It seems like forever since I have been able to sit down and write up a Norfork Lake Fishing Report. I was starting to go though fishing withdrawal, but I am finally back on the lake. Fishing has really changed from my last report. The main change being that fish are starting to go into shallow water. I have been able to fish 3 days this week. The first day I spent traveling around the lake and doing a lot of graphing and looking with very little fishing. Day 2, I started out bass fishing just before sunrise. I started to throw a rogue on main lake points just outside of our cove. Largemouth and Kentucky bass were lying in wait. I began casting next to the bank and worked the bait as a jerk bait back to the boat. Most of my fish hit the bait half way back to the boat. I also started to see a lot of top water fish throughout the cove. I tried a little vertical jigging in 30 feet of water around brush with no success. I then headed back to the Bennett's area to see what the stripers were up to. I started fishing with live shiners about 30 feet deep, moved along a bluff line going between 30 and 60 feet of water and was marking plenty of fish. I ended up getting 4 hard bites, but as soon as I would get to the pole they released the bait. Today was day 3 and I decided to strictly fish for striped bass. It was a slow bite, but I finally landed this nice 15 pound Norfork Lake striped bass. I marked plenty of feeding fish, but they just seemed to ignore my bait most of the day. I was using live shiners. I did clean the striper and when I checked out what it had been eating I found it was just crammed full of small 1 inch fresh shad. I do know of several other nice sized stripers that were caught in the same general area that I was fishing. Fish have also been caught in Float and Panther creeks in the last several days. The night bite for striped bass should be taking off very shortly. I would like to see the water warm up a few degrees. This should happen very soon with the warm weather forecast.
Walleye fishing has also been really good up river. A couple of friends had a great fishing trip yesterday using with live chubs. Shiners and nightcrawlers should work as well. The walleye are in the middle of their spawn and should start moving down river very soon. The after dark rogue bite is starting to happen.
Crappie are over brush in shallow water. You will find them 5 - 20 feet down so try different depths until you locate them. Live bait has been working the best from reports that I have been getting. I was netting many nice size crappie back in the bayou in 10 feet of water while trying to find shad.
Start looking for several upcoming fishing events that will happen over the next couple of weeks. The white bass run and spawn should start to happen any time if not already. You will be able to find these fish on very shallow flats and in the backs of creeks, the smaller hybrids will also be hanging with them. The after dark bite for stripers and walleye with a slow rolling a jerk bait has already started, but will get much better once the water temperature gets closer to the mid 50's. Crappie will start to stage for their spawn. You will start to find the crappie in very shallow water along banks in coves and creeks. Look for fallen timber that is lying in the water.
This 6 pound 20 inch long trophy was born on Feb. 23, 2012. Jillian is my newest granddaughter. She is another reason for my delay in doing a fishing report. I spent several days in Texas after her birth. I had a blast playing with all 3 of my granddaughters. Jillian is definitely a keeper.
More fishing info next week as things change.
The Norfork Lake level is being held fairly stable at 551.88. The surface water temperature this morning before light was 49 in the main lake around the main lake bridges and was 51 - 52 degrees back around the 6A marker. The main lake is clear to slightly stained with the creeks and coves very stained. We have more rain in the forecast for tomorrow and several warm days to follow.
Happy fishing and see you on the lake.
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