skeeter

Yikes ! Didn't realize it until looking at a map that Millwood and Hempstead County is North of Texarkana. That gator wasn't just surviving that far North, it was thriving ! Thanks for posting.

Amen ! Hope these morons stay on LOZ but, unfortunately, we're seeing and HEARING more and more of them on Table Rock.

So far, Isaac's remnants have been a bust on Table Rock. Winds started yesterday at about Noon with a few gusts up to about 22mph and rain, which began around 1:30 A.M., has been gentle with no runoff and very intermittent. Only .65 of an inch so far and wind is only 3-4 mph from the East. From radar pictures it appears the center of circulation will pass directly over the Stone County/Barry County line and it's sucking in dry air behind the center that is stopping the much needed rain from developing here.

Phil, If the rain you are referring to last week was the one that NOAA issued the severe T-Storm warning for, we heard that was only over around the Indian Point and Dam area that it poured. Here in the mid-Lake area we got our usual four inches that day.......four inches between drops that is !!! Still, we have had more rain in August than in any other month this year except March when we got that 3 & 1/2"downpour. Talked to two local guys in the excavator business about eight weeks ago that said it was dry back then all the way down to 5 feet below ground. Like Wayne posted, it's going to take a lot to reverse this extreme drought. Maybe the return to the developing El Nino conditions in the Eastern Pacific will bring us some moisture because the moisture from the Gulf has been shut off for many Months.

Sure didn't mean to imply the wake boats weren't emptying ballast tanks/bags before trailering, but my understanding of the zebra mussel is that it can survive with very little water for a long period of time, about 48 hours drying time is recommended for a supposedly dry surface like a boat trailer to avoid transfer. Don't know if those tanks/bags are gravity drained or pump drained but they surely can't be easily completely emptied and dried out. As far as the idea of wake boater's common courtesy towards fishermen, right, their operators aren't all careless jerks but those big wakes caused by adding ballast do travel a long, long way.

After reading Bill B's informative post about wake-boats taking on ballast and my confession of total ignorance of this fact I decided to do a little long overdue self-education about this matter. Went to two Company's websites that manufacture Wake-boats and drilled down on the specifications they were advertising. One Company was bragging about on-board tanks and "bags" selectively placed in the bow and under the driver's area, amidships, that could add 1400 lbs. of ballast ! The other Company was tooting their horn about how their 24 footer could carry 17 passengers and still add 1800 lbs. of ballast. ! This does explain how these boats are specifically designed and intended to throw such enormous wakes far in excess of what a vessel that size would normally be expected to generate. The additional weight and selective placement of that weight turns a "planing" type hull design into a hybrid "displacement" style hull sitting much deeper in the water. 1 gallon of water weighs about 8.33 lbs. so if they add the full 1800 lbs of ballast they are introducing 216 gallons of water into internal tanks/bags on their boats. This water can be from Zebra mussel infested waters and there is no way for them to cleanse those internal tanks/bags if they trailer from one body of water to another so their boats are prime suspects in transferring invasive species. Is this a stretch ?....well, maybe, but if those tanks/bags retain water, even in small amounts, guess what can survive ?

VERY nice to see respectful differences of opinion politely expressed here. We have a very nice new neighbor who recently bought a used 25 foot deep-V bow-rider as their first boat. Not sure that was a wise choice for a new boater but, unfortunately, we had to tow them and their family into the Marina on the Fourth due to their boat breaking down. My point is even though this Gentleman is completely new to boating and was in a sizeable boat, HE was bitterly complaining about the actions of other rude, uncaring boaters and their wakes and far too-close operation and was anxious to get his family, including several Grandchildren, safely off the Lake ! Bill: Guess I'm out of touch with wake-boat technology but thanks for the "heads-up" that these things actually take on ballast to sit deeper in the water and that's how they throw those ridiculous sized wakes that come over my bow and especially up and over the old Skeeter's transom. Hope your inside info. is correct about some kind of pending action regarding these boats and their operation. Found out that the local camp is operating 5 or 6 of them mainly back in Little Indian and many residents are up in arms over the damages to their docks and lifts. One guy had pictures of them posted on a flyer late last Summer in the Baxter marina office and was calling for action.

