Lake Fork is a fairly small reservoir considering the number of anglers and boats that flock to this trophy fishery year after year. And with the water more than 5 feet low, it’s going to be fishing even smaller than usual for this week’s Simms Bassmaster Elite.
Fishing small means anglers have been and will be in close proximity to each other out on the water. The challenge to this is finding something good without others seeing you find it. I had the pleasure of spending day two of official practice in the boat with 2021 Lake Fork Elite Champion and Lake Fork guide Lee Livesay.
Livesay is likely the odds-on favorite here again this week, and you could tell it out on the lake. Basically riding around in a billboard with his easily recognizable boat wrap, Livesay spent much of the day trying to evade the onlooking eyes of other anglers on the water. And this wasn’t an egotistical thing where Livesay just imagined everyone was watching him. No, quite literally most everyone that was within sight was watching him. One local angler even followed him around for a few hours … during practice.
When Livesay would pickup and hopscotch around an area, it wouldn’t be long before you could turn and look to the place he had just left and find another boat had made a quarter-mile run from where they were previously fishing just to see what a good fishing hole on Fork looks like. Livesay didn’t even have to catch a fish for this to happen. He didn’t even have to make a cast. He could simply idle over a spot and in just a few minutes another boat would be idling that exact same spot.
Now this is bound to happen from time to time as coincidence considering many of the holes Livesay was checking were community holes that lots of anglers know about. And it’s not something that Livesay alone has to deal with here. Anglers like Keith Combs, Patrick Walters and others are certainly having to battle through this same deal knowing they jeopardize every hole they pull up on just by simply pulling up to it.
So there’s a game within the game that develops in an event like this. For an angler like Livesay, he has to decide if he’s even going to check anything “good” in practice — areas where he believes he might have a chance to win this thing. As of my departure from his boat midway through day two of practice, he had yet to even make a cast on any of those holes.
On day one of practice Livesay never even made a cast, opting to just graph around all day. And he admittedly tried holes on day two where he had either never fished before or hadn’t fished in years. When he’d hear a boat coming, he’d turn and point his boat in the direction of the oncoming anglers to hopefully hide the sides of his wrap from their view.
There was even a time when a boat was running by and he hooked up, so he picked up his trolling motor with one hand and stowed it before walking to driver’s seat of the boat to land the fish. He hoped the passing angler would simply think he was preparing to crank the boat and change locations.
Now I’m not trying to conjure up sympathy for the guy. He won here last year, he just won a St. Croix Bassmaster Open on Ross Barnett and he’s in a great position to do well here again this week given his extensive knowledge of the fishery. I’m just trying to paint a picture of how challenging it will be for him and a few others to be successful on Fork this week.
There’s a mental game being played of massive importance for a few of these guys. When to hit what? What holes to risk burning on Day 1 of the tournament? How much can they hold off and still make sure they stay in contention? For Livesay, there are some of his key places he doesn’t even plan to cast on until later in the afternoon on Day 1, when he feels more confident the fish will be there and be in a feeding mood.
And if the wind isn’t blowing in the right direction, he knows the fish on certain holes will be less likely to bite even if they are there. So that lowers his odds of catching what he needs and increases his desire to save that hole and not risk burning it until the wind is right.
A couple dozens factors and scenarios are rolling around and playing out in these guys’ heads constantly. And being able to mentally trudge through that madness and still find success is what makes these guys the best of the best.
This added element, the game within the game, is going to make this one that much more fun to watch. We’ll see how it plays out.
