I hope all had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends. I know we did. We had our daughter, one and 1/2 of our granddaughters and our son-in-law in town for most of last week. It was really nice to have them up from Texas. We also had two other family groups that decided to make Hummingbird Hideaway Resort their destination for a Thanksgiving gathering. It was nice seeing so many people out having fun with all of their family members. One group had 4 generations and the other had 3. They had campfires, hiked, fished and enjoyed each others company.
Currently the best bite on Norfork Lake is for crappie, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and spotted bass. White bass, striped bass, hybrid bass have been good at times especially when you find them schooling.
I have caught crappie in 30 feet of water vertical jigging with a 3/4 oz spoon. I also have caught a few in shallow water on a large 3 inch green paddle tail grub. One of our guests was using live crappie minnows and caught crappie in 5 feet of water close to the banks. You need to find the brush and fish at different depths over the brush and also inside of the brush to the shoreline. They are moving in and out of the brush to feed. My daughter caught her nice 13 - 14 inch crappie on a spoon, jigging in 30 feet of water in and around brush.
Bass are moving up to the banks to feed early and late in the day. I caught bass using my green grub and one of my guests had a great morning using a small black grub and casting to the shore and retrieving slowly on the bottom. Black was the only color that he had luck with. Crank baits and spinner baits are also catching some nice fish. My guests found bass in our cove close to some docks on the shoreline. I have found them on the bluff lines close to brush piles.
Stripers and whites are schooling and when you find the school you will catch fish. Some of these schools are breaking the surface at times. I found some really nice top water action right at the mouth of our cove at about 10:00AM. My daughter ended up landing this nice 14 pound fish on a white & chartreuse Zara Spook. It took her quite some time to land the fish as she is also still carrying our third granddaughter. (She is scheduled to land Jillian at the end of February :-) We also caught some nice stripers off of bluffs in the Robinson area. The fish are suspended anywhere from 20 - 60 feet down in 80 - 100 feet of water. We were using live shad for these fish. Live shiners are starting to catch some nice stripers. There has also been some nice fish caught in the Cranfield area both on top water as well as on the bottom.
A cold front has moved in which will start cooling the water. Fishing patterns should not change much except for the top water action. This will slow as the the water cools, but hopefully it will last another week or so. I will not be out in the mornings fishing the next couple of days as it is forecast to be very cold for the next couple of mornings. I don't like fishing when my rod guides freeze up! I will be out in the afternoons, though. Hard to keep me off of the lake:-)
A little different sport is also available in the area. My son-in-law took a Pheasant hunting trip with Tom Reynolds of STR Outfitters last Wednesday. He had a great time. It was his first Pheasant hunt so it took him a few birds to zero in his sites.He stated that this hunt was one of the best and most fun that he has ever been on.
The Norfork Lake water level is starting to stabilize at around 550.9. It has risen almost 2 feet with the various rains that we had over the last couple of weeks. Very little generation over the last week. The lake surface water temperature has fallen to the upper 50's. The main lake is clear (not as clear as normal) and the creeks and coves are still stained.
Happy fishing and see you on the lake.
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