Fishing Report Norfork Lake

The weather finally cooperated last evening on Norfork Lake. I hit a few of my favorite crappie holes and caught 7 in a short period of time. the picture shows a black and a white, nice size, but no monsters. Good for the frying pan. About 7PM I headed for the Diamond Bay area and parked myself on one of the points. The fish really didn't start to hit until about 8:30 and then I left about 10PM. I boated 4 fish and lost as many. How these fish get off after pulling drag on a lure that has 3 treble hooks I will never know. The water temperature dropped a few degrees with the big rain and cold evenings, but it looks like it should start warming again over the next week. I kept one 9 pound Striped bass (the one in the picture) for the freezer and released the others.

I expect the night bite for Striped Bass on Norfork Lake to last another couple of weeks and by that time the Striped Bass, Hybrids and Whites should start to school and push the shad to the surface and break water. It is an amazing site to see an acre of water start to boil. At this time I get out the Zara Spooks and start to walk-the-dog retrieval.

Remember that Striped Bass are spooky fish so stop your big engine away from your fishing spot, then use your trolling motor to go in quietly. You will be amazed at how this helps your fishing on Norfork Lake.

Until next time happy fishing and come visit us at Hummingbird Hideaway Resort.

Norfork Lake Fishing Report

Well I didn't get out Striper fishing on Norfork Lake last evening as planned, the thunderstorms scared me off, but I have talked to a couple of guides this morning and the night bite was still happening. The guides were fishing the mid lake area, similar places that I have been fishing. They were throwing suspending rogues (same as I have been doing) and boated several good fish. It also sounds like the morning bite is starting to pick up as another guide is out now and has boated several and lost several on live shad. The morning bite should really improve with the rain that we have had. Can't wait for the top water bite to start happening.

I have also talked to some local fishermen who have been white bass fishing and have really been slamming them. They are back in the creeks in about 20 or less ft. Spooning was working for them as well as heavy spinner baits.

I forgot to mention that I have caught several good walleye during the night bite on the same rogues that the Stripers are hitting.

I hope to get out on Norfork Lake soon to catch more fish. My favorite pasttime.

Beautiful spring day in the Ozarks

What a gorgeous day. I was able to go on a garden tour with a group I belong to here in Mountain Home, Arkansas. The more plants I see, the more I want! I have this problem with self control when it comes to things like that. I know I only have room for 10 tomatoes in my garden but I have close to 100 tomato plants started. I have flats of 5 different peppers but am only planning on putting one or two of each in the garden. Why do I do this? Who knows? I start several seeds in a 6 in inch pot, assuming that some won't sprout. When they all sprout, I just can't throw the excess away. I'll trade some plants, give some away and donate some to the Master Gardener group for their annual plant sale. I will get rid of them some way. I'm going to try really hard not to overcrowd my vegetable garden this year. Lou put new flooring in one of the cabins today. It looks really nice. I guess we'll be painting tomorrow. We ended up with a thunderstorm this evening so the trip to float creek for striper fishing was put on hold. We'll try to give you that fishing report tomorrow night.

Norfork Lake crappie catch

Even though I have mostly been Striper fishing on Norfork Lake after dark I still have had time to do a little crappie fishing. The nice slabs were caught in 5 - 15 ft. of water. They are located over sunken cedar trees that I have placed in about 30 - 40ft of water. Your depth finder should show large schools of fish over them. The crappie are starting to move shallow, just look for fallen timber on the shore line, the fish will be close to it. I usually use a small plastic jig with a twister tail and 1/16th oz wgt. My preference in color is white or green.

If weather permits I will be heading out this evening for the Striper night bite. I have been fishing in the Diamond Bay area, but I think I will try Float Creek this evening. Most of my Stripers have been caught between 8 - 10PM. Wish I didn't have to sleep I could fish all night into the early morning then start working around the resort during the day time. But I guess I need to sacrifice somewhere!

Norfork Lake Stripers

We like fish. Good thing since fishing is year round on Norfork Lake. Some of the guests we get want crappie, some want catfish, some are hoping for walleye, some don't eat or keep fish at all, a few think that they don't like to eat striper. I prefer fresh striper over most other fish. The trick is in the cleaning and storing. We remove all the red meat, wash it well and then freeze it on a cookie sheet. If we are going to want to serve it breaded we bread it before we freeze it. I've tried all the different popular methods and feel like this is the best way for all fish. We are able to move it into a freezer bag after it is frozen. This way we can remove what we want for our meal without having to make that decision before we freeze it. Make sense? No big block of fish and water frozen together. The breading or light coating of water on the fillets protects from freezer burn, there is no water to make the fish a soggy mess. We date the bags and try to use them in the order they went into the freezer. If we get more than we can use in a short period of time we vacuum seal the packages, if we aren't overloaded with fish we just use ziplock freezer bags. Here at Hummingbird Hideaway Resort, we frequently have guests who are happy to help us with our extra fish. This makes everyone happy. Guests have fish and we can keep fishing since we have a use for it!

Herb garden

As many of you know, we at Hummingbird Hideaway Resort on Norfork Lake have an herb garden for sharing with our guests. This morning I spent an enjoyable couple hours repotting some of the seedlings that will later be moved into the herb garden. We will have our standard herbs that everyone likes plus a few more that I have decided to try out. Several new basils, burnet which supposedly has leaves that taste like cucumber, 2 types of cilantro, thyme, and flat leaf parsley will soon join the rosemary, oregano, mint, sage, tarragon and chives that are currently putting on their spring growth. All winter we have enjoyed fresh lettuce, swiss chard and cilantro growing in the raised bed in the greenhouse. There is no way to tell anyone how much I enjoy that greenhouse during the winter and early spring. I'll post a picture later, plus send out that recipe for sweet and sour striped bass. It's definitely a "keeper!"

Striper Recipe

We had fresh Norfork lake striper for supper this evening. As always, it was yummy and quick. We just baked it in a little butter, secret seasonings and sherry. I think maybe this is our new favorite way to have striper. We love it cooked sweet and sour style too but it is definitely a more time consuming preparation, not to mention, more clean up. Speaking of having striper, the night bite is on at Norfork Lake. It took a little getting used to casting at night but it sure was fun.