Riverwhy

Three bass today. Best one on a jerk bait. Two others on crank baits. Better than setting in the house.

Headed out from Cranfield Marina in the morning. I’m planning on A rigs, jerk bait, and spoons if I can find anything on the graph. I’ll be hitting bluff ends and then back in the creeks. I will post results after the trip but I’m realistic about difficult conditions right now.

Well, really beautiful 9 and even 10 inch bluegill can be caught off most main lake points. I’ve found largemouth in 20 to 30 feet of water on lizard type soft plastics. I find I have to work the baits really slow. Good luck.

Walleye certainly are up there and all the way to the forks of the river. Stripers are there during parts of the year: A few smallmouth but a bit tough for me in that area.

I’m headed down tomorrow with the grandkids. I sure can’t get into the skinny water with the pontoon but might try to find a fish or two. Thank you for the report Ham.

My buddy and I talked about the flat in party cove but we were worried the boat traffic might have the fish spooked. I appreciate the information .

Thanks Navery. I had heard the bite was good at Warsaw but stubbornness kept me from changing my location plans. I appreciate the response.

This not an exciting report but just a little overview of my trip Saturday night. I’m pretty thick skinned so poking fun at my lack of success is all good. We launched out of PB2 about 5:30 PM and went searching for shad with our electronics. We hit several coves but always seemed to find them a bit too deep for an effective capture by using a cast net. An hour of casting yielded one big shad. We kind of goofed around some points trying for a bonus white bass until setting up for the evening. The waves created by the flotilla coming out of party cove was somewhere between spectacular and scary. We regained our sanity and moved into a cove with a flat about 20 feet deep and anchored the boat. We tossed out night crawlers, shrimp, previously frozen cut shad, and BeeJay. By 10:00 PM we had failed to get bit. We pulled in the rods and headed to a small cove/big cut off the main lake with wood in the back and shelf rock on one side. We fished until 12:15 AM and I caught two channels running about 1.5 lbs each on the cut shad. One one the fresh shad and one on the previously frozen shad. I missed one bite and the shad. No other bites on any of the baits. We again packed up the rod and headed to the main lake bluffs and anchored up in about 22 feet of water off a shall point that extended out into a flat. We once again set out our ties with cut shad and night crawlers. I missed one good bite that saw the fish make a strong run but in my old age I have a bit of trouble seeing in the dark and failed to get the rod out of the holder in time to set the hook. No other bites and we headed in at 2:30 AM. I might mention that while we were out by the main lake bluffs there was a noticeable strong current headed towards the dam. Once back at the ramp our trailer lights went out as we were pulling the boat out. We ended up taking out the horn and radio fuses from the truck to replace the blown trailer fuse. (Yes, it blew a second fuse.). I finally got back home at 6:30 AM this morning. So in summary, pretty meager results but great company and a beautiful evening.

I’m strictly repeating second hand reports but it appears dropping live bait down to them over deep flats might be a solid option.

Although the lake is high there are not really any unusual hazards. There is not any floating debris. The only recent fishing I have done is with the grandkids using crickets for big bluegill.

There are a lot of Lake Norfork fishermen that are much better than me but your strategy would mirror my approach. Spooning suspended fish is also a very good option right now. I often find the big bluegills in about 20 feet of water in bluff cut ins. Bidwell area almost always gives you a bonus fish while you are dropping crawlers. Flatheads are a common fish in the same area as the blue gills.

Top lake for blue catfish in Missouri and you are there at a perfect time.

45 pound carp

Had a good trip to Norfork over the weekend. Caught a personal best 24 inch football fat largemouth Sunday evening and a 21.5 largemouth on Monday morning. The cold windy conditions were awful for people but obviously the bass felt differently.

Had a good trip to Norfork over the weekend. Caught a personal best 24 inch football fat largemouth Sunday evening and a 21.5 largemouth on Monday morning. The cold windy conditions were awful for people but obviously the bass felt differently.

Stripers should be in the middle to back of Big Creek during your trip. I would even expect a few on top early in the mornings. There are walleye there towards the back but as earlier replies indicated the real walleye action is as far north as you can get your boat in late march.

Power plant lakes offer some decent fishing when the temperature gets around 20 degrees. Not bad if the wind is mild.

Wow, I like the spirit of that ice buster!

Nice hybrid bass

I want to concur with the comment about soaking in salt water. I believe a two or even three day salt water soak combined with daily water changing can significantly reduce any remaining strong fishy flavor in white bass.

I agree Wrench but I did not want to take a chance of the women complaining.

Kids came home so I fried up those white bass tonight. Removed every speck of red meat, drenched them in flour then into milk and mayonnaise then into a bag of flour, panko and regular bread crumbs then into a heavy skillet with olive oil. Fried until crispy and served with homemade beer. Simply excellent.

I just follow the wind and throw lipless crank baits. Caught them everywhere from points to shallow coves in the shad balls. I'm strictly an amateur but I'm surprised the whites were that shallow with the water temperatures that cold. How cold does it need to get before they shut down?

Spent a few hours on the water Saturday. Water temperature was around 47 degrees and we had a pretty strong breeze from the west. Not much love on the Rock Crawler for black bass but the white bass were still active on the points. Anything shiny or white seemed to work. Big fish of the day was a 17.5 inch white. The average size of whites at LOZ is pretty darn good.