Caught fishing with Bink's Guide Service yesterday. We really like it when nice families have a good time together. That is what it is all about. 
Caught fishing with Bink'sThe lake level is 553.62 and has risen 1-1/2 inches in the last 24-hours with very little generation. They quit generating before the rain started in order to get the level up as high as possible for as long as possitble even though the White River at Newport is only 7.6 feet and about ready to dry up. We received 3/10th of an inch of rain Saturday night and 1/1/2 inches last night and this morning. It is over for now. The creeks run for a while but not hard. I went crappie fishing yesterday and caught some good ones. One was very large. They were spooned up in 45-ft. of water on the bottom. I do not have a clue why they are there but they are and just outside of brush piles and near cover close to deep water. There were some fish coming up about 5-PM and most of them were bass and some good ones too. That is the first top water that I have seen in a while. The usual routine of the bass moving to their winter banks and staying there has not happened this year. I suspect more of them are in open water on shad in the absence of big stripers. Brush piles are not producing very well unless they are deep. People are still dogging those small stripers in the 3-9 lb. range in deep water knowing they will die when they catch them. It looks like they will keep doing this until all of them are gone. They do not know how to fish any other way and will not change. They need that red meat. Fishing overall has been just fair and the lake in general is in excellent condition. White Bass fishing is getting better and needed to. The ground in the watershed area is saturated and any rains just north of us will raise the lake. Local rains and rains south of us have a much less effect on the water level unless the creeks run hard. It is almost february and we need to be at about 548 now down about 5-1/2 feet. All of the area lakes are just about at the power pool level which is a good level but does not leave much room for spring rains. There is absolutely no reason not to drop them. I am starting to catch more fish on spoons and less on jigs.We are working hard here at Blackburns makings improvements for you and there will be no price increases this year. Thanks for your repeat business. We appreciate you.
