Caught fishing with Bink's Guide Service yesterday. The hybrids can take the high level low oxygen water better than stripers.
The lake level is 559.82 and is about what it was at this time yesterday. They quit generating last night but started again early this morning. We received 0.7 inches of rain last night and it is raining now. The creeks are not running yet. I would really like to get through this rain with little or no rise of the lake and get some dry weather. On April 15th the rules change again , and depending on how they calculate 50% of flood storage, could really stop or reduce generation back to the stupid 14-ft. rule at Newport. After that it drops to 12-ft. on May 8th and it really stops. Our best bet is to stop the rise now and have drier weather. We have not had more than average rainfall so far this year. If the level was drawn down to at least 548 this winter we would be at 554 which would be perfect and right at power pool. It was a nice warm day yesterday afternoon when I went out and the wind was variable and gusty. It would change directions every few minutes and swirl and gust. I found a lot of fish on brush in 23-ft. of water and caught a couple of crappie but moved to get out of the wind. The wind blown banks were full of small floating debris and hard to fish. I went back in Hensley's creek and caught a couple of barely keeper bass on the bank and then stumbled on a large school of shad way back in the creek in about 19-feet of water and spooned up a couple of small White Bass and a throw back Kentucky. The surface water temperature was 55 on the main lake and 57 in the backs of the creeks. Bink reports finding 60-degree water back in Big Creek but I did not find that in Blackburns area. He also reports catching a very large Hybrid in the late afternoon but not much after dark yet. The water color around here is a very light brown with a little green mixed in and you can see your lure down about 1-1/2 feet. It is not my favorite color but is ok and is clearing very slowly from the rain that happened over a week ago. The slowly rising water is keeping some small wood floating and it is blowing in the wind. I want to fish the wind blown banks but with the bank behind the buck brush and the debris blowing into it makes it difficult and you get snagged a lot. If you move where it is better there are not very many fish there. I am on call and do not want to travel very far to find the water that I like. Fishing overall is just fair but there are some signs of top-water in the evening and with 60+ degree water coming things will change everyday. You just have to be out there when it happens. The fish are there except the big stripers.