I made it out on Norfork Lake this morning. I was having a restless night sleeping so I got up and headed out very early this morning. I fished two different areas in the dark casting out 3.5-inch swimbaits, one in white and another in sexy shad color pattern. At the first area I landed one keeper walleye, a couple of whites and a couple of big crappie. The crappie totally inhaled the swimbait. The bite was slow, so I headed to my second area, and it was even slower. I managed to land one keeper walleye by casting out my 1/2-ounce chrome Kastmaster with a white feather trailer. At about 5:30 I headed to a third area with hopes of finding a few striped bass. At twilight I found a few big arcs on the side of a drop off in a creek. The fish were coming through 40 to 70 feet down and I was sitting in 80 feet of water. I was using a Tater Baits Tater Shad in various colors, but found that the key lime color was more effective than the others. I was dropping the bait and saw a fish streak up from 70 feet to make a bee line straight for the bait. It hammered it and the fight was on. They kept biting but very lightly and I kept missing them. I finally hooked into another one and halfway through the battle it came unhooked. Around 7:30 the fish disappeared so I continued looking at other areas. I headed into a cove that the wind had been blowing into. I started trolling 2 #7 Berkley Flicker Minnows. I never did mark much, but on one pea gravel point one rod took off. It was another keeper walleye. During the battle I looked at my other rod and it was doubled over. A nice smallmouth bass gave me a great fight. All my fish were released on site or at our dock, except one walleye for supper this evening. John found a cove that was stacked with bait and aggressive fish. He was trolling either the Flicker Minnows or a small swimbait. He caught many walleye, but all but one were short. His prize was a big Hybrid Bass and several crappie, one 15.25 inches long. He had fun and has plans to head to the same area in the morning. The lake surface temp is on the rise and was 61 – 63 degrees. The lake level is being maintained close to normal seasonal pool and sits at 553.69 ft. msl.
Happy fishing all and enjoy fishing Norfork Lake in the Arkansas Ozarks!
