Norfork Lake fishing and lake conditions by Scuba Steve from Blackburns Resort and Boat rental (click here for comments)

Image title

The lake level is 560.77 and has dropped just a bit since yesterday. At least they started generating again after two days of nothing and letting the lake rise as high as they can. Saturday I went crappie fishing and caught nothing so switched to the grub and went for bass. I caught three with one being a good one near the bank shallow near deep water.  Yesterday I went fishing with Bink's Guide service. We went open water fishing and looked for fish in different areas before we found them. They had moved back to where they were for two months before they left. They were in in 70 feet of water any where from on the bottom to 30-feet down.  When we found them in 30-feet they bit but the ones on the bottom would not. 50 ft. and up they were feeding and below that not.  The shallower the better. We found huge schools of bait fish with temperate bass with them. We kept a few medium sized white bass for a neighbor that just got out of the hospital and released the rest. I was still disappointed in the size of the stripers but happy to see the white bass population on the increase. The white 1/2 ounce spoon with red throat was the best. We went into big creek and the water was brown, which is usually a good color for fishing but caught nothing. Found lots of bait fish with nothing on them.  Tried good brush piles and still nothing.  I am catching very few fish on brush. Open water fishing is the best and bass fishing on the bank is second. Not much else. I called people wanting to come fish to stay home for a while until things pick up. One came anyway and is experiencing tough fishing. He usually always catches fish. This is not unusual for late February and early March but I almost always catch big crappie at this time but not now. It should get better by the full moon in March which is the 9th for the night bite for spawning stripers and walleye fishing usually picks up by then too. The old days when there was a walleye run up the river in late February to spawn has been greatly diminished for some reason. The white bass that we caught had no or very little eggs but were very healthy. The surface temperature was 47 and the water color was stained green south of the bridges to the dam but brown in the major creeks. I caught bass in brown water but nothing else. Dodge the cold fronts and the first day after high pressure moves in. The weather was very nice with light winds that picked up a little about 3:Pm and a high of 57.  Good for spooning.