Lake Fork Fishing Report Sept 12, 2025: Bass, Crappie, Catfish Action Heating Up as Fall Transition Begins

Artificial Lure here with your Friday morning Lake Fork fishing report for September 12th, 2025, coming to you straight from the heart of East Texas where the sun’s just peeking over the pines and the water’s holding more secrets than a card shark on a Sunday.

First off, weather’s setting up right for a productive day. Sunrise hit around 6:58 AM and sunset is expected near 7:34 PM, giving you plenty of daylight for chasing those legendary Fork bass. It’s a mild, early fall morning—temps barely scraping the low 70s at dawn with a high pushing just past 89 by mid-afternoon, humidity moderate, and winds out of the south at 7–12 mph. Skies are clearing after yesterday’s clouds, and boaters should expect a little chop but nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year. Tidal swings aren’t much of a factor on Fork being an inland reservoir, so just watch for the usual lake level fluctuations after recent rains.

Bass fishing remains center stage. Largemouth are on their typical September transition, schooling up around main lake points, channel bends, and far out humps before the full fall feed kicks into gear. Folks are reporting the best bite early and late—if you’re after the big mamas, tie on a Carolina rigged creature bait, a football jig in green pumpkin, or found success slow-rolling a crankbait just off the ledges, especially near west-side creek mouths.

A few schooling fish have been chasing shad near the surface; Spooks and Whopper Ploppers in white or chrome have landed nice keepers at first light. As the sun climbs, back off to 10–20 feet and probe brush piles and deeper timber with Texas rigs or drop-shot finesse worms. Some locals say the best action’s been mid-lake around the SRA bridge, and out at the mouth of Little Caney and Chaney Branch.

Crappie have been fair to good the past few days—try jigs and small minnows at 18–25 feet on submerged timber and brush, especially near the dam or under the 515 bridges. You’ll get more bites mid-morning through noon in those deeper holes.

If you’re after cats, action’s still solid—cut shad, punch bait, and chicken livers have pulled in plenty of channel and a few blue cats along the creek channels and at the upper end of the lake where fresh water’s flowing in. Trotlines and jugs overnight are still picking up a few bigger flatheads too.

Bream are good for the kiddos or anyone looking to fill a bucket—red wigglers and crickets worked around shallow docks and the grassy coves, 4–8 feet down, especially on the southeast side.

In terms of recent big catches, the folks at Texas Parks and Wildlife's Lake Fork records show everything from giant blue cats to trophy-class largemouths, and September’s been no different. Ten- to twelve-pound bass are rare but not unheard of this time of year, especially if you put in the early morning work around deep timber.

Hot spots this week:
- SRA Point and the main lake humps just north of the dam—good for bass and crappie
- Mouth of Little Caney for shallow morning schooling, then slide out deeper as the day heats up

Lure selection:
- Early: White or bone Spooks, buzzbaits, or Whopper Ploppers
- Late morning/day: Carolina rigs, green pumpkin jigs, deep-diving crankbaits, finesse drop-shot worms in watermelon or June bug
- Crappie: Pink or chartreuse jigs, small minnows
- Catfish: Stinkbait, cut shad, chicken liver

That’s the low-down for today. Stay safe, keep your lines tight, and treat the lake and each other with respect. Thanks for tuning in! Don’t forget to subscribe for the next report and tackle tips.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Artificial lure. Here with your Friday morning Lake Fork fishing
report for September twelfth, twenty twenty five, coming to you
straight from the heart of East Texas, where the sun's
just peeking over the pines and the waters holding more
secrets than a card shark on a Sunday. First off,
weather's setting upright for a productive day. Sunrise hit around
six fifty eight am, and sunset is expected near seven

(00:21):
thirty four pm, giving you plenty of daylighte for chasing
those legendary Fork bass. It's a mild early fall morning,
tempts barely scraping the low seventies at dawn, with a
high pushing just past eighty nine by mid afternoon. Humidity
moderate and wins out of the south at seven to
twelve miles per hour. Skies are clearing after yesterday's clouds,

(00:49):
and boters should expect a little chop, but nothing out
of the ordinary for this time of year. Tidal swings
aren't much of a factor on Fork, being an inland reservoir,
so just watch for the usual lake level fluctuations after
recent rains. Bass fishing remains center stage. Largemouth are on
their typical September transition schooling up around main lake points,

(01:10):
channel bends, and far out humps before the full fall
feed kicks into gear. Folks are reporting the best bite
early and late. If you're after the big mamas. Tie
on a Carolina rig creature bait, a football, jigging green punkin,
or found success slow rolling a crank bait just off
the ledges, especially near west side creek mouths. A few

(01:31):
schooling fish have been chasing shad near the surface. Spooks
and whopper ploppers and wider chrome have landed nice keepers
at first light as the sun climbs back off to
ten to twenty feet and pro brush piles in deeper
timber with Texas rigs or dropshot finesse worms. Some locals
say the best actions been mid lake, around the sra
Bridge and out at the mouth of Little Cany and

(01:53):
Cheney Branch. Crappy have been fair to good the past
few days. Try jigs and small minnows at eighteen to
twenty five feet on submerged timber and brush, especially near
the dam or under the five hundred and fifteen bridges.
You'll get more bites mid morning through noon in those
deeper holes. If you're after cats, action still solid. Cutshad,

(02:15):
punch bait and chicken livers have pulled in plenty of
channel and a few blue cats along the creek channels
and at the upper end of the lake where fresh
water is flowing in. Trot lines and jugs overnight are
still picking up a few bigger flatheads too. Bream are
good for the kiddos or anyone looking to fill a bucket.
Red wigglers and crickets worked around shallow docks in the

(02:37):
grassy coves four to eight feet down, especially on the
southeast side. In terms of recent big catches, the folks
at Texas Parks and Wildlife's Lake Fork records show everything
from giant blue cats to trophy class large mouths, and
September's been no different. Ten to twelve pound bass are
rare but not unheard of this time of year, especially

(02:59):
if you put in the early morning work around deep
timber hotspots. This week sra Point and the main lake
humps just north of the dam good for bass and
crappy mouth of Little Caney for shallow morning schooling, then
slide out deeper as the day heats up. Lore selection
early white or bone spooks, buzz baits or whopper ploppers,

(03:23):
late morning day Carolina rigs, green pumpedin jigs, deep diving,
crank baits, finesse dropshot worms in watermelon or june bug,
crappy pink or cheruse jigs, small minnows, catfish, stink bait, cutshad,
chicken liver. That's the low down for today. Stay safe,

(03:46):
keep your lines tight, and treat the lake in each
other with respect. Thanks for tuning in. Don't forget to
subscribe for the next report and tackle tips. This has
been a quiet please production. For more check out Quiet
Please out a I