Tom Kelly has switched from open water striper fisherman to bass fishing and is good at it. He is also a good conservationalist. 
The lake level is 553.68 and has dropped just a very little bit with about 6-hours of running one generator. The White River at Newport remains and 3-1/2 feet and is nearly drying up. Middle of November and still no effort to drop the lake for the winter. It needs to be at 547-48 by March. The water surface temerature was 63 degrees when I went out yesterday afternoon. I had to work at the resort until about 4:pM and fished until dark or a little after 5. The crappie started biting just at sunset and I caught several nice ones and then it was too dark to see. The bite was not fast and furious but steady and I did not lose any. I talked to another guide and he said he was having trouble catching stripers but was also doing well on crappie. All of Blackburns other fishermen were in before me and I did not talk to any except for Tom Kelly who was bass fishing in Float creek and caught some nice Kentucky Bass. Tom releases all of his fish on site but sent me a picture of one of them. He was using a shakey head worm near the bank. The wind was coming from the south west and I was able to get out of it and fish a brush pile close to the resort straight down with a 1/4 ounce Bink's Spoon. It was a beautiful evening and I was happy to be out. It is to be warm again today with a cold fronf moving through again late tomorrow night or Thursday morning bringing more wind. The cycle continues. I am not a big fan of winter but am able to go fishing more and catch a lot of fish then, especially big ones. I am about ready to go smallmouth bass fishing but not quite yet. The water needs to get to about 60 and this usually occurs just before Thanksgiving. The surface water temperature has been very stable and the water continues to get clearer every day. The lake is in excellent condition but the fishing overall is just fair. The best bite is in the evening from 3:30PM until dark. I have not had any reports on the after dark striper fishing. Not many do that anymore but we used to catch some big ones. I bought Home Depot out of kitchen cabinets and counter tops for the resort improvements and it was a good thing they did not have any more. I run out of money at the same time. It is not so bad being poor. The girls are staining and repainting all of the picnic tables here at Blackburns. We take pride in not having junky tables and grills. It looks nice here inside and out and the price is right.
