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.

Carl Scott from Texas caught a nice one yesterday afternoon on a shadowy bank on a spinner bait. He is one good fisherman and is alway welcome here at Blackburns. Image title

The lake level is 553.17 and has dropped 1/2 inch in the last 24-hours with about 5-hours of running 3/4 of a generator. The White River at Newport is 2.91 feet and continues to be very low with not much water being let out anywhere. The wade fishermen on the rivers are liking it. The surface water temperature was 72+ degrees yesterday afternoon and the water continues to clear from the surface down. The best visibility is off river channel steep banks but it always is and everything is the same from about 7-ft. down to 35-ft. but that is as deep as I went yesterday. Crappie are on almost all main lake point brush but not all. Some of my largest brush piles are not holding very many fish but it is not stopping people from camping on them. It would be nice if other folks would put in brush in the winter. I only fish the ones that we put in and leave the public ones for the tourists and locals.  The Game and Fish did update the very old ones about three years ago and really helped the fishing but they are aging already. They do not need replaced but just refreshed. Fish really like new cedar trees and are on them immediately after they are put in. Other kinds of trees and the artificial pvc ones do not work nearly as well especially for walleye.  Bass like any kind of structure with Kentucky Bass really liking new brush. It is best to put them where fish already like to hang out and enhance that rather to try and lure them to a new place. The old reliable places hold fish year after year with new brush added and really help the fishing and give the bait fish, crappie, bass and walleye fry a place to hide increasing their chance of survival. There are a lot of baitfish back in the creeks in the evening but not very many big fish with them. Shad are everywhere in the open water from 25-40 ft. suspended but most are balled up indicating not any big fish on them. The fish coming up are mostly small bass. It has been very windy so continue to fish the windblown main lake banks for about everything. Crappie are on or near brush anywhere from 14-30 feet with the larger ones the deepest. The smaller ones are schooled and very spooky. Blackburns is the home of the $59/day 1-bedroom and $77/day two bedroom cabins and they come with a free boat stall. We will not charge you too much.