The lake evel is 563.52 and has risen three inches in the last 24-hours with very little generation. We did receive about 0.2 inches of rain last night but the creeks are not running. They continue to run Table Rock continually to protect Branson and keep it at top of power pool no matter the level at Newport. Norfork is 10-feet above top of power pool. It was very cloudy and cool when I went out yesterday and started raining slowly about 5:Pm. I am having to fish very hard to get very many or sometimes just a few and the fish are smaller than a month ago. The water is stained an off- green and not bad for fishing and the surface temperature hangs in there at about 44 degrees. We will see what the high pressure that is moving in will do for fishing. Usually the longer it is here the better the fishing gets and that trend continues until the next cold front moves in. There are a lot of fish in Norfork Lake and they have to bite sometime. Just hang in there and be persistent. As long as the storms keep pounding the west coast this weather pattern will continue. We have been very fortunate that all of the ice and snow has stayed north of us and the flooding rains and severe weather has stayed south. We are about 8-inches above normal in rainfall for this year and with a reasonable generation in the late fall and early winter it is enough to raise the lake level about 8-feet. If the level had been pulled down to 548 as they used to do, the level would now be 556 which is perfect. People talk about the lake not being for recreation but think about the minimum flow requirements which took away 1.75 feet of flood control for the put and take trout on the rivers. Is that not for recreation? That answer does not work anymore. Just pull down the lake in the winter the best you can for the spring rains and balance out the chain of lakes and Norfork lake equally. That is the way it used to be. It worked most of the time before all of these changes in lake management. White bass continues to be the best bite with bass second and crappie third. Spoons and grubs are still the best lures. Start on creek banks part way back and fish the cuts. Some of Blackburns Brush is getting too deep now so we will put in a couple of shallower ones. The creeks warm faster than the main lake and bait fish will move into them as the weather warms. Looks to be a good spring. Catfishing will start soon. I like that.
