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

Caught on a live bluegill.Image title

Some nice crappie caught yesterday.Image titleImage title

The lake level is 554.33 and has dropped 2-inches in the last 24-hours with one generator running at full speed. They are holding the White River at Newport at below 12-feet. The surface water temperature is 61 degrees and the lake is not quite as clear as it was but is still fine for fishing. Crappie, bluegill and bass continue to be the best bite with a few walleye and catfish coming in. The temperate bass fishing continues to be slow. People are fishing hard for them but are coming up short both in number and size. The fish are small and hard to find. The ones caught yesterday came from just north of Cranfield Island and in front of houses on Mallard point. I am glad to see some white bass showing up but they are small. The White Bass are starting to come back after the fish kill on them a couple of years ago.  Bink caught a nice striper but reports there are not nearly as many as before. Especially the big ones. People are still taking pictures of dock floors of small dead hybrids and stripers that barely measure and are nothing to be proud of.  They will quit only when they are all gone and that will be soon since none were stocked by the game and fish this year and they do not reproduce in fresh water. The limit needs to be dropped to two fish until the numbers and size improve. That is not the case for the other fish in Norfork which are high in numbers and are very healthy. November fishing is about normal otherwise with no particular pattern except that they turn on and off with the cold fronts. A few schooling fish are coming up just at dusk but are mostly bass and are back in the creeks. Fish are roaming and not staying put very long with a lot of bait fish out there. Fishing for bass, crappie and bluegill on brush and walleye on the side of brush is your best bet with spoons,  with some fish right on the bank with grubs and crank baits.  Work the wind blown banks and there has been a lot of that but there always is in November. We have had no rain for over a week and the wind has dried things out a lot. Fishing conditions overall are just fair. Many fishermen have turned into deer hunters and the boat traffic is low. It is to cool some soon and drop down to about normal ambient temperatures. The warm temperatures were nice. Blackburns is open all year and your first boat stall is free. Several are not.