We received a little rain last night but not much. It had some wind with it. The lake level is 574.75 and is dropping about an inch a day and they are generating a little less than 1/2 the time. They could do all of the area lakes and their users a lot of good by dropping them just a few feet but they are hell bent to get Newport down to that magic number of 14 feet and the world will be saved. It is just over 15-feet now. I have a small trotline out and am catching small channel cats about 1-1/2 to 3 lbs. They are biting on prepared baits. I bait every other one with live shiners but they are still there. No bluecats or flatheads yet. Flatheads are the last to spawn and will not bite on dead baits. Limb lines are not working very well. I also am catching walleye dragging night crawlers on a lindy rig around the islands. Just go partway back in major creeks like float creek where you can cast close to the bank and look for the shad surfacing and cast something there. It does not much matter what. Almost all fish, including bait fish are in submerged brush and trees in less than 20-feet mornings and evenings. Fishing is slow during the middle of the day. Boating and swimming off a boat is excellent. Fishing, diving and swimming off the bank not so much. Blackburns has good swimming off our dock and in our big pool with slide.
