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. Image title

The lake level is 553.98 and has risen 3-1/2 inches in the last 24-hours with no generation for three days. They always quit generating when it rains. We have received a three day total of 1-1/2 inches. The creeks did not run but it did muddy up the shoreline a bit and the creeks stained up  with all of the boat traffic.It should clear again soon. The White River at Newport is 5.70 feet and very low.The top of the power pool changes to 554.75 on Tuesday so they will hold the lake up higher. It goes to 556.75 on May 15th and that is too high. I do not know why they do this. It used to stay at 552.75 before the worthless minimum flow that took away flood capacity for the put and take trout on the rivers. At 560 it starts to get too high. We have been fortunate to have below average rainfall this spring and not be flooded out like they usually do. They sure have not been letting out much water but it has been very steady for the spawn and I like that. Quick rises or drops are not good. The fishing pressure is increasing everyday with the amount of transplants increasing dramatically. I transplanted 30-years ago. The number of guides has doubled in the last few years and they are all in competion to show off how many fish they can kill. If they would make their clients clean their own fish they would not kill as many.  The surface water temperature is 63-64 degrees and should finally warm with the warmer ambient temperatures. The top-water bite is usually in full swing when the main lake hits 70. It usually starts about April 15th but has been slow this year with the continual cold fronts coming through. This is the last day of the Bass Cat Invitational and things should calm down for a while after being very busy for two weeks. There are 312 boats in this tournament with 861 fish being weighed-in yesterday with the largest bag of 14-94 pounds. Not bad for weight but several boats did not weigh-in anything. Lightning kept several at the dock for two hours at take-off and it started off the same today but is better now. There is a lot of grumbling. I am not a big fan of fishing tournaments but I still wish them well. If you spend $70-80,000 on a boat you have to use it no matter what. I bought my old Champion Boat for $2.500 ten years ago and it catches a lot of fish without a $2,500 live scope but I do have home field advantage and know where the brush piles are located because I put them in.  Blackburns is still the home of the $59/day one bedroom cabins, $79/day two bedrooms with three and four bedrooms priced accordingly. They all have either screened-in or big covered porches to get out of the weather and are individual with no duplexes. A free stall for your boat comes with the cabin rental of two days or more. Give Debbie a call at 870-492-5115 for a reservation and we will not charge you too much.