Norfork Lake Fishing Report

Spring has finally arrived on Norfork Lake. It has been sunny and warm the last couple of days and more of the same is in store for us next week. There are a few days of rain forecast, but this will only help the spring bite get better.

The striped bass, hybrids, white bass, black bass and crappie are starting to get very active with the warming of the lake. Yesterday I was marking 50+ degree surface water temperature for Norfork Lake.

Ed, a guest from Wisconsin, was thrilled with the battle given to him from this nice 23 pound striped bass. He states that the stripers are much stronger fish then Muskies. He caught this fish yesterday trolling a Shad Rap back in the Bennett's Bayou area. He was following the channel in around 20 feet of water and his bait should have been about 7 to 8 feet down. He was also using light tackle with only 6 pound test. The fish are coming up. He also noted that there were other boats in the area, both trolling and using live bait, that he saw boating fish. Ed has also caught his share of white bass and hybid bass in many different areas of the lake. I believe the whites have started their spring run and fishing for them will only get better. Look for the whites and hybrids on shallow sand flats. Small crank baits, jigs, rooster tail spinners and gulp minnows should all start to work.

After working around the resort all day yesterday, I decided to see if the night bite was heating up. I have heard though the grape vine that stripers are being caught after dark, but I guess I was not in the right location. I was throwing several different colors of rogues and did catch a few nice largemouth but no stripers. The largemouth bass were caught right as the sun was setting, then I did have a few bumps after dark, but did not hook them. I only fished till about 8:30PM so the bite could have been later.

Crappie are on the brush and should be close to their spawn. Whenever I crossed a brush pile last evening the fish were just stacked from 5 to 15 feet down. The brush that I was marking was in 20 - 30 feet of water. Live bait on a slip bobber should be the most active bait, but throwing a small jig tipped with a minnow will entice a few fish.

The surface water temperature last evening was 50 degrees in the main lake up to 55 degrees back in the creeks and coves. The main lake is clear with the creeks off colored due to the rising water. The lake is rising slowly and currently sits at 545.2 feet above sea level. Currently no generators are running and they have mainly been shut down for that last week or so.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.