Norfork Lake Fishing Report

Whether you want to fish artificial bait or live bait, in the morning, afternoon or after dark the Norfork Lake spring bite is on and will only continue to improve throughout April and May. Striped bass, hybrid bass, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, white bass and crappie are all hungry and frisky. The family of 5, my cousins from Wisconsin, went on a live bait guided fishing trip with Robert Lee of Lee's Lite Line. They had a fantastic time catching close to all of the species in Norfork Lake. They missed out on only walleye, crappie and catfish. They fished with live threadfin shad pitching various points in the dam area and long lined a shad. This was the first striped bass any of the family had caught and also their first time on Norfork Lake. They had a fabulous time and Linda and I hope to see them often.

The upper right photo was Randy's (future father-in-law for my daughter) first striped bass. I took him and my future son-in-law out for the night bite. We fished the Bennett's area and had a fair evening. We started out catching several Kentucky bass and a hybrid bass all on a Zara spook. The top water bite in the evening before dark is just starting. The fish are coming up, but still spotty. Have a spook tied on and be ready to go. We also broke off a nice fish and two others that were hooked and miraculously came unhooked during the fight. We had several other bumps, and we had a great time. Randy's comment after he caught his fish was that he can't believe we only use 6 - 8 pound test line to catch these stripers.

I also fished yesterday morning and last evening. Yesterday Jason and I caught 5 bass, (smallmouth, largemouth and Kentucky's) all on a Zara Spook. The fish were not surfacing, but they definitely will come up for the spook. We caught all fish in very shallow water either inside the buck brush or right next to it. A quick walk-the-dog retrieval was working the best for me. Last evening I went out for the night bite and right before dark the fish started breaking the surface. I ended up catching several white bass and several Kentucky bass. One of the white bass caught weighed in at 3.5 pounds, my largest yet. After dark I hooked into one striper and the fight was on. It darted back and forth and made several dives. I thought I had him whipped and got it close to the boat, but he or she gave one more dive straight under the boat and my drag just couldn't keep up. I broke off another fish. This was my only bite after dark. I was throwing suspending rogues in various colors.

I hope to have some good info on crappie and catfishing over the next serval days.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.