The lake level is 553.29 and rising very slowly with no discharge from the dam except minimum flow. The surface water temperature is just under 55 degrees and also dropping slowly. The White River at Newport is 3.82 feet and dropping. There has been no effort to drop the lake in the winter to prepare for the spring rains. I wouls like it to be about 548 going into May and have them not stop generating everytime it rains and have the minimum, maximum and routine flood control releases rules reviewed. They are outdated. The water is still fairly clear and you can see your lure down about 6-feet in the sunshine. Overall the lake is in excellent condition and at a good level and the fishing seems to be umproving a bit. I am getting a few more bites and catching a few more bass and crappie but they are not in a feeding frenzy or hammering anything. Trollers are catching a few stripers but they are mostly small. They are dragging umbrellas or live bait through schools of shad and catching 5-7 pound stripers, killing them and bragging about it. There are always a few meat hunters out there but they should be ashamed instead taking pictures of dock floors full of baby stripers like they have just accomplished something and seem to be the same ones day after day. Get a $2,500 live scope, a $3,000 fish finder with down and side imaging, a $3,000 36-volt trolling motor with anchor or lock spot that self deploys and self stores with power trim and remote. That way you can go out in the water and set in the captain's seat and turn everything on and drive around until you see a school of shad on the screen with fish under them. You can then take out the remote and self deploy the trolling motor and mark the spot if it fish stay put. and put out several lines with live bait or umbrellas and put them in the rod holders and drag them through the shad again and again until you find feeding fish. This is when the fun begins. You might even have more than one bite at the same time on the mulitple lines. The fish hook themselves on the lines and you reel them in. Then you can sit in the captain's chair and self stow the trolling motor and head in and throw the dead fish on the dock floor and take pictures. Almost like a war hero. It was a fun day until your trolling motor does not self deploy or the battery runs out on the remote or the live scope does not turn on then then they are helpless.They then need to pay $300 to have someone else show then how to run all of this stuff. No wonder they keep all of their fish. I really do like the feel of the thump when a big crappie hits the jig or when a big bass hits a top-water lure and you try to get him in without letting him jump and spit out the hook. There are some White Bass and Hybrids in front of Cranfield Campground in 50-feet of water on the bottom. 3/8th ounce white and green Binks Spoons are working the best.
