Roger and Leslie Maggard from Mountain Grove, Missouri are catching some good ones and are always welcome here. Nice people and good fishers.
The lake level is 567.45 and has risen two inches in the last 24-hours with no generation since last evening. We have received just over an inch of rain in the last five days but it has been cloudy and dreary and is trying to rain now. We missed all of the storms and heavy rain so far. Others were not so fortunate. We are below average rainfall for the month here but the lakes continue to rise except for Table Rock which continues to drop at the expense of Bull Shoals which is more above power pool than any other area lake. With the 12-ft. rule in effect for the White River at Newport it will take all summer to get the lakes down to a reasonable level where campgrounds, swimming areas and parking and launching will be back to normal. Day users and campers are the most affected. Most resorts can handle fairly high water and people will just have to swim off a boat or in a pool. After the last part of April the rise has been slow and the water remains clear with no brown water or big debris. A little level drop now would do a lot of good. I went out yesterday for about an hour to check out lake and fishing conditions in the afternoon. The surface water temperature remained in the high 60's and both the main lake and creeks were clear and you could see your lure down several feet. I just took one pole with a jig on it and fished until the jig would not stay oin the head and caught four crappie, one bass and a walleye. Two of the crappie were very large males with red tails indicating they had made a nest. The Kentucky Bass bite is the best with crappie next. Trollers are catching some small stripers and some large bass are being caught early on top-water. Several small fish of several species are being caught but some big ones also. The lake overall is in good condition and fishing is fair to good. A welcome high pressure is moving in later this week for several days and we will see what it does to fishing. Warm weather and sun should help the early top-water bite. The southerly wind will blow the plankton and shad into south facing banks and the game fish will follow. Try the mouth of Twin Coves at sunrise.