The lake was calling my name this morning so I was out with my bait in the water at about 4:AM. My green light was down, and the bait started coming to the light fairly quickly. It wasn’t long until the predators showed up and I was catching fish. I was using my normal in the dark bait, key lime Tater Baits Tater Shad. I got to land six 6-7 pound striped bass. There were quite a few stripers under the bait 30 to 40 feet down. The bigger stripers were 50 to 80 feet down, but they did not want to feed this morning. The stripers that I caught wanted the bait jiggled a little today instead of motionless or reeled up. Stripers seem to want the artificial bait doing something different every day. Keep trying different things with the Tater Shad until the fish start taking the bait. At about 5:30 I headed to a large cove/creek that I have not been to for a while. As I was entering the cove, I noticed some surface action close to shore on the main lake point. I started casting my Kastmaster and it was fish after fish for a 20 minute period. Large and smallmouth bass were active as were a few big white bass. Boy, the smallmouth sure can give a great fight. I continued heading to the location I wanted to check out. The creek channel swings in close to a bluff wall. I found some surface feeding bass and under them were a few big arcs 30 to 75 feet down. I was sitting in 70 feet of water. I finally got a really nice striper to take my white trash Tater Shad. As soon as he ate the bait he sat on the bottom and would not move. He just kept slowly working his way out to the middle of the cove until I finally got his head turned and had him coming up and back to me. It was a very strong fish. All of my fish this morning were released on site. A grandfather and grandson team, Steve & Quinn, are having fun. When they are fishing on their own, they love to bass fish and Quinn got to land a really nice smallie. This morning, they took Steve Borgman of Borgman Guide Service out for a little crappie fishing. They landed 20 really nice crappie with Quinn showing a couple of his big ones. They enjoyed it so much they have extended their stay another day to go out on another crappie trip.
The surface water temperature this morning was around 78 degrees. The lake level is 558.92 ft msl. The lake is rising slowly due to the recent rains and minimal power generation.
Hummingbird Hideaway Resort still has cabins available during June and July. Summer family vacation fun time is here. Give us a call with any questions or for reservations at 870-492-5113. If you have not been to Norfork Lake before you will absolutely fall in love with it!
Enjoy Norfork Lake in the Arkansas Ozark.
