Norfork Lake Fishing Report

It was a great morning fishing Norfork Lake. I took two of our guests out fishing with me this morning and though it started out slow, the morning ended with a bang. We caught striped bass, hybrid bass, white bass, kentuckys and largemouth. We left the dock at 5AM and headed to Tick Point. I was marking several nice size schools of fish but we ended up catching just one white bass. At about 6:30AM I headed back into Diamond Bay and again was marking fish but just caught two undersize largemouth bass. We found the right place at about 7:30. We were sitting in about 30 - 40 feet of water and the fish were stacked up below us. A couple different times we had fish on 2 poles at the same time and were frantically trying to net fish so we could get back to catching! When the sun came up over the trees the fish left the shallow area, but we found them just a short distance away in 50 feet deep water suspended at about 30 - 35 feet. We caught a few more hybrids. One last stop at a bridge pier on the way home ended up giving us another Kentucky. I think we caught 14 fish in all, and kept the 6 in the photo. We were vertical jigging with spoons. I did try a crawfish on the bottom, but only had one bite on that the whole morning.

The stripers are shallower than normal at this time of year, but it does look like a small heat wave is on its way so they should start going deeper. Walleye are being caught in the same depth of water on live shad and crawler or leach harnesses. Vertical jigging with a spoon is picking up and will only improve over the next couple of weeks. I haven't been nor heard of any crappie fishing lately. They will be over deep brush again in the 30 - 40 foot range. Blue gill fishing is just fantastic. The kids are having a blast catching as many as they want. I have been catching 2 - 3 catfish a night on my trot line. I am using soft shell green crawfish and they are working well. Jugs with live bait are producing some nice catfish. Bass are still coming to the surface chasing shad early and late in the day, but most are in the 20 - 40 range. You will either need to vertical jig, or cast a pig and jig on main lake and secondary points. You mainly need to get your bait down to the fish.

The Norfork Lake water level is falling slowing and is at 554.47 just 2.47 feet above normal pool. The main lake is clear with coves and creeks stained to muddy. The Norfork Lake water temperature is in the low to upper 80's depending on the time of day. Two generators are being run about 10 hours per day.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.