Norfork Lake Fishing Report

Yesterday morning was another great day for striped bass fishing on Norfork Lake. I took out Robert Lee of Lee's Lite Line (striper guide on Norfork Lake) and we had a very productive morning. We boated our limit of stripers in 2 1/2 hours, broke off 2 others and missed at least 4 short bites. We were using live bait, large gizzard shad and suckers, on down rods. I was setting the bait about 24 feet down and fished in 27 - 32 feet of water. We were fishing the Calamity area. I have also gotten reports that large shiners are starting to catch fish.

Bass fishing has been good. I have had a lot of luck off of main lake points at the end of a bluff line and points on channel swings back in creeks. The fish are anywhere from the shoreline to 30 feet deep. You can also find many bass hanging around brush piles.

Crappie are just stacked over brush piles. They are suspended from 10 to 20 feet down. The brushy area where I have marked fish is in water 25-30 feet deep. Small jigs and a Northland Tackle Bro's Bloodworm has been the ticket.

The Norfork Lake level is at 547.05. The surface water temperature is in the high 50s to 60 degrees. The lake over all is clear with the main lake being the clearest. The Corps is running generators sporadically during the day.

This is a short report, but I mainly wanted to brag about yesterdays catch!!

Happy fishing, Happy Thanksgiving and see you on the lake.

Norfork Lake Fishing Report

Fall fishing on Norfork Lake is in full swing. The lake is in great condition and the fish are biting. I have fished the last 6 days and have caught largemouth, smallmouth, walleye, crappie,catfish, panfish and striped bass. I fished for striped bass yesterday with my brother-in-law, his son and his son's girlfriend. We traveled up the river to the point 9 area of Norfork Lake. We arrived around 6:30AM just as the sky was starting to brighten. I was fishing with large gizzard shad. I hooked the bait onto my leader and dropped it to the bottom in 32 feet of water and set it into the rod holder. As I was reaching for the next pole the first pole bent to the water and line started zinging out. I had my nephew grab the rod and set the hook and the fight was on. All of sudden the line went slack he reeled it in and found that the line had snapped just below the weight. Must have had a kink in the line. I guess I need to be more diligent about checking the line for bad spots. I finally got four rods set, two down lines and two free swimming baits set on a Redi Rig float. This float works in the same method as a balloon keeping the bait away from the boat and at the depth you want. Our fishing trip was a success, we ended up landing five stripers in the 8 - 14 pound range (average Norfork Lake fish), broke off 2 fish and missed at least eight other bites. I had a blast watching my family fight those fish and took a lot of photos and probably gave more advice than was wanted.

Friday I fished with a writer and advertising agent of Northland Tackle and Frabill (Noel Vick). His goal was to bass fish and catch many fish. We started fishing around 8:30AM along bluff lines and points in the 101 Marina area. We were using crank baits, jig and pigs. Noel had a couple of hits along the shoreline, but no fish. The wind started to blow really hard out of the south and it became almost impossible to hold the boat and cast with any accuracy. We motored over to the Big E bluff line, which was blocking the strong winds. I went to a point that has a nice brush pile sunken in 40 feet of water. I rigged up a couple of rods with small live gizzard shad and immediately we started to get hammered. We ended up landing small mouth bass and spotted bass. We fished this location for a while then moved to the back of Float Creek. Again I rigged up live bait and was fishing in 23 - 35 foot depths and the largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass were there and hitting very aggressively. I marked a small school of larger fish sitting in 25 feet of water, I told Noel get ready and all of sudden he was slammed and the drag just started zinging out. The fish was headed for deep water. Noel finally landed a nice size Norfork Lake striped bass (photo of me with the fish). I was amazed that these fish were in such shallow water. I floated over a big brush pile and was marking crappie and pan fish just stacked. They were suspended over the brush in 10 to 18 feet of water. The brush piles were sitting in 23 - 35 feet of water. We re-rigged with some Northland crappie tackle. Noel tied on a red Bro's Bloodworm and I tied on a white Mini Thumper-R-Blade (twister tail grub with a small spinner). Noel immediately got wacked on the Bro's Bloodworm and brought in a nice 12 - 13 inch white crappie. He ended up catching crappie and bluegill on the Bro's Bloodworm. My jig kept getting hits, but I think the grub was a little big and they keep biting the tail and not taking the whole bait. We ended the trip fishing back where we started. I baited the poles up with live shad and we dropped to the bottom at 23 - 30 feet. We started catching spotted bass, one after another. We both had a great day and a fun time. I want to thank Noel for the new Frabill net. It works great and hooks don't get stuck into the webbing. Great net.

The Norfork Lake level is falling slowly and currently sits at 547.12. The lake temperature is falling as well and I was marking 59 degree water up north and around 60 - 61 degrees in my cove. The main lake is clear and the creeks and cover are clearing.

Have a great day of fishing and see you on the lake.

