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

Adam and Isiah McManus with some nice ones. Nice Family.Image title

Image title

The lake level is 558.62 and has risen 6-inches in the last 24-hours. They run one generator for several hours, two for a couple and then shut them both off all night. It started to come up quickly when they quit. The White River at Newport is 21.54 feet. All of the area Lakes are rising except Table Rock which is running full blast with several spillway gates open hogging all of the water discharge and filling Bull Shoals. That leaves step-child Norfork to hold water. The surface water temperature was 61 degrees yesterday on the main lake and just under that in the creeks. It will come up past the 62-degree number, which is the one we watch for, to get the bass spawn in full swing. I saw several bass on beds yesterday so I expect the top-water bite to improve at the same time for temperate bass with the warm overnight lows. Smallmouth Bass are making nests and the males are on the bank and can be caught with a creature bait on a jig head or a gitzet. Some nice ones are being caught. I do not keep any bass but especially smallmouth and release any caught quickly before the bluegill can eat the eggs. Many fish are in the wind blown creeks on the bank now. Some largemouth have spawned but not a lot. The crappie are all mixed up and some have spawned, some are spawning and some are staging. I am still finding very large crappie full of eggs and some spawned out. It would be nice to have some stable water levels at this time at least until the bass and crappie spawn were over. Walleye are all over the place but I am catching them on main lake points in about 14-16 feet of water in front of the brush. I do not fish for stripers much anymore until they make a comeback but I am not seeing many brought in. Samllmouth bass and crappie are the best bite now. The creeks are too stained for much sight fishing for largemouth and that does not bother me at all. I am getting less and less in favor of large fishing tournaments especially in the middle of spawn. They release all of the fish but it is too late for them to get back on the nests and most of them are too far away anyway. Catfishing is picking up on throw lines baited with live shiners and bluegill. Blackburns still has cabins for $59/day and your first boat stall is free. Come on down we will not charge you too much. We especially welcome Veterans and Police.  Check out our boat rentals.