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.

Caught fishing with Bink;s Guide Service yesterday. Big Norfork lake Crappie. Image title

The lake level is 552.63 and has dropped 2-inches in the last 24-hours with both generators running about 2/3rds the time. The White River at Newport is 19.59 and dropping steadily since the power company took over generation management at power pool of 553.75. The main lake is more clear than the creeks and the creeks are warming up rapidly with the warm weather. I found 49 degree water on the main lake in the morning and 55 in Blackburns Creek in the afternoon. The average daytime high is now 60. The cold fronts are getting replaced with just low pressure and we are entering the rainy season where we get about two rains a week and typically for the last several years the lake rises. We just hope not too much but nothing was done to drop the level this winter which would have given us more surge capacity. The 14-ft. rule goes into affect April 15th and the 12-ft. rule goes into affect May 8th depending on how full the area lakes are at that time but nobody seems to know how that %age is calculated. It keeps changing but the tendency is to keep everything higher than in several years before and blaming rainfall amounts. When questions are asked why, we just get "that is what the lakes are for is to hold water" so it looks like nothing will change. If we have a drought it will be ok and if we have above average rainfall it will not. How do you want your steak, raw or burned? It looks like we could have a medium in there someplace. Bass and crappie fishing is pretty good and striper fishing has slowed during the day but increasing at dark on stick baits. Some walleye are showing up on the bank in the evening. Soft plastics like flukes or bass assassins about 3-inches long and creature baits like crawdads and lizards on 1/8th ounce jig heads are all working back in the creeks for bass. Small spoons, grubs and jigs are all working for crappie. The top-water bite for temperate bass will start about April 1st and be in full swing about the 15th as will the crappie spawn. Maybe a little earlier if the warm weather keeps up but we are barely past the middle of March and anything can happen. Catch a few, keep a few and release a few. Do not be a hog and remember there are possession limits. The same people have been fishing Blackburns brush piles everyday. I hope they go away so some of my customers can use them but we have several for when this happens. Others should put in their own or use the government ones just for courtesy.