Norfork Lake Fishing Report

The weather on Norfork Lake has been great. Daytime temperatures have been in the upper 60's to 70's and the evenings have been in the 40's & 50's. I couldn't ask for a better fall. The fish in Norfork Lake are starting to move to their winter patterns. Basically this is saying you can find fish both shallow and deep and anywhere in between. This morning I fished with one of our guests (Grant) and we ended up catching largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. We started throwing a Zara spook at sunrise at the end of docks, with no success. I headed into the bank and on the first cast this nice 16 inch spotted bass hammered my spook in less than one foot of water. We continued to work the shoreline for the next couple of hours and landed several bass. All received their freedom. Once the shallow bite stopped we moved to a semi deep bluff line and started working worms and a jig and pig on the bottom. I ended up landing a smallmouth. We started to vertical jig with a spoon, but the wind picked up and it became too hard to hold my location. We had a good morning and decided to head back home for that second cup of coffee.

Yesterday morning I found a large school of white bass pushing shad to the surface. We started throwing a spook, but they just would not hit them. I saw the school on my fish finder so we started to spoon and had a great time pulling in one after another, with plenty of misses. We were fishing back in the 6A area. We then headed to a point at the end of a bluff line and started to spoon. The bass didn't show up, but we did catch several crappie that were hanging around a sunken tree. One of these days I need to take my crappie gear to this location. The crappie were just stacked over the tree in 15 - 35 feet of water. In the other photo Grant landed this nice 22 inch walleye on a rogue type bait.

Stripers are starting to show up all over the lake. They have been caught in front of 101, in Panther Creek, Float Creek and up from Cranfield. I have not found any top water action yet, but hopefully this will happen soon. Fish are being caught on live bait, from 20 - 50 feet down. Hopefully I will get out and do some serious striper fishing in the next day or so. My new shad tank arrived so I will be able to live bait fish along with the artificial bait.

Linda has been after me for some catfish. I guess I will set a trot line out before long and see what happens.

The Norfork Lake level is falling and currently sits at 559.5. The surface water temperature was 66.5 degrees this morning and should drop over the next week. The main lake is clear and the creeks and coves are starting to clear. The Corps is running one or two generators sporadically during the day.

Happy fishing and see you on the lake.

Norfork Lake Fishing Report

The fishing and weather has been really good the last couple of days on Norfork Lake, in the Arkansas Ozarks. My boat is still in dry dock, but I did get some fantastic news last week, Yamaha has approved replacing my motor with a new one. They don't have the main drive shaft in stock so they are just going to replace all of it. Hopefully I get it back within the next week. I am really going crazy not being able to be out on the lake fishing. My wife is somewhat happy, I am getting a lot of honey do's completed.

Largemouth and Kentucky bass are surfacing at sunrise and sunset and are also up on the banks feeding. Any top water bait is working well for the surfacing fish or you can throw your favorite plastic bait and work it back to boat slowly along the bottom for those feeding on the shoreline. My preference is the Zara Spook for top water and a 10" motor oil colored worm Texas rigged. During the middle of the day the bass are going deeper on main lake points and rock bluffs. They are in 25 - 35 feet of water. Work a brown or dark green jig & pig slowly back to the boat. These fish are feeding on crawdads. You will pick up as many smallmouth on your jig & pig as you do black bass.

Crappie fishing is starting to pick up. I have seen quite of few nice size slabs coming into the dock. The fish are in 25-30 feet of water over sunken brush. Live crappie minnows are working the best.

White bass are schooling. They are being found in two different places, midway back in the large creek beds and also on the the main lake flats. Small spinners are working well as well as vertical jigging with a spoon.

Striped bass are on the move. They can be found from the two main bridges down to the dam. They are still deep, any where from 40 - 80 feet down. Vertical jigging with a spoon is producing some, but live shad is still the bait of choice. Large shiners are starting to get a few fish. The changing weather patterns that we have been having are keeping the fish on the move. You may find them in one area today, but they more than likely will not be there tomorrow. Once the weather settles a little and the lake drops another few degrees, the fall top water bite for stipers will be happening! Should be soon. One of my guides friends spotted a few striper breaking surface last weekend.

The Norfork Lake level is dropping and currently is sitting at 554.86. The Corps is running one generator about 24 hours per day. The lake is clearing nicely even in the creeks and coves.I have had reports of the lake water temps between the upper sixties and low seventies.

Hopefully I will see you on the lake soon!!!

Norfork Lake Stripers

These two young men had a great time fishing Norfork Lake last evening. They are some of our guests from the St. Louis area. The bite started around 6PM and lasted until about 9PM. They ended up landing these 4 striped bass and lost 3 others. The largest was 10 pounds with the others around 8 pounds. They had a fantastic time. They were fishing with gizzard shad which was caught for them by one of the fishing guides. If you would like to fish with live shad I can arrange for someone to catch the shad for you and if you don't have a shad tank I may be able to find one for you to rent. The striped bass are deep, the fish in the photo, as well as, fish being caught by the guides are on the bottom at 45 - 80 foot depths. We are in our normal summer pattern.

