I have been out of town a good portion of the time since my last report. But I had fun playing with my grand kids over the holidays and already miss them. I have also missed fishing Norfork Lake and I am finally back at it. I went out several times over the last week, but today was an all around great day. First off it was 58 degrees, can't ask for anything better for a winter fishing trip, and secondly the fish were very active.
I landed a nice 20+ pound striped bass on a live shiner. I was fishing in 85 feet of water and the fish were in a line of shad 60 ft down. I had my shiners set at 44 feet and 55 feet and was able to watch the fish come out of the shad to go after my bait. I missed two other good bites and had several other light pull downs. What I did find is that I needed to set the hook as soon as I saw the rod tip start to bend toward the water. I usually wait until the rod tip almost touches the water, but today if I waited too long the fish released the bait. The stripers are in their typical winter pattern and I am finding the fish in the typical winter locations. This fish that I landed was a very strong fish, it did not run a long way, but took a dive down, then did not want to budge from its deep water depth. It was a real tug a war, but I won. Places to look for stripers are part way back in creeks such as Float Creek, in the deep river channel in the Hendersen, Bidwell, 101 and 6A areas. They should be in the Cranfield area, but I have not checked this area out yet.
I fished for stripers for a couple of hours then I decided to switch to bass. My first location was a deep water bluff line close to a point on the main lake. The spotted bass bite was non-stop. I was vertical jigging with a small 1/4 ounce spoon in 28 - 40 feet of water. I ended up culling a few fish as they kept getting bigger. The spots all ranged from 13 - 15 inches. I caught a few largemouth bass while striper fishing. They were suspended at 30 - 40 feet in 85 feet of water. I also caught 2 in the same location that I was catching all the spotted bass, but the best location that I found was near brush in 30 - 40 feet of water.
The Norfork Lake water level is currently at 540.63 and rising slowly. The lake has remain stable for the last couple of days with no power generation. The main lake is clear with the creeks and coves somewhat stained. The surface water temperature was 49 degrees.
Happy fishing and see you on the lake.
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