MOUNTAIN HOME — There is far more activity below the surface than above on a typical winter day at Norfork Lake. The depths are teeming with schools of hefty stripers that are neither difficult to find nor catch. Year-round guide Tom Reynolds believes many anglers hibernate because they simply aren’t aware of the potential of cold-weather fishing. “You don’t have to get out early or stay late,” he said. “Fish any time of the day in the winter and you’ll likely find some stripers that are feeding.” In fact, Reynolds says, novice anglers willing to brave the elements and mimic his simplistic approach are more likely to succeed December through February than any other time of year. The first step is to go to the mouth of a good-size tributary creek. The second is to search water 50-80 feet deep for schools of shad, using a sonar unit. Typically, the shad will be 36-44 feet deep and the stripers will be nearby. Reynolds proved his prowess on a mid-December day when temperatures never broke out of the 30 s. The outing began at 9 a. m. and by noon we had landed a half-dozen stripers. It took the veteran guide about 30 minutes to find the shad and accompanying stripers. They were in 40-45 feet of water, close to the bottom and along a ledge that dropped to 52 feet. We caught fish for several hours in that one spot, in part because it was too doggone cold to go elsewhere.

ARTIFICIALS OR LIVE BAIT ? Some winter fishermen on Norfork favor metal jigging spoons, lowering them down to the fish, then jerking and dropping them until a fish is fooled by the flash. But Reynolds prefers drifting big shiners, which he gets from Highway 101 Bait Shop and Marina, where a “whole bucketful” can be had for $ 20. “In the winter, they’ll last a week,” he said. “And in the winter, they are just as good as shad — better actually, because you may catch two or three fish before the shiner is killed.  I can get shad in the winter by coming down to one of these boat docks and dropping a net down into deep water around a light. But why do that when [stripers ] like the shiners just as well and they are so hardy ?” In spring, summer and fall, shiners will not catch stripers as well as live shad, the veteran guide said. Reynolds also suggests that those visiting Highway 101 Bait Shop check with owner Tim Parkin for the latest reports on striper action.

PROPER TACKLE CRITICAL Reynolds typically positions his bait about 40 feet deep, maneuvering his boat by trolling motor and watching the sonar unit beside him. He favors 10-foot, light-action rods equipped with open-faced reels filled with Cajun Red monofilament line in strengths of 8-10 pounds. Below a swivel, he has 8 feet of clear, 14-pound leader and a 2 / 0 circle hook, which he swears by. When fishing directly below the boat, he puts a 2-ounce sliding sinker above the swivel. Once a shiner is added to the hook, Reynolds sets the rod in a rod holder and keeps an eye on it. When a striper takes the bait, the tip of the long, light rod actually dips into the water and all that’s left to do is lift the rod from the holder and begin the battle. The circle hook has already penetrated, eliminating the need for a strong hookset. Reynolds said stripers in clear water sometimes are wary of a boat immediately overhead, in which case he uses small, biodegradable balloons to take the bait out from the boat. Planer boards, popular in Northern states among walleye anglers, also will work. With a balloon, Reynolds uses only a half ounce of weight above his swivel. He counts out 40 feet of line, makes a 12-inch loop in the line, then inflates the balloon to a size just smaller than a tennis ball and ties the stem of the balloon around the loop. The balloon doesn’t act as a bobber, but rather suspends the bait so it can drift 30-40 yards from the boat.  When a striper takes the bait, the line is pulled through the stem of the balloon and the balloon floats free.

ABOUT STRIPERS Norfork Lake is loaded with stripers, most weighing 6-15 pounds. Those aren’t lunkers, but they provide quite a tussle on light tackle. And Reynolds’ clients commonly hook and land fish of 20-30 pounds. Stripers above 30 pounds are rare on Norfork, but a few are taken every year. A couple of years ago, a fish of better than 40 pounds and measuring 55 inches was caught. The lake also holds tons of big white bass, and a couple of fellows with a bucketful of shiners had caught a bunch of them a day or so before my trip with Reynolds. Most of those exceeded 3 pounds. A personal best from Norfork was a 14-pound hybrid a couple of years ago caught in February. Hybrids occasionally mix with the stripers and are prolific fighters. A striped bass is a long way from what old-time Ozark anglers think of as a fish. They aren’t native, but an ocean species which run up into freshwater rivers to spawn. When Santee-Cooper Reservoir was created in South Carolina in 1941, the gates were closed on thousands of stripers that were spawning in its tributaries. Biologists didn’t figure much would come of it, but the stripers thrived. Anglers started catching a few, and with some natural reproduction, striper fishing became a Southeastern craze. States to the west began to obtain fingerlings, and the striper became adapted to Southern and Midwestern reservoirs as the trophy fish everyone wanted to catch. Occasionally, stripers are able to spawn in those reservoirs, but to do so they must have many miles of flowing river for the eggs to roll along. Biologists have said they think successful spawns have occurred in the North Fork River above Norfork Lake in years when the river flooded just at the right time in spring. Reynolds said stripers in Norfork are about 20 inches long by age 2, making the lake’s 20-inch minimum length limit just right. Mature Norfork stripers are 22-24 inches.

WHERE TO GO Reynolds was coming to Norfork from his home in Indiana as often as possible in the early 1980 s to fish for stripers. He learned to find and catch them on his own and recalls bringing some in after a few hours of fishing and talking to others who had fished all day without success. So he’d take them out and show them how. He moved to Norfork shortly afterward and began to guide professionally, and he’s still teaching people to catch stripers.  Reynolds says the best places to look for stripers in winter on Norfork Lake are from Bidwell Point to Bennett’s Bayou, Panther Bay, Float Creek, Cranfield Bay, Big Creek and Brushy Creek.  In winter, the fish are more consistent in their behavior than any other season. There are usually mild days in a north Arkansas winter, and the fishermen are sure to react by heading to the lake. But the stripers won’t notice 40 feet below the surface, where the water temperature is about 52 degrees all winter long. They’ll just keep eating, fishermen or not.

Interested persons can contact Tom Reynolds at (870 ) 491-5582 or (877 ) 246-4896 or the Highway 101 Bait Shop at (870 ) 467-5223.

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