Norfork Lake Arkansas near Mountain Home in the Ozarks Mountains Region fishing report and lake conditions by Scuba Steve from Blackburns Resort and Boat Rental.

The lake level is 554 even and has risen one foot in the last 24-hours with 1/2 generator running for a few hours and both for a few hours. It is still rising a little when they run both generators so it will come up more but not a lot. They got more rain up north with more runoff but the brown water should drop out before it gets to this area of the lake. It should not cause a problem here but I am very concerned about what is coming next. Normal high is 51 and we are to get to the high 40's today and get warmer and warmer with a nice weekend with sunny skies and light winds until tuesday so we better enjoy it. On tuesday it is to start raining and then wednesday through thursday serious weather with mixed precipiatation and heavy rains. The ground is saturated and we could get a serious lake rise depending on if it hits the Norfork River Basin north of here. Local rains do not affect the level much. There has been no effort to drop the lake level all winter and we will pay for it sometime this spring and it looks to be sooner than later. I sure wish we could get some better lake management. The White River at Newport is now at 11-feet after being held low all winter. It could be at 21-feet with no problem to anybody. We are out of the power pool which is 553.75 so the Corps of Engineers have taken back control of lake management from Southwest Power. All area lakes are in the same condition so one is not better off than the other as of now. It is almost like they want this to happen. It started off with an ambient temperature in the 60's yesterday and a surface water temperature of 47 degrees and then went downhill from there and was miserable with a cold north wind with temperatures in the 30's by dark and got down into the teens last night. We quit putting in brush early and came in and will finish later today. Everything is ok now and we caught bass and crappie yesterday morning and will go again after we get the brush piles finished. The weekend looks good but the fishing has just been fair. We do not need 3-inches of rain in the Gainsville and Ava areas that is for sure but I anticipated this and Blackburns is as ready as we can be. At least things have a few days to settle out before the next one and just keep the ice away. They usually go north of highway 60 up to 44. We will see. It sure would have been nice to be at 547 now instead of 554. At least it is not a polar vortex. This will be a good weekend to get some outdoor projects finished and I have a big crew working on them. The place is looking good. The resort is full with people taking advantage of the best place and prices in the Ozarks.