My boat is out of commission since my trolling motor is at the trolling motor doctor's office waiting on parts. Hopefully I will get it back sometime this week. I'm itching to get back to walleye fishing and to start a little crappie fishing. My catfish trotline is still producing a couple of 5 - 10 pound catfish each time I bait it up. Bass fishing has been improving as long as you find the deep pockets where they hide. You will find them in 30 - 40 feet of water on main lake points just off the bluff lines. Also look for big rocks in this same depth as the rocks will be holding the walleye.

The Norfork Lake level is 552.7 and dropping slowly. The main lake is clear with coves and creeks off color. Water temperature is in the low to mid 80's early and rising during the warm days.

Fishing is a lot of fun in the summer months. You might have some difficulty finding the fish, but once you do you will have a blast. Just being on the lake is a pleasure in itself.

Until next time happy fishing and see you on the water.

Norfork Lake Fishing Report

I enjoyed a beautiful morning on Norfork Lake. Not only was this 20 pound fish gorgeous and fun to reel in, but the sunrise with the fog lifting from the water was breathtaking. I fished with one of my guide friends, Robert Lee, of Lee's Lite Line and we had a good morning for big fish. I landed this 20 pounder, but we also broke off two others and missed 4 good hits. I think we must have been talking more than watching the poles to lose this many. That's how it goes sometime. We were fishing with 4 to 5 inch gizzard shad in 45 - 80 ft of water. The fish were on the bottom and occasionally suspended. I did notice a few fishermen spooning and saw them catch a few. I will post some additional photos later of guests to the area catching large striper on guided trips. The big fish seem to be keying in on the large gizzard shad over the smaller thread fin shad.

I haven't been out in a few days fishing on my own, so hopefully, if I get my work done today, I can get out this evening or tomorrow. I plan to walleye and bass fish using artificial baits. I will let you know how it goes.

The Norfork Lake level is at 552.73 and falling slowly. Two generators are being run for 6 - 9 hours per day. The Norfork Lake surface water temperature was at 82 degrees. The main lake is clear with the creeks and coves still cloudy.

Until next time happy fishing and hope to see you on the lake.

Norfork Lake Fishing Report

Although we had a lot of rain this morning and early afternoon, it turned out to be a beautiful evening on Norfork Lake in the Arkansas Ozarks. Being inside all day left me totally bored so I decided to do a little afternoon fishing. I wanted to try to find some walleye, but instead I found Kentucky bass, white bass and that big one that got away. Yes, it is an old story, but true. I finally hooked into a nice walleye. I had it on the surface and started to reach for my net but I guess I let a little slack in the line. I heard the fish flip and saw it swim away. It was at least a 5 pounder. The walleye was caught on some brush that I have put in over the years next to a steep bluff line. I was vertical jigging in 30 ft of water. The white bass were caught using my Zara spook. I was heading toward the Highway 62 bridge and could see the water just boiling in the distance. There were hundreds of fish erupting. I ended up catching 4 whites and 2 Kentuckys. I was also told by one of our guests that he got into some topwater whites two days ago. He was fishing the flats by Cranfield Island. He ended up catching several with a spook and when they went down he spooned up a couple more. Striped bass are being caught from tick point to the dam area. Spooning is working well as well as is live shad. I have also been catching catfish on my trotline using crawdads and have seen fish on jugs. No news on crappies.

The Norfork Lake level is 553.21 and has risen slightly with the last two days worth of rain. The Corps is generating both generators 5 to 6 hours per day. The Norfork Lake surface temperature is in the mid to low 80's. The main lake is clear with the creeks and coves off color.

Until the next report happy fishing and see you on the lake.

Norfork Lake Fishing Report

I finally made it out fishing on Norfork Lake. I had a fun day, but don't have stripers to brag about. I caught white bass, spotted bass and largemouth bass. At one point I had three fish on at the same time. It was kind of hectic for a while, but I enjoyed dealing with it. I was catching the whites on a white spoon vertical jigging in 38 - 45 ft of water. I caught all the black bass on live shiners. I haven't fished the dam area in a long time so I decided to head that way. I fished at point #1 for a while with no luck then headed back into Sally Ann and had a great time. The whites were schooling and moving quickly. I marked some big arcs on my fish finder so I know there were stripers and/or hybrids in with the whites. The whites are definitely the more active fish. There were several fishermen trolling Thumb point and Koso point. I saw two nice stripers brought in. On my way home I stopped and fished the bridge piers and caught several spotted bass on live shiners. Some really nice stripers 20 - 35 pounds are being caught by the guides. Most guides are fishing from Tick point on down to the dam. Gizzard shad are producing the larger fish with thread fin shad producing the bigger quantity. The fish seem to be on main lake points as well as back in creeks that have deep holes off of secondary points.

The attached photo is one of our guests from a few weeks back. He caught this nice largemouth vertical jigging at our dock. This has been a good year for catching bass, bluegills and sunfish at the dock.

The Norfork Lake level is holding steady at 553.3, only 1.3 feet above normal pole. The main lake is clear with the creeks and coves somewhat off color. The Norfork Lake surface water temperature is in the low to mid 80's, The Corps has been running both generators from 4 to 8 hours per day.

I plan to be fishing more often now, so until the next time happy fishing and see you on the lake.