The lake level is 563.62 and has dropped two inches in the last 24-hours with one generator running continuously. The White River at Newport is 12.68 and they have cut the discharge from the area lakes in order to Regulate Newport to 12-feet despite the need for electricity and the drought in the area. There is now a burn ban on for Baxter County. We have had 0.20 inches of rain since June 6th. They have revised the date for Norfork to get down to the top of the power pool, which is 555.75, to August 16th. That is 8-feet in 31 days which is 3.1 inches per day. They cannot get there at this rate even if it does not rain. The surface water temperature was 88-degrees when I went out yesterday evening and things had changed a little since the day before. The lake is clearing slowly, the thermocline is dropping and the fish are going deeper. I found some bass in the cold water over 30-feet and some White Bass in about 23-feet of water suspended and schooled about 5-feet from the bottom. I only saw small walleye and a few bluegill shallower. Some smaller Kentucky Bass are shallow feeding on crawdads. The early morning open water fishermen are still catching temperate bass on the spoon from about 5:45 AM to 8:AM and then it is over. Trollers are catching a few but I do not troll. Not much skill in draging stuff around through shad until something catches itself but if you are a meat hunter and do not know anything else it gets results. Most fish are benig caught on spoons, salecraws and plastice worms now except for bluegill and they are biting crickets under docks. A few catfish are being caught but not nearly as ,amy as usual. The crappie have not moved into the tops of deeper brush piles yet but will when it cools a bit, the lake drops a bit and the thermocline drops a bit. The boat traffic is really light for the middle of July. We had some guests have an emergency and left early so give Debbie a call at 870-492-5115 to get a last minute reservation. Two bedroom cabins are $113/day and come with a free boat stall for stays over one day.