Based on the locations I'm seeing posted for those quickly replying "no", I respectfully doubt that they have witnessed, firsthand, weekend after weekend, the outright chaos, littering and thoroughly disgusting behavior taking place on the heavily floated streams adjacent to the St. Louis Metro area. It happens every Summer weekend and Holiday on the Mid and upper-Meramec, Huzzah, Courtois and extending in a lesser amount to the Black, Gasconade and Current watersheds. Most Saturdays and Sundays you can walk from bank to bank on rubber rafts and canoes and tubes loaded with littering, urinating, defecating drunks and dopers and never get your feet wet right after the multiple float liveries drop off their school bus loads of already inebriated floaters. I would never begin to take a young child on those streams at those times. Picture Party Cove at LOZ floating bank to bank down your precious streams and you have just a little idea of what goes on and then the next several busloads arrive upsteam, unload and launch and the next wave hits the water. I'm definitely anti-tax but this abuse of the streams mentioned has got to be controlled in some way and that takes funding. Let those who are creating the problems pay for better, much-needed enforcement of laws on the books as the quoted "tourism taxes" just are not generating enough revenue for the needed oversight. kevthebassman has a pretty good idea here and it will only affect those creating or profiting from the abuse. Again, you have to have seen it to believe how bad it gets.

http://www.ksdk.com/...n-Illinois-lake Read the local comments at the bottom of the article. Not sure if these things can survive the Winter and really hope the answer is NO ! If you have seen Jeremy Wade's little show on these fish you know what they do to human males and male animals in S. E. Asia where they were intentionally transplanted. Illinois Fish & Game should learn from the Carp invasion and the Snakeheads in the Potomac and poison the entire lake and start over before these things escape.

Same lack of rain, maybe even worse, in S. Stone Co. Like Wayne, I've about lost count of how many rainstorms have detoured around us or fallen completely apart before reaching us. It's like there is some invisible wall in the sky. I'm recording only 11.52 inches of precip. for the year so far and looking at on-line records of other surrounding CWOP weather stations shows the same pattern. 100 degree temps this week is only gonna' make things worse ! We may be headed from record high Lake levels last year to very low levels this year if this drought keeps up and NOAA's long range outlook is for more of the same. Hope people use common sense with fireworks and the comment about clearing brush away from your homes is an extremely good idea with the Fourth coming up. Another suggestion would be to have your hoses ready to go. Cedars and even the hardwoods are only needing one spark. We trimmed some hardwoods back last week and despite green leaves, they burned like crazy with no problem getting them started.

"Chlorade" ? Do you mean Chlordane ?

Good point on using the "synthetic deck boards". I replaced our deck 18 months ago and went with that synthetic material in hopes of avoiding the usual back breaking, time consuming, every two year maintenance of natural wood and so far, so good. After cutting and installing Timbertech product I started noticing during the Winter and early Spring, the exact same type of material used for the bunk boards on many unoccupied boat lifts for large boats back in Little Indian (Baxter) area. Apparently, it is slick enough that no marine carpeting is needed which is what holds the water and airborne moisture against the wood and starts the rot thing in the first place. Can't recall the maker of the lifts using those synthetic boards but they do have a local shop. I'm sure going to order more of that material and use it in the future on both lift boards and trailer boards. It's more pricey than natural wood but should last about forever. Wish I had some boards from the deck project left over but we figured our purchase close enough that we had no lengthy pieces unused.

It's a Corps ramp and should accommodate two boats at a time depending on skill, or lack thereof, of driver(s). Parking and pull-up area to back in is much enlarged and improved. There is a courtesy dock. The Baxter campground is now open complete with fee-collecting gatekeepers but the less-steep, flatter ramp in the Campground is gone. The Corps removed it and moved their swim beach over where the flatter ramp used to be during their two-year-long Campground re-construction.

Anybody want to offer any theories on why the Rock is still so off-color ? It's been about four weeks since the 3" + rain and not much since then, then the turn-over followed by all the water flushed out of Beaver meaning they were running water thru the dam at TR. Algae bloom maybe ??

" can we please turn off the sunshine pump and bubble machine?" ROTFLMAO ! Thanks for that.

The sponsored tournamant Pro's are touting the Lithium Ion marine batteries saying they don't get weak with use during the day and last 2000 charge/discharge cycles and weigh 50 lbs. less than lead-acid. Then you read where they cost $1200.00 apiece !!! Riiight !! Only if someone else is footing the bill. Sounds like a new marine theft target.

+1 to the previous three posts. This "bed jerking" has got to end.

