6/17/15 Fishing Report

[Ham]

A pretty nice little trip to Norfork. It was partly cloudy and completely HOT. Water temps were 82 increasing to 84 as the day wore on. The lake was fairly quiet early, but got stupid with pleasure boaters later. Anyone with any sense would have wrapped things up before 12 noon AND It would have been much better to be there at the first hint of daylight. I did not do either of those things. On water by 7 am and I came off the water about 315 PM. I hated to leave, but I had some MUST DO items.

I stumbled onto a surface bite early. It was a mix of Whites and LMB. I had a Super Spook Jr on, but it was hard for the Whites to hook up on it. I added a Zara Puppy to the mix and caught fish better on it. I aslo got one on a grub. Cloud cover extended that deal for me a little bit. I imagine that is happening at first light in the right places. I got lucky.

After that, it was a Ned fest. I tried really hard to make ANorfork fish like Bull Shoals Nope. Tube got whacked, but never by the right fish. I did throw a variety of surface lures in a lot of different places. NOPE.

I also broke out the UL stuff to try an catch a Red Ear. I got a LOT of Long Ear Sunfish and exactly ONE Pumpkinseed. First Pumpkinseed of the year.

All my bass after first light were smallies. I was fishing a mid lake area and that is NOT the part of the lake where I expect smallies to dominate. The Ned catches Errrrbody, but smallies seem really prone to biting it.

[Riverwhy]

Thank you for the report Ham. I love the mid lake area and catching those top water whites had to be fun. I'm headed down next week for three days but I think I will float and camp on the river instead of taking the bass boat out.

[*T*]

Good report. I miss fishing Norfork. Been maybe 6 or 7 years since. Enjoyed many trips in Feb. - April catching shallow stripers on artificials, with a mix of bass, walleye, big catfish & whites/hybrids.

How does the striper bite/population compare now vs. 5 to 10 years ago. Numbers? Big fish? Considering a few extended trips to get after some.

Thanks & good fishing.

[mojorig]

T, the striped bass fishing has been great, so far, this year. There are plenty of fish in the lake. They are starting to rebound after the fish kill of 2011.

[ZX190Jones]

With the high water the fish are everywhere! You can't look up in the brush and not see all kinds of fish! Going to be good for the coming years!

[Dan the fisherman]

I have to head up there. I fish beaver a lot and would love to fish Norfork. I'm going to make a real effort to make it over there for a couple of days this summer. I'm only a couple of hrs away I think.