bfishn

The near-side shore by the ramp isn't that bad, just 10-15' of riprap between parking and the water, but only the far downstream end beyond the dike ever sees the current that sauger like. The far side sucks, a good walk from the truck, then down 40-50' of rocks. Naturally that's the better spot. Best in a boat there. For bankfishing, L&D 13 at Van Buren is pretty sweet. Easy access to the entire dike between the generators and the gates.You can also fish straight down over a gaurdrail in the generator discharge, which is OK for anything you can lift 20' in the air to grab it. Not so good for fish you can't lift with your line. Naturally there's more pressure there, but it's very tolerable, often enjoyable. There's no giant eddy like at Ozark. It's all downhill. Oh, the 100 yard restrictions for boats don't apply to bankfishers. If you can walk to it or cast to it, you can fish it. Rod-n-reel territory only, no setlines. If you have a 10ft+ surf rod in the closet, break it out. The far side at 13 is a sleeper. Accesses the slack backwater behind the lock wall. When the gates are open, everything piles up at the current break at the end of the lockwall dike. You can anchor safely in the slack and cast to the break. I've had a couple episodes there so good you had to throw down all but one rod, and keep a good hold on it. I reeled up a couple rods to clear for a catch and just let the bait dangle at the side of the boat. Caught cats on them too. https://maps.google.com/maps?q=13+Lock+and+Dam+Road,+Barling,+AR&hl=en&ll=35.351536,-94.296856&spn=0.023942,0.060425&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=23.900542,61.875&oq=lock+and+dam+13+barling&t=h&hnear=Lock+and+Dam+Rd,+Barling,+Sebastian,+Arkansas+72923&z=14 I love tailwaters...

I love tailwaters. Really, really, really. My favorite so far is on the Arkansas River at Ozark. It's the nearest Arkansas River dam to visit the Ozarks, and has been a "location of interest" for me for 25+ years. L&D 12 can be a busy place. When the barges are running, there can be multiple lock operations per hour. The constant adjustment of generators, gates, and flows keep you either on your toes, or off the water. It takes a level head in these spots, a mistake at best makes you a googin' ahole to all the real river people, and at worst activates your life insurance. My advice is to heed the small craft advisories and stay home when they're in effect. Access is well marked just east of Ozark. There's a last minute bait shop (Lakeside?) in Ozark near the Gar Creek bridge. For anyone that doesn't fish big tailraces or has hever boated at 20+ fish, a stop there is appropriate. You can bring bait, but there's seldom a need. Bring your thrownet and a real bait tank. Shad are handy anywhere there's current, and gills, carp, etc can be caught on worms in the slack areas. There are times you can throw lures, but... why? When the gates are open, I don't fish there. The downstream current breaks are safer, but still a real risk if you have any kind of problem. The rest of the time is punctuated by generation releases, and that's when it's hot. The layout of the tailwater creates a giant eddy below the dam, with the eddy current running backward up the lock wall and across the downstream face of the dam. The eddy current is always less than, but proportional to, the main flow, creating off-current sacntuary and feeding grounds for everything that swims here. And there's a lot that swim here. I've caught LMB, crappie, blue, channel, and flathead cats, carp, buffalo, mooneye, gizzard shad, bluegill/sunfish, white & striped bass, yellow bass, long & shortnose gar, sauger (yum), and eels. Plus a few I couldn't name. There's a sign on the west bank and one on the lock wall that mark the 100 yards you must stay away from the dam. There's also a 100 yard radius off limits around the lock drain, which blows water straight up from a ~20' conduit. When you hear any horn blow down there, be very aware. You can access most of the shoreline, but most of it's big riprap, and hard to walk. Been some bigguns caught that way though. Also snagging opportunities if you're in to that. Just when the barges pause, the riverbottom rail express rips thru at 70mph. Never a dull minute if you count the gar. You can hear the riverboat radio traffic on the Mississippi sometimes on the dam PA. Now get this... no jet skis, no ski boats, no wake boats (but you really gotta watch that 6-footer from the barge). Not even on Labor Day, which is why I mention it now. The faint smell of dead gar lingers, and it's dam dangerous muddy water. Home sweet home. Worth mention again is the lock drain, where the 70lb blue in my avatar came from. There's about a 100x100 ft submerged concrete structure that juts out of the lock wall, and tops out about 15ft deep. In the middle is about a 20ft hole, which drains the lock, rather violently if you're too close. When the eddy current is rocking, there's a super current break behind the drain structure. There's a cool interactive on lock operation at; http://www.swl.usace.army.mil/Missions/Navigation/LockSimulator.aspx Other than the big blues, I've caught lots of 15-25lb flatheads, mainly on the dike rocks. Sauger in January when I was ambitious. It's the only place I've never ever been skunked at. Did I mention I really love tailwaters?

