It is sunny with light wind today with high near freezing. About the same tomorrow and then in the 40's for the weekend with some rain Sunday. That should thaw out trolling motors and steering cables. Normal high is 44. The surface temperature was 46.7 in Blackburns cove last evening and a couple of degrees higher on the main lake. A shad kill starts at just below 40 and gets serious at 37. If this happens get that jerk bait out and work deep water where the wind is blowing into and look for lethargic shad. I usually start in the Bluffs area. All kinds of fish will be there. If a kill happens it will make for much easier open water fishing later as the shad are very plentiful and many schools do not have fish with them. Not all of the fish are on shad now with some being on the bank and more on brush. Spooning is the best method now along with grubs and crank baits on the wind blown banks. As the water cools more of the shad go with the wind instead of following plankton. Bass are a little late moving to their winter places but should stay there for a while now. I do not follow the walleye spawn migration up river in February like I used to. It has slowed way down over the years. You used to just have to drive to the 160 bridge and look for all of the trucks parked there to know when it is at its peak but not nearly as many now. Blackburns is open all year and is not on vacation. All of our time and money goes into improvements. Call 870-492-5115 for reservations. The spring and summer are filling up nicely with people taking advantage of our low rates. I will be spooning brush mostly from now on. Not much competition out there now.
