John Bornhop with some good ones.
Caught fishing with Bink yesterday.
The lake level is 553.77 and has dropped just a bit with one generator running 3-hours. The White River at Newport is 3+ feet and it is hard to launch a boat. It should be at 12-feet until Norfork gets down to 547-48 and then every effort should be made to keep it there for as long as they can in the spring without flooding anybody out downstream. That would be lake management instead of just keep it high all winter and then hold and hope. It was another cold day yesterday with the temperature struggling to get to 50. It is to get a little warmer today and then much warmer until about wednesday when another cold front is to come through. This is expected and very common in November. It should be good fishing until this happens and then we go through the same cycle again. The water is getting clearer everyday. The surface water tmeperature is just about 62 degrees and dropping. More fish of different species are in open water on shad than in the past with the absence of the larger stripers and the reduced numbers of White Bass. Usually largemouth bass are mostly near the bank on creek minnows and small bluegill. Some still are but not nearly as many. If you find schools of bluegill on brush there will be catfish, walleye, crappie and Kentucky Bass there also. Many schools of open water shad are holding few or no fish but some are. You just have to look for them and sometimes it is a long look but when you find them the bite can be fast and then it is over. People fishing off the dock in the brush are catching channel catfish in the 2-3 lb. range and big bluegill. Last night in Blackburns Creek the fish started coming up half way back just before dark. If the red meat fish are to come to the bank for the November night bite it is about time. It should happen just before the full moon which is on the 19th. It used to happen every year but lately not so much. I used to fish for walleye on certain shadowy banks on soft plastics in the evening this time of year and then switch to the stick bait after sunset. The walleye bite continues and is getting better but the striper bite does not happen much anymore and I just come in at dark. It may happen this year though. I had expected to see more stripers come in with this being an excellent time to catch them but so far just a very few. Crappie, walleye and bass continue to be the best bite with some channel cats and white bass also and just a few hybrids. Not many people out there now with the cold windy weather but that should change starting tomorrow. I am surprised at the number of boats out there during the week.
