When it comes to professional bass fishing, there is seldom a home field advantage. The top tier pros fish so many different types of water and are so good at figuring out a lake on the fly, the list of locals winning on their own lake is a short one.
Major League Fishing is coming to Lake Fork on Saturday through Thursday for its Toro Stage Two event, and among the 80 Pro Tour anglers will be several who should be very familiar with the lake. Jeff Sprague grew up in Wills Point and has fished it for years. Kelly Jordon was once a Fork guide. Even Waco’s Alton Jones and Alton Jones Jr., have a familiarity with the lake.
And then there is Takahiro Omori, a Lake Fork resident, who knows too well about how difficult it is to win at home.
“Two years ago I had one of the worst tournaments in my career on Lake Fork. I went into the tournament fifth in points. I finished 59th in the tournament. If I had finished in the top 10, I would have been angler of the year that year,” Omori said.
His only explanation is a simple one.
“Too much history with a lake can cost you. It keeps changing. The conditions are different from last year or 10 years ago,” the 52-year-old angler explained.
And Omori has a long history with the lake. A native of Tokyo, Japan, he has been fishing in the United States since 1992. Lake Fork was one of the first lakes he visited and although he is only around about two months a year nowadays, he has called it home ever since.
Omori began fishing MLF at its 2018 inception. He has competed in 24 of its Pro Tour events, winning the 2020 Summit Cup on Lake of the Ozarks, Mo., and the 2021 Patriot Cup on Florida’s Lake Toho, earning more than $525,000 along the way. Prior to that, he fished BASS where he won $2 million competing in 296 tournaments, winning seven including the prestigious Bassmaster Classic in 2004 on North Carolina’s Lake Wylie.
With that experience, along with the results of his last competitive outing on Fork, Omori plans to stick with what he knows for the tournament.
“I am going to go where I know. I am not going to go crazy and go into creeks I never fish. This time I am going to fish a conservative way and go into creeks I like to fish. It doesn’t matter how many boats or local fishermen are in there, I am going to stay in my comfort area on the lake,” he said.
That is not to say he is locked into something if conditions like weather come into play. Everyone remembers what happened weather-wise in East Texas this time last year.
“It depends on what the conditions will be. The fish are still in there. It is one of the best five lakes in the country, you are just going to have to make adjustments to conditions and weather,” Omori said.
A more likely condition that could change Omori’s plan is lake level. Fork is down more than 6 feet. Known as predominately a shallow water crankbait fisherman, that could impact where Omori fishes.
“This time it is kind of different because the water level is down. That might be a good thing because you are looking at a new lake,” Omori said.
Prior to this week’s practice rounds, Omori was last on the lake in the fall.
“It was down 6 ½ feet. That is a lot. They used to keep it at a foot low, but since they put that pump station in, it has been down a lot more,” he said.
There are several reasons the lake has been down this winter as well as the draw by Dallas. The watershed above the lake has been in a drought since summer, and the Sabine River Authority pulled the lake down 3 feet for dam repairs at the end of 2021.
Omori has to be hoping for a better outing than he had last week at the Stage One event on Caney Creek, Lake D’Arbonne, Bussey Brake in West Monroe, Louisiana, where he failed to make the second round.
This year’s Fork tournament will be stationed out of Oak Ridge Marina. The MLF format will feature one group of 40 fishermen on the water the first and third day, while a second group will fish the second and fourth day. The top two in each group move straight to Thursday’s championship round while the next 19 from each group compete in a knockout round Wednesday for the final eight spots in the finals. For the knockout and championship rounds, all weights are zeroed and it is a mad dash for the $100,000 top prize.
MLF will also live stream scoring each day on its website, majorleaguefishing.com.
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