It was a pretty good early morning of fishing for me and others. I have been fishing the night shift as I have needed to be back at the resort no later than 7:30AM. So, I have been starting to fish at 3AM. Sleep is overrated. LOL You have heard it before, if you find the bait you will find the fish especially if the bait is spawning. That was the case today. I found large schools of bait that attached their eggs to my boat and trolling motor. Little bumps all over it. The bait was 20 feet thick from surface to 20 feet down. The stripers were 10 to 25 feet down. I dropped a key lime Tater Baits Tater Shad through the bait very slowly and the fish picked it up on the fall. What a blast. I also was casting out my 3.5 inch swimbait through the bait and got to land this nice 17 pound striped bass. It was a heavy hard fighting fish. I landed 4 other stripers with many white bass and a nice 20 inch walleye. John was fishing another part of the lake and had great success. He was casting out a tater shad, letting it sink, then giving it a twitch and the fish would hammer it. Other Hummingbird Hideaway Resort guests had guided trips today with Norfork Bayou Fishing and Rising Water Guide Service. Both had success on the topwater bite in different parts of the lake and had a lot of fun.
The surface water temperature was a little over 67 degrees in the main lake. The lake level is on a slow rise due to all the rain that our water shed received from up in Missouri. The lake level currently sits at 555.84 ft msl.
Enjoy Norfork Lake in the Arkansas Ozarks!
