Norfork Lake Fishing Report by Lou of Hummingbird Hideaway Resort 870-492-5113

Norfork Lake water continues to cool and the lake has nearly completed its annual turnover process. The water temperature is 68 degrees from the surface down to roughly 75 - 85 feet. The oxygen level is high down to the same level, then reduces along with the water temperature down to the bottom of the lake. This is a normal process for Norfork Lake and is in-line with prior years with the exception that the lake temperature is a few degrees warmer than normal.  The cold weather this week should make the lake finalize its turnover, which makes the temperature and oxygen level the same from the top to the bottom of the lake. The oxygen and lake temperature information was provided by Norfork Lake Striper Club on October 28, 2019.

The bite continues to be good for bass, crappie and bluegills. White bass fishing has been getting really good over the last few days for the medium sized whites. Vertical jig with a ½ to ¾ ounce spoon to catch the whites. They will be on the bottom or suspended 15 – 25 feet down. The biggest change since my last report is that the bait has moved out to the flats in 20 – 50 feet of water. This is the main reason the white bass bite is taking off. As the surface water temperature continues to drop into the low 60’s, I would expect to start seeing more frequent topwater action for some of our species in the lake.

 The largemouth and spotted bass bite has been good and you can find them in a couple of areas. The bass continue to be shallow, very close to the shoreline. Shallow, sloping banks has still been the best, but they are showing up more and more on the rock bluff lines. Crankbaits are working very well, as are soft plastics.  Cast your bait right next to the shore and retrieve back to the boat. Work your plastics slowly along the bottom. The fish are still using the sunken buck brush to help them hide, so don’t hesitate casting right up into the brush. If you like to throw topwater baits, the fish are coming up for them. The topwater baits are working early in the morning. Cast your bait, such as a Zara Spook up to the shoreline then use a walk-the-dog retrieval method back to the boat. There is still some topwater action for bass in the mornings and evenings but it has slowed a little at this time. A second area that has just started to be good is on large deeper water flats. I have found some nice schooling, feeding bass in 20 to 40 feet of water. It does take some time watching your electronics to find the schools. My best method for these deeper fish is to vertical jig a spoon. You will catch one after another once you find the school. Staying on the school of feeding fish is difficult to do, but if you get lucky enough to stay on top of them you will have a blast for a long time.

The crappie bite continues to be good as well, but has slowed a little. I am still catching some nice slabs, but It seems like I need to jump around a lot. I catch a couple fish off of brush then they seem to stop biting. I move to another brush and catch a few then need to move again. You can still catch your limit, but it will take some work. If it was easy it would not be any fun. 😊 I am still using a ¼ ounce spoon. Firetiger, white and chartreuse, white and green and white and pink have been my best colors. The fish have been from 10 – 20 feet down over brush and you need to be on the brush as I am not finding any on the outsides of the brush. The crappie will start to move around a little more as the water cools and will come shallower in the evenings. The bite has not started for me until around 8:30 – 9:00AM, but I have not tried in the dark with lights out.


The bluegill bite has been good. I typically catch a few nice ones on my ¼ ounce spoon while crappie fishing, but fishing with crickets is the best. Best areas have been in small cuts in the bluff walls especially if there is some brush in the cut. You will find them anywhere form 15 – 30

feet deep.


Striped bass fishing is still the slowest bite. Not unusual for this time of year, but that bite should take off shortly. Once the lake finalizes its turnover and cools a few more degrees the bigger fish will move to the flats. This is not to say I have not been catching stripers and hybrids. There are large schools of this species out on the flats in 20 – 50 feet of water feeding on shad along with the whites. The issue is that most of the fish are on the short side at this time. There are a few nice size fish in side of the schools of smaller fish and you will hook up on occasion. It is still a blast to catch a 17 – 20 inch striper on light tackle, if you are looking for some fun action.  Look for bigger stripers back in the major creeks, such as Big Creek, Bennett’s Bayou and up river around the state line.

Norfork Lake level continues to drop slowly and currently sits at 555.58 feet MSL. The lake surface temperature this morning was 66 – 68 degrees depending where I was located. The main lake is fairly clear and the creeks and coves are somewhat stained.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.

Norforf Lake Fishing Report by Lou of Hummingbird Hideaway Resort 870-492-5113

Norfork Lake water temperature is finally starting to cool and the fishing is heating up. (Kind of corny, ha-ha) In all seriousness, fishing for several species on the lake has been very good and is improving daily.


The crappie bite continues to be excellent and the larger slabs are starting to move into the brush. Same places as my last report and same methods of fishing. Brush in 30 to 40 feet of water has been the best, as long as the top of the brush comes up to at least 20 – 25 feet of water. Vertical jigging a small ¼ spoon has still been working great. If you like to live bait fish, set up your rod with a slip float and cast to the brush with your live minnow. Small curly or paddle tail grubs tipped with a live minnow are also working very well. Best colors have been pink and white, green and white or a fire tiger type color.  Brush in coves, as well as, main lake brush are both holding some nice fish.


