Norfork Lake Fishing Report

The weather has been gorgeous the past week on Norfork Lake. The forecast is calling for warm sunny days with light winds for the upcoming Memorial Holiday Weekend. (We still have a few openings for those last minute plans.)

I have fished the last 5 mornings and have done well. I've caught largemouth bass, Kentucky bass, white bass, walleye, crappie and striped bass. The striped bass are are both deep and also pushing the shad to the surface. The past several days I have been using a spoon and vertical jigging, but today I got into some nice top water action. I caught these two stripers (one 14 pounds and one 10 pounds)on a Zara Spook. I caught these fish on 8 pound test monofilament line. I used my favorite spook, a junior sized one with a white body and chartreuse head. Stripers are being caught in the Fouts area, Float Creek, Panther Creek, Fall Creek, Cranfield area and the Robinson area. As you can see they are throughout our end of the lake.

On Sunday, a father and daughter team (Kevin and Abbie) took a guided trip with Tom Reynolds of STR Outfitters and landed 4 nice stripers and lost 8 others. Tom was using live gizzard shad and caught the fish in 25 - 40 feet of water. He was fishing the Fouts / 6A area. The second photo is of Mary Ann, one of our Collinsville, IL guests. She spooned up this nice 10 pound striped bass suspended in 40 feet of water in the White Rock area. Doug and Mary Ann also caught white bass and black bass both on top water and vertical jigging and also trolled up a nice 6 pound hybrid in the Cranfield area. Another one of our fishing guests (not in a photo) has been catching nice sized largemouth and Kentucky bass. He has also caught several walleye, one 18 inches. Larry loves to use a jig and pig and last winter he made up over a hundred jigs in various colors. He also uses real pork rind instead of the plastic ones.

As you can see fishing has been pretty active lately. For the top water bite you need to be out on the lake before sunrise as the fish start to go deep as the sun gets above the tree line. Even though this morning the striper top water bite lasted until 9AM and was still going on slowly as I left. The top water action is spotty and the fish come up quickly and go back down. If you are in the right place at the right time your spook will catch these fish.

The Norfork Lake surface water temperature this morning was in the low to mid 70's, The lake level is rising slowing and currently sits at 560.18, 8 feet above normal pool. The main lake is clear and the creeks and coves are slightly stained.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.