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.

Scuba Steve with his best ones last evening. Image title

The lake level is 553.76 and is up just a bit with one generator running about 5-hours. The White River at Newport is 12.81 feet and dropping rapidly. Surface water is 51-degrees and rising slowly with the warm weather. It is to cool down significantly tomorrow but not too bad. The fog has been bad the last few mornings and people are still trying to navigate with GPS and not only putting themselves in danger but other people that should not be out there either. They must really need that meat bad. Some are already taking advantage of the new law lowering the legal size limit of black bass to 13-inches and taking off the size limit on Kentucky bass and are now able to kill more of them. It is working already to lower the numbers of bass in the lake and I hope it does not go too far. I do not kill bass except for Kentuckies and very few of them and do not like this new law. I am out there everyday and the bass that I am catching are certainly not doing without food and there are many schools of shad out there with no fish on them.  I am seeing more bass with parasites and viruses than before. The crappie are certainly healthy and big and fat with broad shoulders and are my winter go to fish. I do get into a school of smaller ones every once in a while but more often they are in the 12-14 inch range with 15 and 16 inches not uncommon. My self-imposed limit is 5 and I also think 15-is too high and shoiuld be dropped to 10. Game and fish do not agree with me but I would like to have more fish in the lake than less and I believe it makes it easier for novice fishermen and children to at least catch something.  There is no evidence of stunting that I have seen. There are too many carp and gar in the lake for my liking. Crappie fishing is fair, bass fishing is fair, striper fishing is fair, white bass fishing is good and walleye and catfishing is slow. This could change and does almost daily. I like this warm weather and hope we can get through January with no more cold weather or ice. Blackburns is full right now but have an opening staring tomorrow so come on down. We will not charge you too much and your first boat stall is free. We will not have any price increases again this year and do not want to over-charge our regular customers and friends. Compare prices. If you are in town come check us out.