Jeremy Deardoff with a couple of nice Norfork lake crappie. We like those.
The lake level is 554.69 and has dropped 1-1/2 inches in the last 24-hours. They quit generating last night but started again this morning. They are struggling to just get the lake down to the power pool and we are to get more rain this weekend. The ground is saturated. It was a beautiful day yesterday with light winds and sunny skies and pleasant to be out fishing. The surface water temperature was 45.5. I tried the back of a creek just to see if any fish were shallow and found a few but none were biting. The shallow water warms faster than the deep water and fish will move there soon but it is just too early. I like to try new things and be the first to find them. The next and final stop was a main lake cut on the old river channel on a Blackburns Brush pile. I was casting a Bobby Garland Baby Shad and letting it drop into the brush anywhere from 20-45 feet of water. This did not work either. It was out of the wind so I switched to a 1/8th ounce Bink's silver spoon. The silver color works well in the sunshine and it glistens several colors including blue. The fish started biting right away. I like the smallest spoon possible that will get to the desired depth and still stay straight down. The smaller the spoon the lighter the line so you are not trying to drag an anchor rope. I caught six crappie, two bass and two nice bluegill in about an hour and came in. The fish were biting anywhere from 27-35 feet of water near the bottom. I saw no other boats and it was very peacefull and just good to be outside with no crowds or noise. I feel so fortunate and count my blessings. There are very few places where you can do this. I put the fish in Tom Kelly's Trophy pond. It is ready for the spring now but I am not quite. More improvements to make here but no price increases.
