Tom Kelly with some of yesterday's catch. Released under Blackburns dock after pictures. Tom is a good fisherman and conservationalist.
The lake level is 570.14 and has dropped 1/2 inch in the last 24-hours with the same discharge of one generator and two spillway gates open one foot. It is stable with no rain and rises when it rains. It is equal to about 1-2/3 generators. They have dropped the discharge of the White River at Newport drastically and the level there now is 17.4 feet which is actually lower than the prescribed 18 feet. They are doing all they can to keep the levels up as high as they can to keep the beaches, launches, campgrounds and parking at a minimum all summer for absolutely no reason. I must have forgot to tell them it rains in the spring. We have a good chance to have rain for about the next week with cool weather until later part of the week. The surface temperature was 67 when I went out yesterday and the water was very clear. I saw several bass on beds and the crappie were on brush at about 20-feet. None were in the deeper water. I caught a couple of small stripers and released them immediately. If people keep showing lines of dead stripers on docks they are cutting their own throats. We used to catch 30-lb. ones regularly and 20-lbs was common now a 15-lb.ers are rare. A 10-lb. striper is not something to be proud of, throw them back. It does not make you look good to kill them. The striper guides had better start learning how to catch crappie if they want to make a living if they keep killing red meat fish. None were stocked this year. Tom Kelly brought in some nice fish yesterday and released them under the dock. Catfish, crappie and bass were all caught. Fishing overall is pretty good if you know where and how. I caught some good ones in the middle of the day. The lake is in good condition and we have no diminished services here at Blackburns and still have the best prices. $59/day for a 1-bedroom and 2,3,4 bedrooms are priced accordingly with a free stall for your boat. It is not a dead end with no parking to our dock. We sometimes do not have stalls available for one night stays though but you can still launch and park here unless the lake rises more. Some good fish are being caught here every day. Bass, crappie, catfish, hybrid stripers are the best with the hybrids being caught on top water early mixed with the bass. The weather continues to be cool so far. The normal high is 76 but it has struggled to be in the 60's.