Caught yesterday.
The lake level is 546.44 and rising just a bit with no generation for the last 24-hours. Surface temperature is still 45 degrees. No there is not a measurable shad kill. There are a very few small ones floating but that is normal. The surface temperature needs to get below 40 for any amount that makes for a jerk bait bite. That has not happened. A bite will happen in February anyway near the bank for bass, walleye and crappie no matter what the temperature is. I keep trying the grub but am still not getting much luck. I am sticking with the spoon for the near future. The bass bite on brush is good now and the crappie are fair. The live bait fishermen are having a hard time now but that is normal for late January. The lake is clearing a bit but is not anywhere near normal. As the water cools the shallower water cools more quickly and the shad prefer the warm water. The opposite is true for when it warms. Most of the shad have moved out of the backs of the creeks and there are not a lot of fish there. Fish on or around main lake brush with a creek coming in at about 25 feet with a spoon. It is very important to stay near cover now. I wish more people would put in brush rather than just taking advantage of the ones that work hard doing it. The game and fish are working hard to improve the lake habitat and I appreciate them. It has been neglected for several years and until the last couple of years, nothing has been done with the old Corps brush piles with the blue signs. The old idea that if you find shad you will find fish is not true this year. There are many schools of shad with nothing on them. Look for broken schools with dots and lines going through them. Black balls of them are seldom holding fish. I caught some nice bass and a few crappie yesterday evening and Bink caiught many more early in the morning, we were both using spoons. Blackburns has several customers in taking advantage of the low cabin prices and free boat stalls. I see several people hauling gas to their boats and not going to the marina to save money while paying $25-35 and day more for a cabin and also paying for boat stalls. Does not make much sense. We will not have any price increases on anything again this year despite increases in prices on almost everything we have to buy to keep the place running. We just want to make it affordable for our repeat customers, which we have many, and not have them pay too much. I do not like paying too much for anything.
