The lake level is 554.57 and has risen one inch in the last 24-hours with one generator running continuously and the White River at Newport is 16-feet. The surface water was pretty clear and had a temperature of 47-degrees yesterday afternoon. The morning fishing was not the best but it got better in the afternoon. Most of the people staying at Blackburns were fishing for crappie and caught some but not a lot. They said they marked large schools but had a hard time getting them to bite but caught several bass. Mike, John, Tom all reported exactly the same thing. Bass are always the staple when other fish do not bite on Norfork. The big news is the weather. We are in a flood watch starting tonight until tomorrow evening and then a cold front is coming in wednesday and continuing until thursday afternoon bringing more rain and Ice. We can expect a lake rise. I was hoping we were past that but not the case. It looks pretty much like this will happen but I do not know to what extent. I am advising our guests to head out tomorrow morning. It is warm and in the 60's today and that will all change. The wind has not started yet but was not so good until late afternoon on sunday when it finally died down. We are getting march-like weather in february and these cold fronts really affect fishing. We only get a day or two of good fishing and then the next one comes in followed by high pressure. March is my least favorite time for fishing just because of the wind. The flooded rivers like Norfork have many channel swings and change flow directions with the wind following the channel changing direction and when it gets to a high wall it just swirls and is hard to get out of unless you go back in the creeks and sometimes the fish are not back there. At least when it warms up they will be. We can go from the high 60's to the 30's in just a matter of a few hours this time of year. The good thing is you cannot walk on our water or drill holes in it. I am finished with that. We just need to get to about saturday and things will get better. Our normal high is 52 and I would take a few days of that with no wind. Low pressure and high pressure are fine just leave out the cold fronts and ice and of course the wind.
