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

Norfork Lake fishing has been good for most species over the last week. The weather has been fairly stable with cool mornings and warmer afternoons, but the lake level changes has affected the fish most, in my opinion. The Corps of Engineers has opened up a flood gate to evacuate some excess water from Norfork Lake. Our lake is dropping roughly 6 inches a day. What I have noticed is that a lot of the bait fish are moving out of the backs of the creeks and into the main lake or other coves that are close to the deep river channel. This has mainly affected the striped bass in the lake, but will also affect where the largemouth will start to feed.

The last several days I have been fishing back in a major creek in 15 to 40 feet of water. Each day I have noticed fewer bait fish in the area. When I moved out towards the mouth of the creek, I found more bait, but they have moved into coves and sometimes all the way to the back of the cove. When I find a large concentration of bait, I have found many largemouth and a few spotted bass

feeding heavily. Yesterday in 2 different coves, in roughly 15 to 20 feet of water there were many largemouth feeding close to the surface, as well as right on the bank. Small swimbaits and crank baits are both working, as are jigs worked along the bottom, from 5 feet of water out to 20 feet. I have also gotten into some good topwater action for largemouth. This action has only occurred when there is a lot of bait in the area. Topwater action can occur anytime of day so keep your eyes open.

Hybrid and striped bass are continually moving around in search of their food source. The common saying, when you find the bait the stripers will be nearby held true most of the time in recent days. The striped bass are feeding in very shallow water in the early morning and also in the latter part of the afternoon. Start looking at the shallow side of the lake for this species. They are on points with brush and cover. This is normal for spring time fishing, but it is happening a little earlier than usual. The other type of areas where stripers are showing up is in the backs of coves, but only if the bait has moved in. I have been trolling   Try both and see what the fish want.

Berkley Flicker Minnows, size #7 and #9. The 7 dives about 15 feet and the 9 dives about 20 feet. I am hugging the shoreline staying in 18 to 30 feet of water. I have found that the stripers are also relating to brush piles, so don’t hesitate to troll over the brush, but be prepared to lose a few lures. The other method of fishing for stripers is to cast out suspending jerk baits or 6-inch swim baits. Yesterday afternoon a few of our guests found stripers right on the bank, on a long shallow point. They were casting a swimbait up in 5 feet of water and retrieving slowing and getting hammered, almost as soon as the bait hit the water. With these shallow feeding fish, I would have to say that the stripers are continuing to feed after sunset so If you have interest in some
exciting fishing, start slow rolling a suspending jerk bait on shallow points after dark. Cast your bait as close to the shoreline as possible, then retrieve to the boat very, very slowly. I like to keep the bait on the surface or close to it. Some other fishermen like to jerk it once to get the bait down a couple of feet, then start the retrieval.

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Norfork Lake is dropping about 6 inches per day with both generators and a flood gate partially open. The current level is 556.04 feet MSL. The surface water temperature yesterday morning was 49 to 52 degrees. The lake is clearing, but still stained. If you head up river and up in the Bennett's area the water is still brown from the heavy northern rain a week ago.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.

Norfork Lake Fishing Report by Lou of Hummingbird Hideaway Resort 870-492-5113 as of 3/3/20

The weather for Norfork Lake has finally changed for the better and has been stable for the last several days. The long-range forecast is for continued spring like temperatures and if it holds true the fish should get energized. The warmer weather has dramatically increased the surface water temperature to almost 50 degrees at daybreak and warmer during the daylight hours. I can definitely see a change occurring in some of our fish species.

I have mainly been striped bass hunting and fishing for the last several days. The last 2 days has been outstanding. The bait is still   I’ve noticed a few birds feeding heavily. When I reached them my graph lit up with fish. It was a huge school of hybrids. My first fish came on the shad colored Flicker Minnow, then I switched to casting a Kastmaster (blade type bait) and landed several others. By around 9AM the bait and fish both disappeared. This was the first large school of hybrid/striped bass I have found in some time, telling me that the start of the spring bite is not far off. This morning (3/3) I headed back to the same area and the bait and fish were gone. I moved to another creek looking for bait and decided to go all the way to the back. Once I got into about 15 feet of water, bait was all over the

place. I started to slow troll (roughly 1.3 mph) the Flicker Minnows. In 30 minutes, I had landed 5 largemouth and spotted bass and all were keeper size fish. I decided to head back to my original creek, but this time kept on travelling to the back of the creek. Once I reached 17 feet of water, my graph lit up with bait and big arcs. I threw out my two Flicker Minnows and started to slow troll again. It was not long until I hooked up, but lost the fish. The bite had started and each fish kept getting bigger. I ended up landing 5 striped bass and a couple of largemouth bass with the largest striper 14 pounds. Similar to the previous day, around 9AM the bait and the fish left the area.
predominately back in the creeks or some of the larger coves. Yesterday (3/2) I found large balls of shad in 30 to 40 feet of water halfway back in a major creek and on every bait ball there were at least 2, if not more big fish following. The bait that I have been finding has been anywhere from the surface down to 20 feet and sometimes to the bottom. Since the fish have been scattered I have started trolling a couple Berkley’s Flicker Minnow crank baits size # 7. My best colors have been the slick pearl silver (shad color) and the other is the

racy shad pattern. These baits dive to about 15 feet. I’ve had several fish hammer the bait and peel out drag then come off.

The best areas where I have found striped bass are back in the major creeks close to the creek channel. The large bait balls that I am finding, tend to be close to the creek channel. If you find a smaller creek that has some flowing water, check it out you will more than likely find bait and a good chance some nice fish.

One of the great things about the stripers hitting the Flicker Minnows is that I will be using the same baits trolling for crappie in similar types of areas in the next couple of weeks. For crappie fishing I try to troll close to the brush moving form brush to brush. Crappie will start to school very soon and will be roaming and staging for the spawn.

The lake was falling about 3 to 4 inches a day, but last evening our northern part of the watershed received a lot of rain and the lake actually came up about 3 inches with both generators running. Current lake level is 558.26 feet MSL. The lake surface water temperature is warming up and ranges from 49 to 52 degrees depending on time of day and

depth of water. The water in the mid-lake is stained, but you can see a constant clearing occurring.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.