Norfork Lake Arkansas fishing reports

02/27/06:

Lake Report Provided by:blackburnsresort@centurytel.net

I got back from the Des Moines, Iowa sports show and am heading to Omaha, Nebraska next week. Midwestern people shure take their fishing seriously. They have had a mild winter but are still anxious to get their fishing season started. Once they find out that they do not have to go north for walleye and we have no mosquitos, selling them on a trip to Northern Arkansas in the spring is easy. They ask me about ice fishing and I tell them that you cannot walk on our water and the season never closes. Norfork is only 8-hrs away from both Des Moines and Omaha.

I came home to a sheet of ice under several inches of snow. It was in the high 60's for several days and the stuff went away quickly. I was surprised to find out that the water temperature was still 47 degrees and the lake was clearing. The level has been rising slowly from the melt-off. Some people from St. Louis stayed at Blackburns yesterday and had trouble catching fish but I caught nine large cappies and a 3-lb. walleye. They threw everything in their tacklebox at them and caught nothing. I used a small white twistertail tipped with a minnow and a Bink's Crappie spoon. I carry my tacklebox in my jacket pocket. The fish are roaming and are full of eggs. You must be persistent and consistent with the right bait. They might not bite for 2 hrs and then everything hits at once.

Crappie are on brush at 20-ft. and under docks. The three ways to catch them is still with a Bink's jigging spoon, a white twistertail tipped with a minnow and a crappie minnow on a slip float. I catch several everyday using all three of these methods. The depth ranges from 6 to 20 feet.

Walleye are on the gravelly banks on secondary points and are being caught with jerkbaits and also on brush off the same points. They are moving to the banks at night to spawn and will continue to do so for about a month. The one I caught yesterday while fishing for crappie was on brush at 20 ft.

Bass are on bluff banks right at the drop-off at 30-40 ft. Use a mann's flattailed green grub or a jigging spoon. Bass fishing is fair to good. Look for stained water.

Stripers will be moving to the sandy flats at night to simulate spawning around March 15th. Slow-rolling a stickbait will be the lure of choice then. Now the only way I know how to get them is with a jigging spoon. A few nice fish are being taken.