skeeter

With tongue firmly in cheek.....well...why not eat them ?...after all, you are paying for them.

Could also be something as simple as dirt on the top surface of your battery allowing current to feed from positive to negative posts. Try wiping the battery clean first if you find it dirty and then the other excellent suggestions on this board. Also could be that if the battery is getting old and weak, most modern Outboards will constantly draw a few microvolts from their starter battery to feed the on-board computer they are all equipped with. Over time, that constant drain can mess up a weak battery. Only way to avoid it is a master shut off. Perko makes them.

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it...best thing for tournaments after water exceeds 65 degrees is to measure, photograph and release at the side of the boat. One of the local Bass clubs does this and it works just fine. Avoids high Bass mortality and stops the removal of fish from their "home" waters where they never return. Mortality such as Bill describes is unavoidable and you can tell how it disturbed him but this continued business of trying to keep fish alive with chemicals, ice, aerated live-wells etc. and then hauling them miles and miles away from the catch area in the heat has got to stop. You guys are only giving yourselves really bad reputations and leading yourselves down the road to much stricter Government regulation of derbys if you don't start realizing how the non-tournament anglers and boating public resents and comments on the floating dead Bass. The rest of you who feel the same way( and there are plenty out there )should start speaking up. I am fed-up with this waste...and for what? Bragging rights or a check ? If a check is involved maybe the MDC and Water Patrol should begin charging $10,000 minimum or $1000 per boat fee for regatta/tournament permits since the promoters are using a public resource to line their pockets !!!

Before you decide, check into their coverage on thefts of fishing and electronic equipment. That alone, not just cost, made my decision to part with the former Company I had and sign up with Progressive. Not fond of their ads on TV nor their owner's extreme liberal views but couldn't find another carrier that offered their level of coverage. My two cents.

Cable lock your boat to the dock...Cabela's has a couple of different models that should work for you. Propeller locks will slow down lower unit thieves and are about $50 at BassPro. If your gas tank filler necks/caps are made by PERKO, that Company has locks available that fit down into the filler neck. Then, there are lower unit anti-theft bolts I found from http://www.lowerunitlock.com/ and http://www.captmikesstopthief.com/. Disgusting to have to do all this crap but if you got it, the scum want it.

Just a suggestion but there are claims that towing with the cover on will cost 2 miles per gallon plus it beats the heck out of the cover. Many I know never cover their boat on the road unless there is foul weather.

Yep, St. Gen. was re-located quite a ways away from the Big River. I have my Great-Grandmother's X2 journal of her journey via flatboat from Pittsburgh to STL in 1803 where she wrote about St. Gen's original cemetery being washed away by the Mississippi and seeing the ends of coffins sticking out of the eroding riverbank. Pierre Laclede supposedly chose the site of St. Louis because of the protection from flooding the original riverbluffs there offered that were gradually graded down over decades so the draft horse teams could pull loaded wagons up from the steamboats on the levee. The old-timers knew all about living and building in floodplains and what to do and not do. Never could figure out what the French settlers were thinking of placing the first St. Gen. where they did. Must have had something to do with ease of loading the Lead they mined.

Finally got on the water at 9:00 after shuttle boat ride out to the Marina dock. Access road well under water as is the parking lot at Baxter so no choice but to wait. With the rapid rise we tried the trick worm or Senko back behind the Sycamore tree line and had two nice fish, one nice 18" LM with a massive "V" shaped lower jaw and one 16" SM.... bang, bang when we first got the boat in behind the Sycamores. Shallow fish ( those two anyway ) seem to be holding on open bottom areas adjacent to live Cedars that are in the high water. After the first two fish we struck out until just one more on PB&J Jewel jig after we moved out to 20 feet on clean bottom. Again, suspect it was a late bedding fish. Water 65 to 66 back in the creek and visibility of roughly 2 ft. Amazing number of play/ski boats out (Kanakuk boats were everywhere !) in the Sunshine throwing wakes making it tough back in the bushes. Gonna' try Bill's SM pattern today but hate these late starts waiting for the dock to open.

Out this morning for about three-four hours before the latest storm rolled in. Started out comfortable then the temperature dropped quickly and heavy dew fell soaking us and the boat. Lake is navigable with exercise of due caution for newly floating debris that was deposited by previous high water on the banks but being re-floated by the resumed rising water. Gates at dam are open again and if you are on a channel bank, as we were on the main lake, you can really notice the current the release at the dam is causing. I let the boat drift with it several times just for the heck of it and the GPS measured between .1 and .3 mph and we were well out of the negligible wind that was blowing. If you pulled in close to the shoreline trees in the water you could see debris caught around the tree limbs waving in the current. Fishing was slow at best with just three on PB&J jig and wake bait but that was probably just me. Big problem is finding somewhere to launch your boat or accessing a dock. The road to the Marina parking lot (what there is of it) at Baxter is about to go under again.

1.65 inches since Noon Friday in the Baxter area. Ground is saturated again. Off and on rain predicted thru next Wed. The key to any releases here is the lower Mississippi where both the Old River Control project and the Morganza Floodway are being severely tested by the record flooding.

