The lake level is 553.23 and is still rising just a bit with about one hour of generation. The White River at Newport is at 9+ feet and dropping. It loks like they would rather dry up the river rather than drop the lakes. The water looked stained today but you could see your lure down a little further at maybe 5-feet. I went with my friend Darrel Binks today to be on the "Live in the Boat radio Show", what a privilage. He wanted to check and see if the bass were on the winter spots on the green grub and they were. He fishes for what is biting but is probably the best bass fisherman that I have ever fished with. He caught most of the fish but had to take me in early to take out some other paying cuatomers. It was a beautiful day. The sun came up and burned off the fog and got very warm with light wind. The surface temperature was 57. I left at 11:30 Am and went back home to fish on my own. I checked my throw line and jugs and caught some very nice fish and then went out to Catch some crappie. We talked to some trollers and they said they caught three stripers but only one would measure. That means 20-inches or about 3-lbs. Not so good. Here is the deal. People that are making their living on stripers are trying as hard to catch them as they can but in doing so are depleting the future for the present. I remember when this same thing happened on Beaver Lake. The guides were catching big fish, and lots of them, several years ago and invested in big center console boats to take out six or eight people and all caught their limit until a big striper was about eight pounds. It has come back a bit but all of those guides are gone. The same thing has happened to Norfork but for different reasons. High water and depleted ozygen along with increased fishing pressure and the fishermen getting much better at finding and catching fish with better electronics has done the same thing to Norfork. Things have to settle down with the lake not getting so high for so long, covid has to go away so the stocking has to get back to normal and this has to happen for several years. The fishing pressure will take care of it's self when people cannot catch very many. Meat hunters are meat hunters and do not care about the future but what they can catch and kill now. Nothing is forever. In a positive note bass, crappie, walleye, bluegill, catfish all have excellent numbers and hybrid stripers are still ok but not nearly as many of them are stocked. White bass are coming back from their kill a couple of years ago and will take care of themselves. This is a beautiful lake with high numbers of fish. People that are fishing for several days to catch a red meat fish and trying to glorify it are not helping them selves just depleting what is left. It is not a measure of fishing ability but just how many they want to kill and deplete until there are none left to try and mis-represent the fishing for today's business. Tell it like it is and change tactics.
