Norfork Lake Condition and Fishing Report by Scuba Steve from Blackburns Resort and Boat Rental (click here for comment)

All of these were caught yesterday.Image titleImage titleImage title

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The lake level is 555.65 and has dropped 1-1/2 inches in the last 24-hours with less than one generator running. The White River level at Newport is just above 11-feet and they are doing a great job of holding the area lakes up as high as they can for as long as they can so there is little excess capacity for the spring rains. It has not rained in over a week. At least the level is perfect for fishing now that most of the tourists are gone. Sounds like a plan to me. The surface temperature was about 66 degrees yesterday but should start dropping slowly with the cool nights. The weather looks pretty good for the next week with highs near 60 and lows in the 30's which is normal. There is no particular pattern to the fishing except that many fish are roaming and not many are schooling. You can find two or three good fish on one brush pile with no big schools but fish are on most of them. I am catching fish in brush in 16-feet of water and also in 35-ft. of water. Bass, crappie, walleye and bluegill are all on the same brush with bluegill being mostly shallower. Some bass are on the bank early and late.  Yesterday the slip float and minnow were the best bait if you could find brush out of the wind but jigs and spoons were also working but not as well. Everything was biting on the larger minnows. The big crappie were in 35-ft. of water on brush about 12-15 ft. down and good ones too. Blackburns had several fishermen out yesterday and all caught fish. The striper fishermen are having a hard time and are catching no large fish and finding no large schools. They are finding a few schools of White Bass in the Red Bank area as reported a week ago but they are also few and not very big. They report doing a lot of looking and not much finding and are starting to think they are just not there. This is usually one of the best months for temperate bass fishing before they get lethargic and slow way down in activity in December. Maybe some big ones will start showing up. I hope so as we have a lot of customes who like to fish for them. I usually go with Binks a few times a year striper fishing and really enjoy it. If anybody can find them he can. They are not in their usual places. I am concerned about the size and numbers and people killing smaller and smaller ones. We are paying for the people bringing in coolers the size of caskets full of big dead stripers. They are not doing it anymore. Maybe they will again. Blackburns still has cabins for $59/day and your first boat stall is free. Come on down. We will not charge you too much. We are open all year and have live bait all year on site.