Fishing Fun

One of our regular guests from St. Charles sent me this photo to do a little bragging. Even though Norfork Lake produces 60+ pound Blue catfish, this 84 pound Blue was caught on rod & reel in the Mississippi River. He and his partner caught about 600 pounds of fish one evening and all were released. Nice fish Kyle. We will try and catch a big striped bass this year when you are down.

I tried to go out fishing on Norfork Lake this morning, but the lightning kept me home bound, maybe I'll be able to go tomorrow morning. I did get out on Tuesday and Wednesday and had a good day Tuesday and a slow day on Wednesday. I have been fishing the Robinson Point area with live bait (medium size shiners and gold fish). I have had the best luck with shiners. The fish I caught have been on the small size 5 - 10 pounds, but I like catching any fish. I've released all fish lately. My secondary spot is off of a point heading back into the Bennetts area. On this point I have been catching some really nice spotted bass and a few walleye. Here again the shiners out fished the gold fish. I am going to try crawdads and shiners the next time. The fish are starting to school, but the schools are still small. There is some early morning and late evening top water for whites, spotted and large mouth bass. One of my guide friends fished until 9pm last evening and said the stripers really started to bite well around sunset. Hopefully this means the night bite has started.

Fish are being caught at 30 - 40 feet of water either on the bottom or suspended in 50 - 70 feet of water. Fish main lake points or flats at this water depth. Vertical jigging is also working very well at this depth. I will start spooning soon after I finish testing out the live bait.

Norfork Lake water level is dropping 3 - 4 inches per day and currently is at 557.37 feet, only 5 feet above normal pool. The lake water temperature has fallen slightly, but is still in the mid 80's. The main lake is clear and the creeks and cove are a little muddy due to the 3 inch rain last evening.

See you on the lake and happy fishing.