The lake level is 559.82 and has dropped 2-inches in the last 24-hours. They quit generating in the middle of the night and just started this morning. The White River at Newport is at 13.52 feet and they want it to get back to 12-feet so are reducing generation. We received about 0.2 inches of rain yesterday. The surface water temperature is 86-degrees and the water is fairly clear down to 20-feet and then very cloudy from 23- to over 30-feet. The water starts to get cool at 23-feet and is cold at 27. The thermocline is not pronounced but gradual. There are quite a few large bluegill and smaller Kentucky Bass in the 20-23-ft. range in chunk rocks. The best bite continues to be in the early morning on shad in about 35-40 ft. of water. The fish may be near the bottom or suspended just a few feet. Drop your spoon and let it tap bottom and snap it up about 5-7 feet and let it drop on slack line. 1/2 ounce Bink's Arkansas Shiners are working the best. You will catch some smaller stripers and walleye with maybe a catfish. I just am not seeing very many crappie yet but am not targeting them. After dark bass fishermen are catching some nice ones but I am not even seeing any big ones during the day. Usually they are all over the place right at the start of the thermocline.The Kentucky Bass that I am catching are full of crawdads and the big bluegill are full of shells. Early morning live bait trollers are catching several smaller stripers and a few hybrids. A few largemouth are with them. All of the stripers caught in this hot weather die when caught and that is why I do not fish deep water. They are getting smaller and smaller. There may not be a striper kill next month because the big ones die off first and most of them are gone. I have not seen a dissolved oxygen report recently but the larger stripers have gone to the deeper water near the river channels but not as deep as usual in this hot weather when they typically go as deep as 100-ft looking for the oxygen bubble and get lock jaw and do not want to expend any energy. We have finally got to a lake level below 560 and Blackburns Brush piles are coming into play and almost all day use and camping areas are normal but the lake still about 10-feet high for this time of year. When the water cools a bit the crappie will move back on them from open water. People ask me why the crappie fishing is getting better the last few years and I know why. The two best crappie fishermen are gone. Jay Smith from Crappies Only has retired and Harvey Hall from Hard Times Crappie Fishing has died. They put in a lot of brush piles but also caught a lot of fish. Also the Game and Fish refurbishing the old Corps Of Engineers brush piles a few years ago also helped. We need more people helping to put in structure and not just fishing it. It is hard work and most people are just not up to it or are just lazy. I only fish my own brush piles and like to catch fish on the ones that I put in. I looked at getting a $2,300 live scope for my boat but bought new air conditioners for the cabins instead. I could not justify paying almost as much for a piece of electronics as I paid for my boat. I catch a few fish anyway with my Hummingbird 4-ID that I got for Christmas in 1990. Maybe even a little more than that. For the best prices on both cabins and rental boats in the Ozarks call Debbie at 870-492-5115. A stall for your boat comes with the cabin and all cabins have big covered porches and are individual with no duplexes. Yes we are pet friendly.
