The best bite on Norfork Lake this early fall has been largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass, bluegill and crappie. Striped bass and white bass are both still a little slow, but with the cooling of the water watch out! The bite will explode.
The weather on Norfork Lake for the last couple of weeks has been gorgeous. The day time temps has been in the upper 70's to mid 80's with blue skies and the nights have been in the 50 and 60's. We have had no rain lately. The fall foliage colors are starting to appear so not only the fishing, but the view on the lake is going to be impressive.
I have never seen so many bluegill being cleaned at my dock as was this week. I have 3 different groups fishing for gills and they are bringing in basket loads daily. There have been some really nice slabs being caught. Crickets have been their bait of choice, those bluegill can not resist that little morsel. The best location to find massive numbers of gills have been in 10 - 15 feet of water that has sunken brush just outside of this location. I think the sunny skies have really turned these fish on!
Crappie are being caught in the same location, but suspended over the brush. They are about 15 - 25 feet down. Live minnows are doing the trick and on occasion they also hit the crickets. Grub fishing tipped with a minnow is also starting to produce a few nice slabs.
Largemouth, smallmouth and spotted (Kentucky) bass are all starting to feed heavily. I fished yesterday morning and concentrated on brush piles in 25 - 35 feet of water off of rocky, bluff line points. I was vertical jigging with a spoon right in the brush. I marked schools of fish suspended from 15 feet to the bottom. I mainly bounced the spoon off of the bottom. I ended up catching 10 black bass in three different locations. 6 were keeper size but all fish were released on sight. My biggest largemouth (had to be a 5 pounder) came up to the surface, very reluctantly and jump out of the water, shook its head and spit the hook out. I was disappointed because you would think that I would know by now, not to reach for the net until the fight is over!! Oh well, he will be there to catch another day. One of our guests is strictly bass fishing and is having a lot of luck throwing a jig and pig in the same locations. He is casting to about 15 feet of water and working the bait across the tops of the brush. He caught 5 nice size Kentucky's this morning. All smallies that I have been catching are in the 17 - 19 inch range and boy do they give a good fight.
Striped bass fishing is starting to pick up, but slowly. I have credible reports that fish have been caught in the point 2 marker area, back in the Bennett's area, 101 area and up north in the Calamity area. These fish have scattered and are located though-out the lake. It does not appear that they have started their winter feeding habits, but they should start feeding in earnest once the lake temperature gets into the 60's.
The Norfork Lake level is falling slowly about 1 - 2 inches per day and currently sits at 551.88. This is normal pool. The lake surface water temperature is in low 70's for most of the lake and in the upper 60's up north and in the far south. The main lake is fairly clear with the creeks and coves still cloudy.
Happy fishing and see you on the lake.
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