It's simply the economics of a machine on the grid. Every generator has a narrow efficiency band, and the efficiency falls off rapidly for flows less than design capacity. They have to get the best bang for the buck, which means only bringing on units as they can do so efficiently. Water in the reservoir is money in the bank, so you only dump it when you can profit. In the big picture, our beloved tailwaters are really just the exhaust pipes of the system, what's left from the process. We take what they give, and manage to like it sometimes. :-)

And it should be righteously restocked with largemouth, courtesy the floods & Bella Vista.

Beaver water may be cleaner than the Ark River, but having eaten plenty from both, the river blues are far better eaters. I wouldn't hesitate a moment to clean and eat a 30lb river blue, but I generally throw anything over 15 from Beaver back.

Follow the stripers. Literally, but not too close. Big blues do, especially fall & winter, when the bait's bigger. Okay, following stripers by 50 yds isn't practical, so position yourself where they're known to pass (with shad there too). Inside channel bends are good contact areas. Hang right on the shallow side of the channel break over the 25-40ft zone. Once they show you can keep them around with some chum.

I had my reservations till I saw his video. Not much spooks me (often to my detriment), but I was disturbed just watching that phone video. I don't have any desire to watch it again.

It's either a bid for, or the fault of, that reality show from OK, Mudcats or somethin'. Locals fan out and hit their honey holes for a winning fish. Townsfolk and others gather at the weigh-in. Lots of good-natured ribbing and a couple not-so-good-natured pranks. Winners bully the bars for the following year, drinking all the good booze and getting the prettiest gals. Celebrity finally takes its' toll on the not-ready-for-prime-time-players. Lather, rinse, repeat.

A coworker showed me a video of one he decap'd, of the body in a hall-full barn trash can. When someone drew near, the body would coil, lunge, and strike in the right direction. Spooky. The head was still out where it landed.

Backwater Bubba's BarBQ Barge... has a ring to it. More hmm... (controlled fires in small boats; the epitomy of "don't try this at home".)

Nice report! A bloom of 1/4" shad turns most opportunistic fish into filter feeders; swim & swallow. Kinda like the mayfly hatch on steroids. One of the hardest things to compete with, but it makes for some big, healthy fall fish. A 10lb fish could easily gain three this year. What's that...? You say there's a good ledge bite where...? Down by the dam, huh. Just let me get my boots on...

I saw you wanted to set a line for cats, if it's convenient, I'd go to the timber nearly in the back end of Jacques Creek on the east side of Indian Point. Pick a couple trees paralell to the bank in 25-30feet of water with no trees between them. Leave some slack and tie on a 5-10lb rock on a dropper near each end to sink the entire line to 5-10 feet deep. Take some worms and go early enough to catch some green sunfish or bluegill right there to bait live with. Since you're in a 'yak, take a stringer when you return... :-)

Good question. Makes my head hurt. Rounding up your monkeys might be an easier task than answering that one.

I've never been really clear when it comes to knowing the difference between a monkey and a person, I'm glad the law cleared that up; "Person" means an individual, a partnership, a corporation, an organization, or another legal entity or an officer, a member, a shareholder, a director, an employee, an agent, or a representative of a partnership, a corporation, an organization, or another legal entity; "Primate" means a live individual animal of the taxonomic order Primates, excluding humans. And there (where no one noticed) is the buried treasure in this bill. Re-read the newly-legal-in-Arkansas definition for a person and chew on it a bit. The lack of corporate responsibility has always bugged me, maybe if they're legally "people" they can be held acountable like you or me. I'll believe it when Texas executes a corporation.

I crossed the lower Grand on 412 yesterday, there was and is a lot of water flushing that drainage.

