Luke Bornhop with the fish of the day. Caught more too. Those are some nice crappie.
The lake level is 559.68 and has risen 1-inch in the last 24-hours. They quit generating last night but have started up again. It drops when they generate just a bit and raises when it stops. It has not rained for several days but we have a good chance later this week. The weekend has been beautiful and people are out. Blackburns was full yesterday except for the one cabin still under construction but it will be ready the first of next week. We had to pull of it since it was also full all last week. This has been the busiest spring so far with people taking advantage of the best prices on both cabins and boat rental on Norfork lake and a free boat stall. They just do not like others raising their prices and appreciate it that we did not. Blackburns is the best value in the Ozarks. The overall fishing continues to be just fair with bass and crappie still being the best bite. Several small stripers less than 10-lbs are being caught and people are still killing them. The pictures that they are taking are of smaller and smaller dead fish. I am seeing no big ones. I went out for a bit last evening after work and had to move further downstream to find clear water. The brown stuff is still moving downstream and is about at the 62-bridge. I checked a good place out across from Bidwell and it still had junk and brown water so I went to Float Creek where the water was perfect for me. I caught both bass and crappie and had to come back in. Some fish were on the bank and some were on brush. Big schools of small bluegill have moved back into the creeks and some predator fish have pulled off shad and went back with them. Fish were coming up in Blackburns Creek just before dark last evening and some nice ones too. They were mostly bass but some White Bass were in there. Blackburns Creeks is not brown and is at a perfect color for fishing. The surface water temperature is still in the low to mid 50's depending on when and where you take it and is not moving up or down much with the cool nights. Fishing overall is slow to fair but some nice ones are being caught everyday. We just do not need any more rain for a while keeping the lake from rising and let things settle out and clear up in the brown areas. If the lake would stop rising the debris would stick to the banks otherwise I will fish south of the 62-bridge until it does. Not to say fish do not bite in brown water, I just do not have any confidence in fishing it when lightly stained green water is available and it is. I am happy it is spring and things are busy. We like that. It was a perfect day.
