Scuba Steve with his best one yesterday.
The lake level is 552.26 and has risen 1/3 of an inch in the last 24-hours with about 4-hours of generation in the morning and then just a little in the afternoon. Not enough to keep up with the inflow from the river. The White River at Newport is 5.36 feet and it is not coming from Norfork. The surface water temperature is 57-degrees and dropping very slowly. The water clarity has not changed much in the last few days and you can see your lure down 4-5 feet in the sunshine and less on cloudy days. We have a chance for rain most of next week but it looks like the heavy struff will go east of us again. The lake is at a good level now but we do not need a big rain to raise the lake going into the spring. We have just missed several of them. They have lots of time to lower the water now but refuse to do so. A level of 560 starts to be trouble. We are only 1.48 feet from the top of the power pool. When the power company takes over at 553.75 the generation almost stops for some reason but resumes again above that. Fishing has been a challenge. Open water fishermen are catching a variety of fish on shad but are looking far and wide to find feeding fish. Feast or famine. They post when they catch some and do not post when they do not but you can bet they are out there everyday. I am working hard to get my self-imposed limit of 5- big crappie and usually catch about as many as I want this time of year. There were some shad just outside a brush pile that I was fishing in about 35-ft. of water with some fish on them and I dropped a spoon in them and caught a walleye. That is the first keeper one that I have caught in a couple of weeks. Things are changing on Norfork this year and I am not sure why. It is not the water temperature as it was 60 degrees on this date last year and the fish were biting like usual. Not now. Crappie fishermen are going to Bull Shoals and Striper fishermen are buying river boats. My personal opinion is that the absence of the big stripers is taking the pressure off the open water shad and more different species are taking their place along with the huge amount of bait fish of all kinds. I am sure it is not due to the fish population. I am also sure that Blackburns will not raise their prices again this year and remain the best value in the ozarks for both cabins and boat rentals and that we welcome Veterans and Police. I am a Veteran but it is not true that I drove a Tank for the Salvation Army. I do donate to them everytime I go to Walmart though and have never been in a tank. Come on down to Blackburns. We will not charge you too much and your first boat stall is free. If you are at a place where you are nearly the only customer you are probably in the wrong place or paying too much.
