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.