Norfork Lake Arkansas near Mountain Home in the Ozarks Mountains Region fishing report and lake condition by Scuba Steve from Blackburns Resort and Boat Rental.

The lake level is 552 even and is the same as this time yesterday with just a couple of hours generation. The White River at Newport is 8-feet and they are holding the area lakes at a high level so far all winter like they want a spring flood. We are at a good level now though. The lake surface water had moved up a bit to 45 degrees yesterday in the sunshine and the water clarity is about the same. You can see your lure down about 5-6 feet. It may have something more to do with the sunshine than the water getting clearer. I expected a few more fair weather fishermen out there but only saw a couple of other boats. Except for the warmer water not much had changed from the day before with the bass continuing to bite pretty well and a few crappie. No picture fish but I caught several keepers. All fish were released on site. I do not have a selfie stick or a camera on a phone anyway. My photographer was not available. I talked to one striper fisherman and he said fishing was not the best but he caught one about 6-lbs and a hybrid trolling live bait between the bridges. Some bass are with the hybrids on shad. I am fishing brush in the afternoon and then moving to the steeper banks just before sunset. Bass and bigger crappie are near the bank and biting just before dark. More largemouth are showing up with the Kentuckies. The days are getting longer and the average highs are increasing and are now 49 degrees. It looks like no shad kill this year and I am glad. A kill really helps the immediate fishing but it is good to have a lot of food for the fish and keeps the pressure off the gamefish fry after the spawn. It is 50-degrees and not noon yet so it is a good day to get some outside work done before fishing time. The wind is to pick up but if it stays from the south I can get out of it and still fish good places. The weather is great and should continue that way with a couple of weak cold fronts coming through but not bad. I should be able to put in a couple more brush piles this week. The crappie eggs are getting bigger but I have not cleaned any other fish. The snow is gone from my boat so I can get back to using it again but I have plenty of them. Fishing overall is just fair but I am catching keepers everyday and am not going very far to find them. The snow is stubborn and is going away fast now but not gone. It did not freeze last night. Bryan Deardoff is coming in now and I will see what he caught.