The bass bite has also been excellent. There has been very good topwater action at sunrise and sunset. You will find large and smallmouth bass, spotted bass and white bass all chasing shad. Cast your favorite topwater bait, such as, a Zara Spook or a Whopper Plopper and you will have a blast. Once the fish go

down, work the shoreline, pitching a 10 inch, dark colored worm right up into the sunken buck brush.
(2 to 5 feet of water) If you like to vertical jig with a spoon for bass, they are starting to school up on deep water flats in 35 – 45 feet of water. Some of my guests fishing out of our new Lowe fishing tri-toon found a large school of feeding fish in 40 feet of water off a small ledge. They landed 8 nice largemouth bass with the biggest one 18 to 19 inches long. It will not be long until the jerkbait bite starts working. We just need the water to cool down a little more for the jerkbait bite to really get going.


The striped bass are finally starting to show up, but very slowly. The heavy rains last weekend pushed the stripers back into the major creeks that had some cooler flowing water. As the water continues to cool the stripers will move out into the main lake and onto the big deep flats.


Norfork Lake level is dropping slowly, with some power generation and gate releases. The current depth is 557.16 feet MSL. The lake is currently dropping about 1 – 2 inches per day. The surface water temperature is slowly falling and is currently around 73 degrees. The main lake is clear to slightly stained with some of the creeks and coves stained. Overall Norfork Lake is in great fishing condition.


Happy fishing and see you on the lake.

Norfork Lake Fishing Report by Lou of Hummingbird Hideaway Resort 870-492-5113

Summer like weather is hanging on longer this year than normal. I’m really getting anxious waiting for the fall fishing season to begin. Even with the warm water temperature, my fishing guests and I have been doing pretty well fishing for a variety of species in Norfork Lake. Crappie, largemouth, smallmouth, bluegill, catfish and walleye are all being caught.

The crappie bite is still one of the better bites at this time, with several of the big slabs starting to show up. Crappie are being caught from 15 feet down to 35 feet, suspended and on the bottom in and around large brush piles. The best areas have brush from 22 feet of water out to 35 feet of water. You will be able to stay in one area longer with the brush covering such a large depth range. What I try to do is start in the shallow part of the brush and fish close to the bottom. As the sun gets to the tree tops, I move a little deeper and will start to find fish suspended toward the top of the brush. But once the sun gets high in the sky the fish seem to move   I currently have several guests fishing for pan fish with live minnows and crickets. They are doing quite well catching big blue gills, along with some nice crappie and bass. The best depth so far for my guests have been 25 – 30 feet towards the bottom close to or inside of brush piles. If you are not getting bites you need to move to another brush pile. The bite may stop after you catch several fish and if it does, make the move then come back to this brush after you give it some time to rest. I have been using a ¼ ounce white with chartreuse back spoon, as well as, ones with a pink and green back. These colors seem to be my go-to colors, but if the bite seems to be slow, I do switch out to other colors until I find one that the fish are wanting.

I currently have another fishing guest that is strictly fishing for bass. The bite has been good for him, but he does have to work for them. He has been fishing a dark colored 10 inch worm and working it in shallow water. His best areas have buck brush that is still under water or large under water rocks close to the shore. Yesterday he did land a nice 5.5 pound largemouth bass, but most fish he has caught are in the 2 – 3.5 pound range. A few days ago, another guest was crappie fishing and saw topwater action occurring along a deep bluff line across the lake from him. He headed that way and started to throw a Zara Spook and landed several nice 16 to 17 inch largemouth bass. These fish were out in 80 feet of water chasing shad at about 9AM on a sunny day.

I have also been spending quite a bit of time looking for striped bass and walleye. The striped bass have totally eluded me at this time, but I am finding walleye, but all have been short. My best areas for walleye have been on points off the rock bluff walls in 20 to 30 feet of water. I have caught these fish vertical jigging a ¾ ounce spoon off the bottom.

Norfork Lake continues to drop about 2 inches a day. The lake is currently at 558.36 feet MSL. The lake is currently 4.6 feet above normal seasonal pool. The lake surface water temperature this morning ranged from 79.6 degrees to 81.5 degrees. The main lake in our area is slightly stained to clear and most of the creeks and coves are also slightly stained. Great fishing color.

From what I can see on my depth finder the thermocline has dropped to somewhere between 35 and 40 feet. Over the last several days I have found many fish on the bottom at this depth. This is one of the main reasons I have started checking out deeper brush and have actually caught crappie 35 + feet deep on the bottom. The better bite for crappie is still on 25 to 30 feet deep brush. As the lake continues to cool, what we call a lake turn over will happen and fish will then have the freedom to move around at any depth. Basically, this means the oxygen level will be high at all levels and the water temperature will become more consistent from top to bottom.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.