Please join me in welcoming Mr. and Mrs. Dan Washburn to the area who are moving here from Florida.
The lake level is 553.17and has risen 2-inches in the last 24-hours with generation about 1/3rd the time and none since last evening. They always seem to quit when it rains but have just started again. The White River at Newport is hanging in there at 17-feet. I just dumped over 2-inches of rain from my gauge and the creeks are running but not fast. It is raining now. It was very windy again yesterday and more is to come with the next cold front. Highs are to get in the high 40's tomorrow and low 50's thursday with lows in the high 30's but not freezing. The night bite for stripers is nearing an end and they are joining the walleye for ending their spawn. I found several walleye on main lake points in front of Blackburns brush piles and caught them on both the jerk bait and grub. They are a little too shallow for me to spoon but will get there after the thermocline forms at 16-18 feet later but will stay in the same places. The thermocline will form in may. The male crappie are in the backs of the creeks in shallow water staging just at the drop-off and near any wood so you can beat the bank for them for singles with jigs. Some schools are still on brush in about 20-25 feet a little farther from the bank but near deeper water. The females will lay their eggs shallow and move to main lake brush again and the males will stay on the nest protecting them until they swim away. This will go on for the whole month of april but will begin soon with the bigger crappie spawning first. Everytime you catch a male off the nest the bluegill and warmouth will eat the eggs and newly hatched fry as fast as you can kiss a duck. They lay in waiting. Going down the creek bank and catching all of the males off the nests is not good. The early spawn is a good time to catch the big ones back on the brush but they will get dilluted with smaller ones as the spawn continues and the schools will get bigger. Bass fishing is the best now with all of the black bass pre-spawn feeding. Even the trollers are catching some. I am surprised about how many fish are on the main lake points at this time and how few are in the backs of the creeks with the water temperature in the 50's. It will not go up anytime soon until later this weekend when it gets very warm again and in the upper 70's and then things will really change fast. April looks to be a good month for fishing. The ground is saturated and I am looking forward to catching mushrooms this spring. It will not be long. People just keep killing the stripers and they just keep getting smaller and smaller and they are still bragging about it. They surely cannot need meat that bad. Forgive them because they know not what they do. Yesterday was cloudy and windy. Today is rainy and windy. Yuk.
