Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch Spring Striper fishing on Norfork Lake

I thought I'd chronicle my spring fishing on Lake Norfork....I've been going for 6 years now, and this will be the most trips I've taken in a single spring to date. I just returned from weekend 2 of 5 scheduled yesterday.

Weekend 1 was a bust, with very few fish caught. The water was too cold and it was very windy.

Weekend 2 however was good. The night bite was on, with us limiting out on stripers 2 of the 3 nights we fished. Nothing very large with the biggest being 8 lb 5 oz, but good fishing nonetheless.

There was zero daytime bite for white bass or really much of anything. All the fish we caught were after dark.

Some pics:







Good story on this one - so we were fishing 2 in my boat, me on the trolling motor and a buddy on the stern. He hooked up so I cranked in really quick and went back to net the fish. For those that don't know the night bite for stripers needs to be done in as close to total darkness as possible. So once I net his fish he gets down low in the boat to unhook it and get it in the livewell via the use of a small head lamp.

So I throw a cast and immediately hook up, before he's even had a chance to unhook the fish. We had to net the 2nd fish while the 1st one was still in the net.

Nice catch dlowrance!

Neat story

Nice catch, I spend a month or so each yr @ White River and have thought of doing a Striper trip over on Norfork. Have you done any SMB fishing there? I will SMB fish some of the lakes and streams there in that area, but have yet to try the Norfork, I may do that this time. OOP's, we are talking Lake Norfork in Ark?

Tracy

Right, in Arkansas. I've caught some dandy SMB there over the years...we usually spend some portion of our days out on the water as well, targeting white bass and smallies. This last trip we didn't catch much during the day, but in previous years the daytime bite has been better than the night bite.

An update to this post...I went back this past weekend for another trip to Norfork....and suffice it to say it was a productive weekend from a fishing perspective.

Some pics:









Best fishing trip I've ever been on from a pure fishing perspective. The stripers were on a morning/evening bite rather than late at night. And most of them were caught on topwater.

Saturday morning we caught more fish than any other weekend I've been down there all in total. We culled (threw back) something around 30 stripers and hybrids, all of which were within the size limit to keep.

There was a 45 minute stretch Saturday morning where the 3 guys in my boat were constantly hooked up, at least 1, often 2 and occasionally all 3 of us at the same time.

Wow!!! And why would they not want to introduce them as a very popular sport fish in Michigan, even if it was a stocked-only fish just to increase the value of the fishery to those who pay a lot to come and fish the lakes in our state?

The angling experience in your boat sounded better than a great lakes charter for salmon?

It was the best fishing trip I've ever been on...and I've been on a lot. Charter trips from both coasts, guided trips in various lakes, and hundreds of lake/pond/river/etc excursions on my own and with friends.

This topped them all.

what are the daily catch and size limits?

Did you eat them or are they not good eating?

3 per person per day minimum 20".

They are good eating as long as you remove the blood vein....just like several in the Bass family, that's a pretty fishy tasting area.

Dlowrance, when I lived in Arkansas a few year, most weekends I'd catfish above the dam on Norfork at night, then trout fish below the dam all day...the fishing there is incredible, on both sides of the dam!

Tablerock lake has so many smallies, the fishermen call them a pest fish!

Rainman, I have fished Tablerock once or twice. My luck with the fish not so good, but there is a marina there with a lakeside pool and we used to dock there with this big, large cruiser type boat that belonged to a friend of a friend. OH, the stories I could tell.

Tracy