Winter seems to be dragging on for us here on Norfork Lake, but if the extended forecast is correct, spring may start showing up soon. We still have this week of inconsistent cool weather, but then things are supposed to change. I am ready! Highs in the upper 50’s & 60’s and lows in the 40’s are on the way. None to soon as the night bite for striped bass should start very soon. The night bite is when the striped bass and walleye head into the shoreline to feed after dark. One of the best fishing methods for this bite is to cast out a suspending jerk bait, such as a Smithwick Rogue. Cast the Rogue as close to the shoreline as possible, then do a very slow steady retrieval back to the boat and hang on. It is so much fun to hook

into a big striped bass when you can not see much. This bite typically starts around mid-March. Some think it gets going on the full moon in March. Hopefully the upcoming warmer weather will get it going soon.

Over the past week the striped bass bite has had its ups and downs, but I have had a couple of good days. Yesterday, Feb. 24, was a great day of catching some big fish. I started out fishing on a large main-lake flat in about 80 feet of water. There was a lot of bait in the area, at times the bait was from the surface down to 30 feet.  I was marking a few big fish inside of the bait. I started trolling with a Walleye Deep Diving crank bait that dives to about 20 feet. I landed a really nice striped bass (17# 2oz.) and a 7# hybrid. The interesting thing was that I caught both fish when I was making a turn and they hit the inside bait. The inside bait on a turn would be going slower and might be coming up a little. My baits may have been running a little too deep or the fish was wanting a slower moving bait. I then decided to see what the crappie where doing. I headed to a cove where the wind was blowing in. I checked out a brush pile in 20 to 35 feet of water. I caught a few short fish and started to move to the next brush. When I got out to the middle of the cove in about 40 feet of water, I found bait that was from 10 feet down to the bottom and marked a lot of fish. I thought most of the fish were largemouth so I threw out two Berkley Flicker Minnows that dive to about 14 feet. I started to slow troll with my trolling motor at about 1.4 mph and headed a little closer to shore. When I passed a secondary point in about 28 feet of water the Shad colored bait got hammered. I assumed I had a nice bass on the line. I set the hook and the fish just took off to deeper water. I knew instantly that I had a nice striped bass on the line. I only had 6-pound monofilament line on and the Flicker Minnow has 2 very small light treble hooks, so I knew I had to baby this fish. It took 20 minutes to land it, but it ended up being my personal best striper so far this year at 18.69 pounds.  During the battle I marked quite a few big arcs, and I think they were heading out of the cove. I continued to troll in the cove going back and forth between 25 feet of water and 40 feet of water, staying in the bait. After the striped bass, I got to land 4 really nice largemouth bass in the 3.5 to 4.5-pound range. One of the bass attacked the shad colored lure and the other three liked the other lure, which had a bright purple back. The bass seemed to hit every time I came out of the bait or right before I would start to go through the bait. Seeing bigger striped bass in shallow water is a great sign that spring is on its way.

March is transition month from winter to spring. There will be a lot of exciting changes to fishing during the month mainly due to the warming trend of the water. Crappie will begin to school and roam from brush to brush staging for their spawn. Walleye will be spawning with some of them coming off of their beds in the early part of the month. Bass will move in tighter to the banks and begin to feed heavily and we will start to see some topwater action for bass. As already mentioned above striped bass will be feeding very shallow in the dark and will start to stay in shallower water even after daybreak. A lot of fun to look forward to.

Norfork Lake is currently falling 3 to 4 inches per day with both generators running continuously. The surface water temperature has remained about the same, between 45 and 47 degrees. The water is stained in most places where I am fishing, but seems to be clearing daily. Most if not all of the brown water has fallen out leaving a greenish stained water, which is fantastic for fishing.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.

Norfork Lake is in its final stages of winter and spring is right around the corner. I can’t wait! I really enjoy winter fishing on Norfork Lake, but I am getting the warmer weather fever. Hahaha! We have several guests staying with us and a couple of them have been crappie fishing. Over the last several days they have caught many crappie, with most on the small side. Today was a different story. This morning they were jigging a ¼ ounce spoon in brush piles that were anywhere from 20 to 40 feet deep. They found some really nice slabs in 22 feet of water. The fish were buried in the brush. They ended up landing a dozen or so 12+ inch crappie and releasing all the smaller ones. This afternoon they went out for a short period of time and again landed a bucket full of nice crappie over 12 inches long. Over the last 5 or so years Norfork Lake has had several high-water events that lasted though out the spawn. High water is a benefit to the fishery as it adds new nutrients into the lake to help feed the new fry, as well as, provides plenty of new cover for the newly spawned fish to hide. To say the least, catching big slab crappie in Norfork Lake is common at this time and when you land a nice 15-inch fish, know that it came from the 2015 spawn year. Yes, it only takes about 4 years to grow to this this size. Over the next several weeks, as the water warms the crappie will begin to school and roam the banks from brush to brush in

pre spawn mode. This will be a great time to slow troll crank baits, such as a Flicker Minnow for these schooling fish.

