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

Caught fishing with Bink yesterday.Image title

The lake level is 573 even and has dropped one inch in the last 24-hours with a little more generation. They have not generated since last night. It is dry all around here and there is no concerted effort to drop the area lakes. There is no flooding anywhere near here. One inch per day just does not get it. We have had beautiful weather but that could change with a chance of rain and thundershowers starting about thursday and continuing until about tuesday of next week. Nothing looks serious so far. The lake is in good condition for boating, fishing, diving and swimming and is very clear. Stripers, bass, catfish, crappie and bluegill are all coming in every day but not a lot. The early morning bite is still the best and is over about 9:Am. The surface water temperature is in the early 80's. Stripers are going deeper especially the larger ones that are left. Other fish are on the main lake points and also on the old shoreline in cover. If they keep the lakes high in the vegetation all summer I anticipate another stripers kill with the oxygen depletion in late august and september. If they continue to to allow the lakes to stay high for so long like they have for the last several years it is almost not worth it to stock stripers anymore. Hybrids can handle the stress better. Walleye are getting a little scarce but divers are seeing them on main lake points in 17-22 ft. of water. Big schools of bass fry are in the cover and are everywhere and that is good. Everything is good overall here except for launching and parking and it will be a mess on the 4th of July at the launches that are still in service. I will not be out there that weekend unless I have to. We are getting about a hundred calls a day for people wanting that weekend. I certainly do not have time to go fishing but want to very bad, especially diving.  I have to rely on the good fishermen and divers that give me a report daily and I have some good ones.  I will be out there when things slow down.