Norfork Lake Fishing Report

Linda and I are back at our resort after a long overdue vacation. We both had a great time. We are hard at work around the resort and I have also started fishing again on Norfork Lake. So far we have had a relatively warm fall and the fish are starting to bite. Yesterday I took some of my visiting family out striper fishing and we did Ok. We landed 2 stripers, one 15+ pounds. We broke off another and missed four other strikes. We were fishing up the river past point 8 with live shad. They were not the big jumbos so we were doubling up the shad on one hook. A couple of my guide friends have also been fishing the same area and are doing well. Yesterday Tom Reynolds of STR Outfitters landed 10 stripers and hybrids and the day before landed 14. I guess my boat missed too many of the strikes.

Today I fished with my brother-in-law and we slayed the bass. We ended up landing over 20 largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass and lost over 5 fish at the boat. We limited out on spotted bass and released the largemouths and smallmouths. We started at sunrise and were throwing Zara Spooks around some docks. The fish were out in deep water (25feet) as well as right on the shore line. Next we headed over to the Big E area and switched from artificial baits to live bait. We used Carolina type rigs with a 1 ounce weight, then a couple of feet of leader with a number 4 kahle hook. I was fishing around some brush that is close to a point on the bluff line. The spotted bass were stacked. We landed 4 fish in this location then they seemed to turn-off. Next we headed to Panther Creek. I was graphing at different locations looking for striper without success. I stopped on a point and started to use live bait. We landed 3 spotted bass. Again the fish were in 20 - 25 feet of water. My third location was past Bidwell point. This was our most productive area. Again the bass were stacked and were very aggressive. We caught our first 3 fish in 8 - 10 feet of water and continued to catch fish after fish in 10 - 30 feet of water. I really think spinner baits and crankbaits would have worked great, but we were having so much fun with the live bait I could not get myself to switch. It was a great great day.

Two 17 inch smallmouth, a 16 inch spotted bass, and a white bass (all caught today) were given to an advertising firm that is photographing for 2011 fishing equipment catalogs for Northland and Frabril, both Minnesota companies. Arkansas is having over 19 nationally known reporters in the area fishing and exploring to see what Norfork Lake and Mountain Home have to offer. I am taking some of the writers out fishing on Friday and Saturday, My trip for today was cancelled.

From reports, crappie fishing is starting to get really hot. Small twister tail grubs tipped with a minnow and just minnows are working well. The fish are suspendied over brush piles anywhere from 10 feet to 20 feet down. Keep trying different depths until you find the one that works the best.

The Norfork Lake level is falling slowly and currently sits at 547.45. The surface water temperature was 62 - 63 degrees today. The main lake water is clear and the creeks are cloudy but clearing.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.

Norfork Lake Fishing Report

The weather on Norfork Lake has been great. Daytime temperatures have been in the upper 60's to 70's and the evenings have been in the 40's & 50's. I couldn't ask for a better fall. The fish in Norfork Lake are starting to move to their winter patterns. Basically this is saying you can find fish both shallow and deep and anywhere in between. This morning I fished with one of our guests (Grant) and we ended up catching largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. We started throwing a Zara spook at sunrise at the end of docks, with no success. I headed into the bank and on the first cast this nice 16 inch spotted bass hammered my spook in less than one foot of water. We continued to work the shoreline for the next couple of hours and landed several bass. All received their freedom. Once the shallow bite stopped we moved to a semi deep bluff line and started working worms and a jig and pig on the bottom. I ended up landing a smallmouth. We started to vertical jig with a spoon, but the wind picked up and it became too hard to hold my location. We had a good morning and decided to head back home for that second cup of coffee.

Yesterday morning I found a large school of white bass pushing shad to the surface. We started throwing a spook, but they just would not hit them. I saw the school on my fish finder so we started to spoon and had a great time pulling in one after another, with plenty of misses. We were fishing back in the 6A area. We then headed to a point at the end of a bluff line and started to spoon. The bass didn't show up, but we did catch several crappie that were hanging around a sunken tree. One of these days I need to take my crappie gear to this location. The crappie were just stacked over the tree in 15 - 35 feet of water. In the other photo Grant landed this nice 22 inch walleye on a rogue type bait.

Stripers are starting to show up all over the lake. They have been caught in front of 101, in Panther Creek, Float Creek and up from Cranfield. I have not found any top water action yet, but hopefully this will happen soon. Fish are being caught on live bait, from 20 - 50 feet down. Hopefully I will get out and do some serious striper fishing in the next day or so. My new shad tank arrived so I will be able to live bait fish along with the artificial bait.

Linda has been after me for some catfish. I guess I will set a trot line out before long and see what happens.

The Norfork Lake level is falling and currently sits at 559.5. The surface water temperature was 66.5 degrees this morning and should drop over the next week. The main lake is clear and the creeks and coves are starting to clear. The Corps is running one or two generators sporadically during the day.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.