Where to begin... I saw a camper chasing one of the landowner's sheep across the pasture at the 50 Cent Hole one frosty, full moon, March night. I spent the rest of the night in the boat. I saw twin waterspouts form just yards from my boat, grow to several stories tall, and fly off into the distance. I saw/felt a bolt of lightning snake down the bridge column at Holiday Island not 30' away. Ears still ring from that. I watched an eagle preen for 15 minutes, the whole time (he was) crapping in the front of my boat, which was just 25ft under his bluff perch. We had a brief discussion on the State of the Union, I told him what was happening, then he'd crap.

Yeah, greenies. The ones you can palm and not get poked. A tip for them. change the water at least once 15-20 minutes after loading them in the well. They tend to void themselves at either or both ends after capture, loading enough ammonia even an areator can't cope. If you're loaded up, change it twice. Once that's over, they're pretty easy to keep.

Excellent! Thank you! I'm gonna ask Santa to bring you a real dipnet. The fish you're lookin' for, that net won't hold. :-) I'd be (were I you, of course) tied to that bank with some 1/2 lb skipjacks or carp on R&R. Purely in the name of science. I believe in river monstrers. Well done.

While the nation wrestles with affodable health care, and the State of Washington addresses gender bias issues in their legalese, the newly-elected legislature in the State of Arkansas had some very serious business to attend to... making sure your monkey is registered. I kid you not. In effect, as of today, Arkansas Act 1337 requires you to fill & submit the following form to register your monkey (don't forget to attach a picture and a check for $50); http://www.healthy.arkansas.gov/aboutADH/Documents/Acts/PrimateFormfillin.pdf You can etch the language of the new law in your brain at; http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2013/2013R/Acts/Act1337.pdf Were in not for my personal mantra of "only kill what you'll eat", I'd be inclined to follow suit with Mr. Wrench's recent opinion... :-)

Yeah I was. Nothing against a fellow tooting his own horn a bit, but copy/pasting the same stuff on multiple subforums seems a bit like... well... that aforementioned canned meat product.

Do you serve crackers with your SPAM?

YUM!

Aahh, some resourceful flathead has probably repurposed that 'fridge into a Water Winnebago by now anyway.

The "why" of the Corps' actions in this project is easy. As explained in the preface of the EIS I linked above, the Corps was directed to pursue this action by The Water Resource Development Acts (WRDA) of 1999 and 2000 (federal legislation). The White River Minimum Flow project was only one among dozens of water resource projects scattered across the nation directed by the Acts. The 2000 Act can be found at; http://www.fws.gov/habitatconservation/omnibus/wrda2000.pdf Section 304 summarizes the WR portion; SEC. 304. WHITE RIVER BASIN, ARKANSAS AND MISSOURI. (a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subsection (B, the project for flood control, power generation, and other purposes at the White River Basin, Arkansas and Missouri, authorized by section 4 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of June 28, 1938 (52 Stat. 1218), and modified by House Document 917, 76th Congress, 3d Session, and House Document 290, 77th Congress, 1st Session, approved August 18, 1941, and House Document 499, 83d Congress, 2d Session, approved September 3, 1954, and by section 304 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1996 (110 Stat. 3711), is further modified to authorize the Secretary to provide minimum flows necessary to sustain tail water trout fisheries by reallocating the following recommended amounts of project storage: (1) Beaver Lake, 1.5 feet. (2) Table Rock, 2 feet. (3) Bull Shoals Lake, 5 feet. (4) Norfolk Lake, 3.5 feet. (5) Greers Ferry Lake, 3 feet. (b REPORT.— (1) IN GENERAL.—No funds may be obligated to carry out work on the modification under subsection (a) until the Chief of Engineers, through completion of a final report, determines that the work is technically sound, environmentally acceptable, and economically justified. (2) TIMING.—Not later than January 1, 2002, the Secretary shall transmit to Congress the final report. (3) CONTENTS.—The final report shall include determinations concerning whether— (A) the modification under subsection (a) adversely affects other authorized project purposes; and (B Federal costs will be incurred in connection with the modification. Congress has been writing WRDAs every couple years or so since 1974. They comprise the laundry list of nearly every task the Corps ends up having to fullfill. Often the directions begin with a study, which sometimes proves the mandate to be economically unfeasible or environmentally or technically unsound. Such was the case with Beaver, Table Rock, and Greers Ferry in this project, as Bull & Norfork were the only ones carried out in the end. So, like it or not, please keep in mind that like any good Army, the Corps just does what it's told to... ...by the people we send to Washington.

Be on the lookout for that refrigerator from Holiday Island.