Norfork Lake fishing report: Aug. 15, 2018

The Norfork Lake striper bite was very good last week. We fished every day and had limits each day up to Sunday, when the wind was strong and from the east and the schools we have been seeing did not show up. Between my son and I, we did catch 11 stripers, but that’s the lowest number caught this past week.

Fishing is awesome right now. My son and I are catching limits both morning and evening. Everybody has been catching stripers using live and artificial, trolling and spooning. The best bite is using live bait. If you can, get out before light, say 5 a.m., and hit points with sloping flats around 35 to 40 feet like Koso, Thumb, Point 1 and Dam Cove. You should catch your limit of hybrids and stripers before daylight or shortly thereafter.

Once the sun comes up, the fish move to deeper water but are still catchable. We are catching stripers from 70 to 130 feet. The striper schools are roaming, and when you hit them, you will have three or four rods down. There is nothing like having seven rods out and four of the seven are on the floor with fish and others have no bait on them! 

The stripers continue to move toward the dam. Do not be afraid to fish the channel from the dam north. You will find roaming fish out there ready to take your bait. 

The white bass and small largemouths are feeding all over the lake. The problem is they are only around 10 inches long and they stay up, feeding, for only a few seconds then move another 50 yards. It’s very hard to stay on them. Your best bet is to find a large cove where they are feeding and watch how they are moving; they will move in a big circle. After the first two feeds, you should be able to figure out their direction and be in position to catch them.