Fish Catching Travel
After 3 days of fishing on Bull Shoals it was time for a day or two on Norfork. I actually lived on the shores of the lake for a number of years at one of the boat docks and most of my guiding was done on Norfork.
The plan was to get a late start, which we did, then to do a little night fishing for stripers. We started in the upper end of Bennet’s Bayou hitting a few brush piles without success, then heading up the creek. The water temp has risen to the mid 60’s and the spawn for both the bass and crappie is on.
Clyde boats another white bass.
We managed to pick up 3 crappies, and caught some small bass and a white or two on crappie jigs. I lost a big fish, probably a hybrid striper, but we just could not get on them. From there we headed down lake to change the scenery when the wind finally blew just a little. We stopped at a bank with a good chop and started buzzing a spinnerbait and probably caught about a dozen bass.
Clyde with a nice one.
Norfork is where I cut my teeth buzzing a spinnerbait. The reason that tactic is so successful is the water is really clear, and if you run it right below the surface making a wake it forces them to react, leading to some awesome strikes as they blast it halfway back to the boat.
Shoedog with a really nice bass. This was the bite of the trip, she absolutely smoked that high speed spinnerbait. A CPR fish.
After putting a few more in the boat we headed down lake to the Diamond Bay area to try to put a couple of more smallmouth in the boat. We caught about 6 of them in Bennet’s, and though we figured it would be good, we only caught a couple of more before it started to get dark, From there is was down to the damn to see if we could catch a striper.
Not the giants Norfork is known for, but lots of fun.
We hit 3 main lake points using Rogues and topwater, and Shoedog and Clyde both caught one. I only had 2 bites, and missed them both. They were real tentative, and they both missed several. After a long day we finally called it quits. We ended up keeping a nice mess, which will be our possession limit of bass, and a few other fish for family and friends.
A respectable mess.
I have not kept fish this regularly in quite a while, but when you come this far it is nice to take home some filets for a couple of fish fries. It is amazing how when folks know you are headed on a trip like this they want some fish. So here you go folks, you know who you are.
It is raining this morning, and we hope to get out for a little while before heading back to Fayetteville for the last evening at our parents, then home to Arkansas. It has been a good trip, and was great to see Clyde and his lovely wife Maria. It was great to stay at their house, it was big enough to hold the whole bunch of us, and we will surely do it again.
So lets see what happens next. Thanks for coming along with us, I appreciate you reading my stuff,’
Good Luck and Tight Lines
