Norfork Lake Arkansas near Mountain Home in the Ozarks Mountains Region Fishing Report and lake Condition by Scuba Steve from Blackburns Resort and Boat Rental.

The lake level is 575.03 and has dropped 2-3/4 inches in the last 24-hours with both generators running continuously. The White River at Newport is19.57 feet and dropping. They could be letting out more if they wanted to. The surface water temperature is 88-degrees and the visibility is bad with all of the holiday boat traffic churning things up. It will clear up again in a few days with the rocky steep banks clearing first. The shoreline near clay or dirt banks is muddy. Fisherman that are out early and beating the boaters and jet skis are catching some nice fish before the chaos begins. Spoons are catching stripers near the bottom in 30+ feet of water and Bass, Walleye and White bass are at or near the thermocline at 17-21-feet. There are some reports that the summer thermocline is at 40-50 feet and that is not accurate. It rarely goes lower than 30-32 feet. What they are seeing on their graphs is the cold water line where there is little or no sunshine penetration that is always there and it is more dense and shows up on the gaph. When the summer thermocline goes away in late September or early October is when the lake turns over the same people will say the thermocline has dropped to 50-feet. It is technically a thermocline there bacause the water is cold but not the one that forms in late May or early June at about 16-feet and then is driven down by the warm sunshine to about 30-feet. A lot of fish hang out at the thermocline as it usually has the most oxygen. Scuba Steve is concerned about the long periods of high water that kills the green vegetation in the water and creates a large Biological Oxygen Demand and depletes the lake of oxygen and has been rough on the larger Stripers in the past. I sincerely hope there is not another Striper kill this August. They were just makeing a good comeback from the last one. Maybe it will not happen but there has been an increase in green vegetation on the old shoreline lately.  Things will calm down this afternoon and will get back to a semblance of normalcy until they are unleased again on labor Day. If you are in the Mountain Home area this weekend  stop by Blackburns Resort and Boat Rental on your way home and check us out. We are family owned and family operated and are not sold, for sale or closing. Give Debbie a call at 870-492-5115 for a reservation. It is nice here and the price is right. Compare prices. We will not charge you too much and especially welcome Veterans and Police.