Norfork Lake fishing and lake conditions by Scuba Steve from Blackburns Resort and Boat rental (click here for comments)

The lake level is 579.21 and is starting to rise just a bit after they closed the spillway gates. They did start the other generator. Norfork is 9-inches from going over the spillway, Beaver is 2-inches, Table rock is 3-inches and Bull Shoals is lapping over and is officially 1/2 inch from breaching. They are trying desperately to keep Bull Shoals from going over but are getting out of options. Do not, I repeat do not believe the weathermen. They have been wrong 85% of the time.  The White River at Newport is now over 25-feet and 26 feet is minor flood stage.  It is a very good thing we did not get the rain as predicted. The weather has been great. I went out for a little while after getting my work done and found the following in this area: The surface temperature was 75 degrees in Hensley's creek and I could see my lure down about 6-feet. Blackburns creek was stained a little more but still a good color and I saw very little debris.  There should be a thermocline forming soon if not now and the fish will move to just above or just below that. It should be from 17-19 feet to start with and get deeper as the water warms. Our normal high is 80.  I have not been Scuba diving yet to find out. It looks like I will have to jump into deeper water to avoid the brush and then work my way to the edge of it.  A lot of brush is just outside of the old shoreline which is 20+ feet.  I saw some top water fish at about 5:30 PM and caught some bass and a small hybrid. All fish were released on site. The crappie that I was looking for were gone. A big black rain cloud was building up from the west so I came in. It did not amount to much and looked much worse than it actually was. We got about 1/10th out of it. The best bite now is the early morning top water bite on spooks and then switch to a swim bait. It is time to start spooning again or at least try it. There is lots of cover and bait fish and the fish are scattered and roaming. I have not been catfishing but there are lots of jugs and limb lines in the area.