Correct. As I mentioned in my original post, most of what you posted in your first posting was true the way it went down. I wasn't really "arguing", there was no point in that, it's over and done with. All I was doing was stating the facts, as I knew them, from the other side of the coin as there are always two, and sometimes, three or four sides to every issue and the board-member making the original inquiry deserved to hear both sides. These days, so many (not you) choose to forget, ignore and completely disrespect those with opposing opinions and views.

Can't say if MU fans will be there but you can try the " OO " Grill at the intersection of Highway 13 and " OO " on the far North side of Kimberling City.

Actually and factually, the authority for dam building along tributaries of the Mississippi River came from " The Flood Control Act of 1928 (FCA 1928) (70th United States Congress, Sess. 1. Ch. 596, enacted May 15, 1928" That pre-dated FDR's election to the White House by several years. Herbert Hoover was the President who signed the bill into law and now we will hear about what a horrible President he was....! I would have bet $100 on the opinion "sour grapes" being expressed. The Anti's never were happy unless they managed to denigrate their oppostion with personal attacks and I see that habit prevails. Remind you of anything taking place in politics today by a certain group begiining with the letter "L" ? Ha ! Stating proven facts always ticked off the nay-sayers. They responded with half-truths, which are far more dangerous than lies. Like stating that the charlatan Rimbach was ultimately proven correct. Really ? By whom pray tell ? Prove it......and you better be able to quote Professional sources...not half-baked "opinions" by unqualified individuals pretending to be an "authority" like Rimbach did. Moving those high water markers in Onondaga cave prior to Congressman Symington's visit should have resulted in Rimbach's prosecution and prison time but Symington was so embarrassed after his office was informed by the Corps how he had been "had" that they hushed it up. Re-election time was coming soon and he didn't ever want to admit an error. As far as cost overrruns...they were fully and willfully caused by the Lake opposition dreaming up new objections while the Corps laboriously and slowly responded to their previous objections. They had planned all along to drag the project out until costs escalated via the horrible Inflation of those days and public opinion could be swayed by their readily available "speakers" they could trot out at a moment's notice because not too many of them, somehow, seemed to be regularly employed. Massive Government intrusion ? Sure it was. But wouldn't that be the same thing you propose by "buying up" established properties in the flood plains Mr. Franklin ? Would you give those current property owners a choice whether to sell or not ? And then who would own that "bought up" land and what would you propose to replace the lost taxes on that land that goes to support local services and schools ? See....there is no simple answer, as we all discovered years ago, and that same R.E. tax issue surfaced when the COE began it's eminent domain acquisition of the Meramec Lake properties. As I said in my original post....where to begin. There are two sides to every issue and I was stating facts, not opinions, as I and other simple anglers experienced and learned them as we encountered a well-organized and well-funded opposition. If the "pro" side was heavily funded as stated in Agnew's post, I sure would have enjoyed seeing some of that monetary support.

Ha ha ! Yessir, you sure nailed that one. But it's the only job where you can be wrong 80% of the time and not get cannned ! [grin].

That is my understanding also. Unless the weather cools suddenly and dramatically this Month the spawn is going to be very early this year.

