Norfork Lake fishing and lake conditions by Scuba Steve from Blackburns Resort and Boat rental (click here for comments)

It is cold today with a high near 40. The lake level is 546.41 and is stable. They generated heavily from 8-11 this morning and then quit. The surface temperature is still hanging around 45 in the deep water and cooler in the creeks.  It was 60+ when I went out yesterday afternoon and the wind was calm and the lake was too. I fished for two hours and never left the same spot. I was spooning a main lake brushpile near Blackburns in 25-ft. of water on a main lake point. A 3 or 4 pound bass immediately hit the spoon on the first drop and he fell off at the boat but I was able to net him. My net was not tangled in anything like it usually is. I then went about 30 minutes with no bites and then the crappie started biting. They were showing up on the graph by the dozens and good ones too. They bit for about 10 minutes and I got 6 good ones. Unlike the day before, I caught everything on the 1/8th ounce Bink's spoon and nothing on the slip float. All of the fish were caught at or near the bottom with none biting above the brush. They were there though. I talked to some live bait fishermen and they said the red meat fish were scarce. I bet Tom Stanton and Tom Kelly could catch some. I will stick to the crappie and bass for now and add catfish and walleye shortly. For such a beautiful day I never saw very many boats. No problem there. I have a couple of pictures but have not downloaded them yet. Nothing giant but some good ones. Tom Kelly's trophy pond is teeming with big fish. I put a mixture of nine bass and crappie in there yesterday.