Not only crappie have been positively affected by the various high-water events, but our bass population has also been greatly increased. Another of our guests has been trolling crankbaits in 20 – 40 feet of water and has done quite well with bass. Largemouth and spotted bass have been roaming close to the shorelines. They have been suspended out away from the bank down 10 – 30 feet deep. I was out looking for striped bass today and started to mark a lot of fish out in

deep water of 60 – 70 feet. The fish were anywhere from 5 to 30 feet down. I had live bait set at 30 feet and the spotted bass were just mauling the baits. I started casting out my ½ ounce chrome colored Kastmaster and letting it sink down to about 20 feet and the largemouth bass were just inhaling the bait. It takes about 8 seconds for my lure to reach this depth with 8-pound monofilament line. I slowly retrieve the bait with a jerk-stop-reel retrieval method.

Striped bass fishing has been a challenge as of late. I am finding stripers lying on top of bait that is so thick you can walk on it. The bait that I find back in one of the major creeks is only 10 – 20 feet down and is in places 20 – 30 feet thick. In a mid-lake creek, the bait is 50 – 60 down, but very few fish. The bait appears to go deeper in the clearer water. I have managed to catch a few, mainly on live bait, but I have picked up a nice fish on a swimbait, as well as, a couple fish trolling a deep diving crankbait, a Bandit Walleye Deep Diver. This morning (2/19) I found an area in the main lake out in 100 feet of water that has minimal bait, but there were

scattered stripers in the area. I did not reach this area until 11:30AM and got to land a nice hybrid. The fish were only 5 to 30 feet deep. As the water starts to warm the stripers will become more active.

As the spring time water temperature begins to rise, all species will become more and more active and aggressive. Most species will start to move in closer to the shore line to feed and topwater action will start to happen, first will be the largemouth bass. I know I am getting excited.

The surface water temperature this morning ranged from 45 – 47 degrees. The lake is fairly stable with a slight lowering of the lake level with both generators running continuously. The current lake level is 560.62 feet MSL which is roughly 7 feet over normal seasonal pool. Some coves and various areas of the lake are still discolored from the recent rains, but all the areas that I have been to are start to clear up nicely.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.

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

Norfork Lake fishing has been an interesting experience this winter.  A typical winter pattern for striped bass never materialized. Normal in the past has been: bait goes to the deep-water river channel in the main lake and suspends 40 to 60 feet down and striped bass hide out within the bait and get active when they get hungry. It appeared that the normal pattern was starting to happen around the beginning of January, but then the lake level changed abruptly and affected the bait. The quick rise in the water level moved a lot of the bait into the creeks closer to the flowing water.  I have mainly been fishing from the 3 mid lake creeks north to the Bennetts Bayou area and anywhere in between.  I have fished the three mid-lake major creeks and have found bait in at least one of the creeks, if not all. Typically, I have found fish on the bait, but not all the time.  Bennetts Bayou area is another major creek where I have fished for striped bass and again can typically find a lot of bait and sometime fish will be in the area. Yesterday (2/11) I found some nice hybrids feeding in 30 feet of water along a shallow sloping bank. During this past weekend I did have several days that I found scattered bait with lots of scattered stripers in one of my normal deep-water main lake winter haunts. The fish were suspended 5 to 20 feet deep feeding on small schools of shad in 100+ feet of water. The water in this area is still a little on the brownish side. I have been using 3 different methods of fishing over the last week or so. Live bait has worked well at times for both the shallow fish, as well as, the deeper fish. I have also been trolling a Rapala deep diving crank bait, especial when the fish are higher in the water column. When you find ^th method, which is to vertical jig with a spoon, but this method has not produced well for me lately, even though this is typically a go to method of fishing for me at this time of year.

deep fish and want to troll you will either need a down rigger or use in-line weights with weights from 2 – 5 ounces depending on what depth you want to get to. The third method is to cast out a Kastmaster (blade bait) or a larger 6-inch swimbait with ½ - ¾ ounce jig head. I guess there is a 4
With the quick six-foot rise in the water level there was a lot of mud drawn into the lake. The northern part of the lake is still a little brown, but it’s finally starting to fall out. This mud line has also affected the bait. I am not sure of the technical reasoning behind it, but the bait that I find in the muddy water stays very high in the water column. I find the majority of the bait, as well as the fish, from surface down to about 20 feet or maybe 30 feet at the most. This isn’t to say you will not find a few fish deeper at times. When I am fishing in the mid-lake creeks where the water is much clearer, the majority of the bait will be 40 – 60 deep and the fish will be in the same depths.

I have not fished for bass or crappie over the past several weeks so not much to report. What I have noticed on bass is that when I get close to a deep-water bluff line, I mark many bass suspended down 20 – 40 feet   I have had several reports from friends that are crappie fishing and they are catching some nice fish. The crappie are still on 30 – 40 feet deep brush that come up to at least 20 feet. The crappie have been suspended on the tops of the brush pile.

feeding on shad.

If you want more frequent fishing information on Norfork Lake, follow Hummingbird Hideaway Resort on Facebook. Spring is quickly approaching, which is a prime time to fish our lake for all species. I am definitely looking forward to this time of year as all species go to shallower water and become really aggressive.

Norfork Lake level is starting to fall slowly with increased power generation and currently sits at 558.54 ft MSL. There is rainfall in the forecast for Wednesday (2/12) which may change the level slightly. This level is roughly 5 feet above normal seasonal pool. The surface water temperature Tuesday morning was 46 to 47 degrees. The main lake from the 62 bridge then north of bridge is brown to heavily stained. South of the 62 bridge the water becomes much clearer, in both the main lake and the creeks. I have not been north of Cranfield, but I have heard the Red Bank area is starting to clear somewhat.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.