Mike with a couple of nice ones. Yes, we know where the fish are. 
The lake level is 553.11 and has risen 1.2 inches in the last 24-hours with no generation. They always quit when it rains so the lake will rise as fast as possible. It needs to be dropped 5-feet and held there until spring. The White River at Newport is 4.41 feet. We received 2.3 inches of rain Friday night and it came down hard and fast with most of it running off and rutting roads. There was some sporatic damage and some power outages but it was restored quickly. There were no problems here at Blackburns but we are in a protected valley. Some was from wind but mostly down trees. The runoff caused the backs of creeks to run brown but it dropped out quickly. The creeks run hard for most of the night. The surface water temperature is 65 on the main lake and all over the place in the backs of creeks. You can tell where the black bass are hanging out by their color when caught. If they are shallow and where the sun penetrates the water they will be light colored and if they are deep they will be much darker. The same goes for crappie. Some mistake white crappie for black ones when they come up from the deep but they will change color and get lighter in the live well. Deep black crappie will be very dark for a while. I like those big black crappie and they fight very hard. Overall fishing has not been the best for the last several days but has been getting a little better. Some get discouraged the first couple of days of their visit but usually end up catching some. Conditions are changing almost daily with the fronts moving through and the big differences in daytime highs and overnight lows. The first couple of days after a cold front when the high pressure moves in can be difficult but not impossible. The best time can be just before the low pressure gets here and just before or just after the rain starts. I seldom miss going fishing when this happens and just before the wind starts blowing. Bass bite well in the wind but I do not like to fish in it. Scuba season is about over for me. When the water temperature gets below 65 it sucks the heat out of you even with the heavy wet suit that I wear and it gets very cool when you get out of the water. The actual season is from June 15th to March 15th but very few go after early November. I hate to give up on the season every year but also like pole fishing which gets good on Norfork in the middle of November. October is always iffy.Thanksgiving is almost always a very good time and is my favorite time for the big crappie in Blackburn's resort area. The Pigeon Creek, Briar Creek and Bennets Bayou areas have large numbers of crappie but right here has the big ones. That is what I want. My self imposed limit is five and I do not kill huge numbers of fish. It just makes peope look like gluttons when they do this, brag about it and it is not appreciated by anybody. I wish they would drop the limit from 15 to 10. I also would like more walleye stocked. More and more fishermen are coming to Norfork to target them. Blackburns still is the home of the $59/day one bedroom cabins and $77/day two bedrooms. They also come with a free stall for your boat. You can launch here, park your trailer in our trailer park and step on the dock. No need to go elsewhere to launch or pull out. This is great for single fishermen. We also have 300 Meg internet and are two minutes to a Dollar General and 5-minutes to a Super Walmart. We have it all here and at the best price. Come on down. We will not charge you too much and especially welcome Veterans and Police.
