The lake level is 565.63 and has dropped 3-1/3 inches in the last 24-hours with generation about 2/3rds the time. The lake surface water temperature has also dropped with the cooler weather and is 85 degrees. It is to get hot again Monday. The walnut trees are starting to drop a few leaves and the days are getting shorter. You have to get out there at about 5:45 AM for the early morning bite. Kentucky bass is the best bite now followed by walleye and bluegill. Catfishing is not as good as it usually is for this time of year and I do not know why but some are being caught. It is hard to run limb lines now with the lake dropping everyday. I like to keep the live bait just under water and they have to be moved every other day. Throw lines and jugs are the best way now. Drop shot the jugs so when the weight touches bottom you are still fishing. Catfish do not like dropping water and full moon. When you have both of these it is just best to fish for something else. Flatheads will bite nothing but live bait and they are my favorite. Bluecats and channels will bite about anything. Some people are still fishing deep and killing stripers. If they fish here regularly they will be sorry but that is all many know how to fish. A 30# one used to be pretty big but now a they brag on 10-15# and there are few of them left. Most are in the 5-8# range. I wish they would drop the limit to two until they come back if they ever do. The stockings are back to normal but it depends on the kill late this month and next. I hope we do not have one but do not know what the oxygen levels are as I have no dissolved oxygen meter. The old shoreline has been flooded so many times for so long in recent years that most of the vegetaion and buckbrush is already dead and may not eat up all of the oxygen to decompose as if it was alive. We will see if people start seeing floaters later. I suspect there are many more that sink than float. It is sad when this happens. Over fishing does not help any either. Hybrids are still doing well though and I wish more of them were stocked. White bass fishing is getting better and needed to. They reproduce on their own. Norfork Lake has a high crappie, bass and walleye population and the fishing outlook for the fall looks very good. If the amount of fry in the brush is any indication the future looks good also. The water starts to get cool in the high 20's feet deep and gets cold at about 32-ft. where it is in the low 60's. The thermcline is a little gradual with a mud line just before and into it where several fish are located. Let you spoon touch the bottom at thirty feet and reel up a couple of turns as you get a little deeps for suspending fish. Bass are still coming to the old shoreline in the evening to feed on the bait fish in the cover. Big ones too. I have seen and caught more big bass this year than any year that I can remember.
