The Pruett family from Mountain View, Mo. caught some nice ones here at Blackburns. The Children Had fun and caught their first Stripers. Nice Family. 
The lake level is 554.68 and is up 1-inch in the last 24-hours with about 5-hours of running one generator. There has been no generation since 9:PM last night. We received about 0.4 inches of rain here at Blackburns last night but there were storms and more rain just North and also Northeast of us. More is predicted for this afternoon but clearing for tomorrow. It is to cool way down for next weekend. The White River at Newport is 6.88 feet and low. The reason this is significant is that this is where the Corps of Engineers measures the level to determine how much water is to be released from Bull Shoals and Norfork Lakes when they are above the top of the power pool. Below that it is mostly controlled by Southwestern Power which is also a government agency. As we all know the government should not be allowed to control anything. The surface water temperature is 78-degrees and the clarity is about 5-6 feet at 30-ft. The creeks are clearing after the heavy rain on Friday evening and the fishing is getting better especially for Bass and it needed to. It should get better and better when the water cools and clears now that the lake has turned about a month early unless we get a big rain from one of these hurricanes which is very possible. April, May and November are our rainiest months. You can catch some Bass beating the bank with crankbaits early and late but some are also on Brush on both the main lake and partway back in Creeks. Crappie fishing is not the best but a few can be caught on top of brush with a live minnow on a slip float. Otherwise jigging spoons are the best overall lure. Drop them in and around the brush and snap up about 5-frrt and allow them to fall on slack line. When the line quits falling reel up quickly. Tapping bottom close to brush will catch a few Walleye. There are some nice Kentucky Bass being caught. Look for Stripers off steep banks in 32-feet of water on shad. Bait fish are everywhere. There is a top-water bite some days early but they are mostly small Bass. Fish 7:AM to 9:AM and 5:PM until almost dark for best results. There is fog some days. The fall foliage is sterting early and the lake shore has some pockets of turning leaves mostly from hardwoods. My Maple, Burning Bush and Walnuts look like fall already and it is not caused by stress or cool weather as we have received rain everytime we needed it and the weather has been above normal; for high temperatures and no cold nights. I only report what I see and am out there everyday. My world is small and I like it that way. I have seen the rest of it and like it here the best. Not much chance of me moving away unless the dam breaks. Blackburns is still the home of the $69/day one bedroom cabins and $89/day two bedrooms and a free stall for your boat comes with a cabin rental of two days or more. Come on down. We will not charge you too much and it is very nice here. We especially welcome Veterans and Police. Give Debbie a call at 870-492-5115 for a reservation.
