Norris Lake 12-16 Report

[Cletus]

Well, decided since I fly out of town tomorrow for the week (going to Lynchburg, VA... no ice there from what I understand), I would get on a local lake for a couple hours.

I have never fished this lake before, but always seen a handful of houses out there through-out the winter. I decided to give it a shot. From my understanding, the lake has decent Northern, Sunnies and Crappies. So that is what I set up for. I set up a tip-up in about 8 FOW and dropped a small sucker. I had talked to someone earlier in the day who said the Northern were just not biting. So, a small presentation is what I gave them. Unfortunately, no takers on the tip-up today.

In the house, I used my st croix legend with a genz work tipped with a waxie. As soon as I dropped it in the water... the Marcum lit up like a christmas tree. And that right there explains about the whole couple of hours. I pulled in about 50 or so sunnies... all but 1 were what I would consider "bait". Like I said... I did manage 1 that wasn't too bad... but considering the size of the fish I was pulling, I figured it would take days to put together a meal. So back in the hole it went.

I did manage to pull in one token Large-mouth carp (bass). Not too bad, measured about 12 inces or so. I am not much into eating rough fish, so back down the hole she went. For the 3 hours or so I was there, lots of action... but the excitment wears off quickly when you are just unhooking bait.

Ice Conditions: improving but still spotty. ice was anywhere between 4 inches solid with 5 inches slush ice to 8 inches of SOLID ice where there is no snow-pack.

Good Fishing!

[john.wells]

A 12 inch bass is pretty good table fare, especially this time of year.

[Shack]

Cletus,

About par for the course on that lake. In summer time, you can look down (in sun light) and see clouds and clouds of little sunnies. I have fished this lake threw out the last 20 years (ice and summer from shore and boat) and have not seen any crappies out of their for 5-6 years now.

Work the lake and find the big fish. The bass and hammer handles are in their, you just have to find them.

Good lake to take the kids to.

[skunked_again]

I am sure this is a fluke after hearing from you guys, and talking to my friends who have fished the lake, but I did catch a few nice 12 to 13 inch crappies on there last year. I also caught a bunch of bait (4 inch sunnies) and have caught bass and small northerns in the summer. Better off going somewhere else if you ask me.

[john.wells]

Alot of lakes that are loaded with little chips have some chunks swimming around. Bald Eagle is a classic example. I wouldn't call it a fluke, but I wouldn't advertise it for sure. I don't want to come off wrong, but a nice little lake or honey hole can be devasted by loose lips. We all want to help our brethren out, but there are LOTS of people lurking in the shadows looking to steal your claim. Just take a peek at the "who's online" feature at any given time. Do what you can to steer them to lakes that are already pounded, which isn't all bad as these types of lakes are good regardless. Like I said, please don't take it wrong. I'm not a vindictive person.

[Wanderer]

I think Norris was a victim of that several years ago. I almost posted on this after Shackbash with the simple comment: "Ah....there WAS a time...."

Good luck all!

[Shack]

I would drive the extra miles to Coon, before I would hit this lake. Unless I wanted to just get out with kids and catch sunnies and throw out a tip up. I would not expect much.

[skunked_again]

I agree. If it was a honeyhole worth keeping secret I would not post on here. But hey, if someone wants to go and find out whether it was a fluke, be my guest but post your results. However, I do have to say that I am impressed with the amount of info people share on this site and only hope it keeps up.