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

Scuba Steve with a few of yesterday's catch on the spoon.Image title

The lake level is 556.89 and has dropped 2-3/4 inches in the last 24-hours with generation about 2/3rds the time. The lake surface water temperature is between 86 and 87 degrees and is cloudy with all of the holiday boat traffic. I thought the lake boat traffic would clear out last evening with most people leaving but I was wrong. It was not heavy but enought that it was not pleasant trying to fish main lake points with all of the waves. I moved into a main lake cut out of the traffic and found some nice fish. I caught three big crappie, three keeper Kentucky Bass and a walleye in about an hour and came in. The crappie were in 30-32 feet of water on top of brush hitting the spoon on the drop and the bass and walleye were a little shallower in 26-ft. brush on the bottom. I was using the 1/4 ounce Bink's Spoon white with red head and a black dot on 6-lb. clear line. Boat traffic is less now this morning with mostly fishing boats and I will give it another try later this afternoon when I get my work done. Fishing is really pretty good for the time of year, water temperature and amount of bait fish out there. More and more bass are coming up in the creeks every evening. I released all fish under the dock and the school is getting big. They are going through a lot of feed but are getting help from the turtles. The children really have a lot of fun catching the fish. I will try casting the crappie jig today again but have not had very good luck with it yet but will when the water cools and the fish get shallower. The Kentucky bass bite is excellent now and they are big and fat and hitting the spoon in the brush.