COE is ruled by Politics. Politics are ruled by money. Them that has get's what they want, them that don't get squat. More money comes to politics from Urban areas than from Rural. Bear in mind the Morganza Spillway project can also be termed the Morganza Diversion project. It was authorized by Congress back in 1928 as part of the "Mississippi River and Tributaries Project" after the floods of 1927 when the River measured 80 miles across in places. The Project was also built, and this is important, to prevent the Mississippi cutting a new channel via "Avulsion" to the Gulf down the Atchafalaya River basin. The Morganza is tied into (not physically) the "Old River Control Structure" which also has the purpose of stopping/preventing the Missisippi from flowing down the Atchafalaya basin and entering the Gulf at Morgan City. That route to the Gulf is much steeper than the present day route. Studies have shown this channel change has occured about every 1000 years in the past and some researchers believe that despite the COE's best efforts it will happen again. Due, in part, to the available soils used in construction of these two structures, merely opening the floodgates puts both projects at risk and the flood of 2011 will be a severe test. Failure of these projects would be a severe blow to the U.S. economy. Bird's Point-New Madrid Floodway, in Missouri, was part of the same 1928 "Mississippi River and Tributaries Project" bill authorizing COE to build projects attempting to control the Mississippi. It was designed to be blown up to relieve flooding pressure if it wasn't over-topped first, and it was previously dynamited in 1937 and was then re-built, the latest in 1983 when the COE installed 11,000 feet of pipe to enable pumping of liquid explosive to open the floodway. Was this a good decision to "save" Cairo, IL ? Depends on your point of view. Cairo is literally surrounded by levees, it's the lowest place in the State of Illinois and saving it cost MO farmers untold millions of dollars that the Feds. have promised to re-pay them !!! ? On the other hand, those farmers and residents knew fully that some day, the floodway could and would be opened again so here is another case of there is no " GOOD" decision.

Just spoke with MoDOT's Springfield office at 417-895-7600 and the KC bridge is NOT closed and was NOT closed at any time. They are monitoring the situation but it appears the Lake may have crested at about 1400 hours at 935.47 and went down a teeny bit to 935.44 at 1500. Not down much but better than the constant rise !

Maybe not, but we all pay to rescue their butts when they hit something at 70 mph in flood conditions.

Pictures of the entrance road to Baxter campground/launch ramp. Courtesy dock is being sucked underwater by the cables. Have heard many docks are having this same problem.

935.03 at 0700 4-27-08 ! 68,000 cfs being released at the dam, also new record. Hope they don't have to use the spillway.

Safety first with all the floating debris just under the surface. Observed several tournament type wrapped boats this afternoon with dual power poles running just about wide open despite trees, limbs, trash etc. all over the water. Then along comes a big play boat throwing the usual high wake. Many docks have been taken in as far as their cables will allow and are putting a lot of stress on anchors, cables, structure etc. 933.17 at 1900 hours. Going higher.

The Corp's website is predicting 931 by Thursday 4-28. http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/WCDS/Reports/Daily/lakfcst.htm After seeing the water in the Rivers, streams and roadside ditches that is draining towards the Lake on a trip up to Springfield yesterday, I can understand that prediction. And that is just from the North, to the South, the rain was even heavier. I have recorded 13.28 inches since last Thursday with 5.39 inches of that coming yesterday, Monday, and thankfully, it has stopped for a while.

Those storms that were parked over AR moved North during the night and are right over Table Rock and are "training" West to East. 2.03 inches since Midnight as of 6:18 A.M. Monday. Storm total since Thursday now stands at 9.88 inches and it's pouring and will continue to do so. You can almost watch the Lake rising. Severe weather predicted by NWS for Monday afternoon.

According to my Vantage Vue rain gauge, since it began raining Thurs., we have had 5.64 inches + an additional .79 inches as of 11:30 A.M. since Midnight, today, Easter Sunday. Looks like that NWS prognostication for 6 to 9 inches over the seven day forecast period may be a little bit low ! Good spawn/fry survival should be a result.

My point exactly, aimed at the finger pointer who targeted lake homes as the culprits behind "rock snot". Thanks for posting the facts.

Nope, not open yet. They open April 1st or the 1st weekend in April.

Anyone interested can find an informative article in the newest Bassmaster magazine about the effects of the use of Gasoline containing Ethanol in outboards. Title of the article is "Death by Ethanol". Makes no diff if your engine is newer or older this stuff is gonna' getchya' in the wallet. The notorious affinity for water that all Ethanol exhibits is the chief culprit. And now the EPA has approved 15% Ethanol for newer vehicles so be sure and read those gas pumps before filling up the boat.

6.22 Nothing wrong with "lurkers". At least they don't yap endlessly about inane subjects.

That survery sure didn't ask many questions of those who catch smallmouth on lakes. It seemed to be aimed at stream/river fishermen.

Yeah, and "pouring" phosphorus and fecal bacteria down the rivers and creeks from inadequate sewage treatment plants from Cities, chicken farms, cattle pastures and small towns. What River/creek does Buffalo, MO drain it's sewage into ?