The lake level is 553.27 and is a fraction higher than yesterday. They ran two generators for four hours and then shut them both down for 20. There is no effort to drop the lakes for the winter and the level of the White River at Newport is 10+ feet. You cannot let the government run anything. The lake surface temperature is hanging in there at 57 and the water clarity varies a little but mostly it has been that you can see your lure down 3-4 feet for several weeks with the creeks staining every once in a white and then clearing again. Some days you can see the fish under the dock and some you cannot but there are sure a lot of them down there. Some pretty good crappie have been caught out of Blackburns this week with some over 15-inches and they are thick and fat but not high numbers. I just keep three or four anyway to give to friends who cannot fish. It was a pretty good day yesterday but a little windy. It laid about 4:Pm. I fished one place for about two hours which had brush at from 17-21 feet. Several crappie and bluegill were caught on both the spoon and jig. A couple were very large in the 15-inch range and I did not want to leave. I know of no other lake in the country with larger crappie. Today I am going to try and catch a couple of big bass and leave the crappie alone. They deserve a break. Blackburns is certainly the premier fishing resort in the area and we work hard to put in good brush piles and will show you where when you get here. We catch fish. Your first boat stall is free here. You can launch and park in two places right near the dock. No need to go elsewhere to launch and we have plenty of trailer and vehicle parking and are not huddled up on a cliff. Crappie, bass and bluegill fishing is the best but a few hybrids and smaller white bass are being caught in open water. I have not seen a 20-lb. striper in months but a few in the 6-10 pound small ones are being caught. The big ones may or may not be there but the other fish sure seem to be getting bigger. I have caught a lot of stripers in my life and do not kill very many but none of the ones that I have cleaned have ever had anything but shad and crawdads in them. Mostly shad. Live bait fishermen use shiners when they cannot get live shad so they must work also. As long as there are plenty of shad in the lake I do not think they hurt the other fish population. They just do not survive the high water in the vegetation for long periods and low oxygen level in the late summer very well, especially the big ones. They are ocean fish. The high water was rare in the past but has become the norm in the last several years. The high water in the buckbrush does help the spring spawn for other game fish. We need normal water levels and high stockings for several years to get the stripers back. There is high fishing pressure for the hybrids now and I am concerned about their numbers in the future. Trollers with umbrella rigs are getting very good about catching them and none were stocked this year. Bink says that I need another fishing lesson since I have not had one for several months so I will go with him on Thursday and be on his " Live in the Boat" Radio Show at 8:45 AM on both 97.9 FM and on cable TV on channel 5 with Bob Knight, who is my favorite radio personality. It should be fun. Good weather for the next week.
