spinnerbaits and swimbaits.
- The 515 East bridge area is a catfish haven, and you might stumble on a bonus drum or two along the ledge.

Fall fishing on Lake Fork means every cast could be “the one”—recent weeks have seen both veteran anglers and kids pulling in real trophies as the fish bulk up before winter. Watch that wind direction and keep your presentations slow and deliberate; with water clarity good, it pays to stick with more natural shad or bluegill patterns as the sun rises.

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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI