Norfork Lake Fishing Report by Hummingbird HIdeaway Resort

Striped bass fishing on Norfork Lake continues to be very strong. The fish are moving to different feeding grounds and are starting to go a little deeper. You can still find the stripers all over the lake. Stripers that I have cleaned are full of crawdads, which tells me you can find them laying on the bottom or close to it. Today was a very good day for striper fishing. I had a couple of our guests out with me, one a 7 year old. What fun I had helping and watching him reel in fish. We landed 5 stripers, the biggest one was 14 pounds. Mason did a fantastic job. There was a second boat that I sent to a totally different area. They ended up landing 9 stripers and kept 3. Today we were all using live thread fin shad. Another guest, Tom, has been trolling umbrella rigs. Today he thought he had a monster on but when he finally got it to the boat he had twin 8 pound stripers. That must have been a great battle. There is still some topwater action for striped and hybrid bass, but this is slowly coming to an end until the fall. I have been finding stripers part way back into creeks as well as on the main lake flats and points. Trollers are doing well in deeper water getting their baits down 25 - 35 ft. I have been working 40 - 60 feet of water and find the stripers suspended as well as on the bottom.

The bigger largemouth and smallmouth bass are in 10 - 25 ft of water. Work the bottom with a jig and pig, crawdads, grub or just about any type of plastic bait. There is still some good topwater action for bass early and late in the day. Get your topwater bait into or very close to the sunken buck brush then work it back to the boat. There are alot of bass in the sunken brush on the shoreline, but most are on the short side.
The Norfork Lake water level has risen to 562.28. The surface water temperature has also risen to around 82 degrees. The main lake is clear and the creeks and coves are somewhat stained, but clearing. The Corps of Engineers is releasing water through the generators about 6 hours per day and the lake level is fairly stable. The lake is in great shape for fishing and all summertime water sports.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.