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

Caught fishing with Bink's Guide Service yesterday and several bass also. The jerk bait is working now. Image title

The lake level is 557.98 and has risen about a foot in the last 24-hours. They closed the spillway gates and cut back to one generator just a few hours a day and switched all of the generation and spillway gates to protect Branson and keep that lake at power pool. Just when you give them a compliment thay never cease to disappoint and prove their incompetence. They have had all winter to drop the lake and now the spring rains are here. This is a surprise only to them. I guess we are back to hold and hope.  What a motto. The lake is at a good level but more rain is scheduled for the next several days. So far it has been a typical March. The lake surface temperature is 52 degrees but should rise with the warmer temperature forecasted starting now but the lows are still in the 30's later this week. The walleye and white bass are spawning and are close to the bank in about 20-feet of water and are hitting jerk baits. Trollers are catching bass and small stripers (in the 6-12 lb. range). The pre-spawn bass are big and I wish people would not kill them. Pictures of  dock floors full of small dead stripers and bass are not impressive. Bass are not stocked and are the go to fish on the lake when others do not bite. I caught some very large crappie and a few nice bass yesterday and released them all under Blackburns Dock. This looks like a good spring for fishing and Blackburns has the best prices on both cabins and boat rentals on the lake.  Your first boat stall is free. We have been open all winter and we are ready for you. This is a perfect place for social distancing and Baxter County has had no cases yet. Come on down.