Where to start ? So much of what Agnew wrote did happen but the facts from the other side are totally lacking. The victors always write the history books so that's what people will believe and swallow but I, along with several other Bass fishermen in local clubs, was involved on the pro-Meramec Lake side and can tell you that you aren't getting even close to both sides of this long-dead issue. Contrary to what you are reading in other posts, there was a large amount of public support for the Lake in anticipation of a close-by, flat water resource becoming available to East Central Missourians. The problem was, there was no formal organization like the anti's had in the Sierra Club, to express their approval so those in favor of the Lake had no voice and that became evident with the MDC and MO Conservation Federation being overwhelmed with organized and well-funded numbers of letters and phone calls in opposition to the Lake and therefore, changing their minds believing they were representing actual public opinion. Remember, these phone calls were made back before caller I.D. so the recipients had no way of telling they were all coming from a "phone bank" with the same person making multiple calls. Agnew left out Gebhardt's support of killing the lake/dam in response to the Sierra Club's meddling in his town-hall meetings and "seeding" those same meetings with attendance by many dozens of Sierra Club supporters not residing in the 3rd District who were distributed around the gym at the Bishop DuBourg High School meeting in a well-orchestrated effort to make it appear that applause support came from everywhere in response to Gebhardt's negative speechifying against the project. I was personally in attendance at that meeting and watched, in amazement, the organization and direction present, pre-meeting, telling each group of anti's where to sit. I was one of many working stiffs who wanted a nearby Lake to take my then-young family to without enduring a three-four hour car ride and high priced overnight stays at LOZ. Rimbach was a complete amateur with no training or credentials to conduct his "subterranean mapping techniques" and tried to pass himself off as some kind of "professional" cave expert and bona fide Engineers, both private and Government employed, with Degrees from reputable Schools and years of experience, knew this but couldn't get the media to publish anything negative about the guy. Lester Dill's Meramec Caverns was located a few miles downstream of the dam site and would have been protected against the rapid and destructive Meramec River near-flash-floods. Symington's visit to Onondaga was orchestrated, in-part, by Rimbach and Dill, the former of who, it was later discovered and proven, had gone into the cave which was then under Dill's ownership, and re-located the high water survey marks to a much higher level than what the COE had placed throughout the cave system after a thorough and wholly professionally conducted survey. LOZ association (I can't recall their exact title) did write several five figure checks to the local Sierra Club headed up by the master of half-truths, Jerry Sugarman. LOZ association was scared to death of Meramec Lake and one check was revealed to have been in the amount of $50.000.00. Try fighting that kind of money while working for living, raising a family and attempting to defuse half-truths and outright lies about the project as spread by Rimbach and the Sierra Club. Many of the "anti" Dam forces didn't hold 9 to 5 jobs and could free themselves up at a moment's notice to go around to service clubs, Church based organizations, school groups during class time etc. etc. and relate their highly biased opinion of the project. And the "cost overruns" were caused, in large part, by the delaying tactics of the anti-dam movement. The really funny thing is today, the Meramec on weekends in the Summer is virtually unfishable from a jet-drive boat due to the bank-to-bank "aluminum hatch" floating downstream mixed freely with those out-of-control rubber rafts that bounce around overloaded with beer guzzling, inebriated partiers completely ruining the peace, beauty and serenity of that River. And lastly, had the Meramec Dam project been completed on time, the disastrous flood that took out Valley Park in Dec. 1982 could have been reduced to 1/3 of what it was as the Lake was scheduled to only just begin filling at that time and could have retained a high percentage of those flood waters. http://interact.stltoday.com/mds/news/html/1425 By the way, you should have seen the original 1950's plans for damming the Meramec. The dam site selected was just downstream of the Big and Meramec River's confluence and would have created a Lake completely taking out Pacific, MO and backing water up the Meramec as far as Sullivan, MO with branches reaching far up the Bourbeuse and Big Rivers both.

Stone County did turn off the old sirens which we couldn't hear anyway and you probably couldn't either down Big Indian unless the wind direction was just right. Midland makes a nice S.A.M.E. weather alert radio with the NOAA logo on it that is able to be programmed for the types of weather alerts and the Counties you want to be alerted to. Also has battery back-up if the power goes out and can receive AM/FM + alarm clock and time/date display. I found the best price on it on Amazon. Programming feature is nice as it excludes the alerts you aren't interested in. In your area I would suggest programming in Stone, Carroll in AR, and Barry Counties in MO with the last two being sort of early warning alerts as those two Counties are "upstream" of your area and generally where the weather comes from. There is a web link in the owners manual that tells you County codes. Ours went off numerous times Tuesday night and Wednesday morning during the local tornado outbreak and the new "Dual Polarization" radar just installed at the Springfield NWS office paid dividends as it enables the radar to scan vertically as well as horizontally and actually detect the debris (sometimes) that the twister sucks up into the air. I think the NWS then knows when the tornado is actually on-the-ground instead of just detecting rotation in the clouds rather than have to rely on local reports.

Tim , "Superior knowledge card " ? Hardly....all I was stating was my previous experience with one when a kid and reported incidents in the Western U.S. If that's your definition of "superior knowledge" so be it. F & F, Couldn't agree more. You've obviously spent time in their territory too and know you have to be aware. Just trying to comment on what changes are going to occur soon in the Ozarks as the population of cats seems to be on the increase. Trout Commander.....knew there would be a "keyboard jockey" out there...I was right. Smalliebigs, Noticed your posting about "running" being a factor in the documented attack on the youngster in CO. That dovetails with reports of the activity of a lot of folks that seems to have triggered the aggressive lion behavior. Yep, hot dogs suck . Got your drift. Hope things are going well for you guys.