skeeter

Some years ago, the Water Patrol on LOZ was equipped with "decibel meters" (hope that's the correct term ) in an effort to control the ungodly noise levels from all the straight-exhaust, multi-engine show-off boats there. Apparently, the Patrol on TR has none or won't use them. Now, in addition to the show-off boats, we have the noise-loving boat owners with the "Captain's Call" engine exhaust that can bypass the underwater, through-the-hub exhaust at the flick of a switch so they can let everyone know they have an engine in their vessel and can annoy everyone with it. More inconsiderate jerks !

Don't know if you're aware that B. Long bought an older lakefront home off Hwy "H" in the Lampe area this Winter to somewhat re-hab it and is currently trying to "flip" it for a wholly unreasonable price that only a moron or someone indirectly hiding a large contribution to his campaign ( oh my goodness, who would be unethical enough to do that ?) would buy for the asking price !

They are sneaky, underhanded S.O.B's. that only want to "save Table Rock" for the express purposes of more development, larger docks/slips for more even bigger boats, and more ginormous, high-dollar homes that they can sell to collect their huge, undeserved commi$$ion$.

Anyone else lay eyes on the enormous off-shore racing type boat parked in front of Harter House earlier this week ? It must have been at least 45' long and was so big it needed to be towed by a rig suitable for over-the-road trucking but with a work-body on it. Yeah, we really need another show-off, look-at-me boat like that around here. At least when it's up on plane it won't throw quite as big of a wake as these plowing wake-boats do.

But not a word about the massive boat wakes that are so dangerous to everyone....it was brought up at every meeting according to what I have heard but is being ignored.

Mizzou Administration knuckling-under to these numbskulls was horrible. Remember the center of the protest who did a hunger strike was later exposed as the Son of the VP of Sales and marketing for the UP RR in Omaha and Daddy pulls down a cool $8 Million a year and was a very frequent "commuter" to the protests/riots going on in Ferguson about 100 miles away Oddly, there was never any concrete proof of the guy's claims of being yelled at with insults from a passing vehicle (no witnesses on a very busy campus ) and the claimed swastika drawn in a bathroom was never even pictured in this day of everyone carrying a camera on their cell phone. Always thought swastikas were anti-Semite, not racist. And then we had Melissa Click But, the lack of attendance at Football and Basketball games was largely because both teams were....less than good ! Basketball should be vastly improved this year...football....yet to be decided.

If you recall, they stocked Steelhead in Taney in the 70's. Caught a few.

Yeah, I think a lot of people equated GPS with Radar and I hope that error has corrected itself.

If it had been "a Skeeter owners tournament" you would not have found me participating. Tournaments are not why I fish and you couldn't pay me to get involved in one. Ooopsie, I think you're a Ranger owner....certainly wasn't bashing Ranger boats....just the idiot organizers.

My Dad (b. 1901) always said that if Bluegill/Sunfish regularly grew to 5 lbs., it wouldn't be safe to swim in fresh water.

Kinda' reminds me of the time a few years back when the Ranger-owner Tournament organizers turned the Ranger mob loose during a very heavily fogged-in morning despite the almost zero visibility conditions. We left our slip in the Baxter Marina in our ZX210C Skeeter under trolling motor power only and stayed close to the launch-ramp bank which we could just barely make out only 1 & 1/2 cast-lengths away, and expecting no success but it beat just sitting around, we continued down along the bank to the super-shallow COE campground point waiting and hoping for the fog to lift. Suddenly we began hearing high speed boats zooming past headed up the two Indian Creeks and listening very closely for any incoming. We gradually made out this other near-by boat floating just off the same shallow point and were finally able to determine there was a camera-guy with one of those large shoulder-carried video cameras standing in the stern pointing the camera at us. Laughed our rear-ends off when you could hear the disgust among the three guys in the camera-boat when they could finally make out the six inch high "SKEETER" on the side of our boat. We found out they had launched at Baxter and were there to video the various Ranger-driving entrants. When we asked them who the consarned, total NITWIT was that had turned all those boats loose in the heavy fog we got the reply "well....they all are equipped with GPS and that makes it safe " !!!!

Sadly, the Federal Gov't. is actually doing next to nothing to oversee and regulate Monopolies and enforce Anti-trust law and I suggest you look no further than what happened in the U.S. and foreign Beer industry and right up in St. Louis at the "Megabrew" Corporation now called Anheuser-Busch/InBev for a classic example. Not only were they allowed to gobble-up American-owned Anheuser-Busch in late 2008, resulting in employment falling from over 42,000 pre-buy-out to 17,000 post-buy-out, but they recently bought South African Breweries (SAB/Miller) and got away with that one, despite two strongly-worded letters to the DOJ from a Senate Business Competition sub-committee stating "no-go" on allowing the buy, only because they sold-off the Miller/Coors portion to Canadian-owned Molson/Coors. Warnings were issued to A-B/InBev stating at the time of the SAB purchase that there would be no further acquisitions allowed.......since then they have openly acquired numerous ( I lost track of how many ) U.S. "Craft Brewers" without even a slap on the wrist. In other words, the Feds appear not to give a rat's-arse about Antitrust.

From what I'm getting out of this article: (thanks for posting ) 1.) The Authors state there is some "law" about liability arising from damages from huge wakes carelessly created by the negligence of the boat operator but they only quote "Maritime Rule XX" and don't indicate if that arcane law gives Law Enforcement the power to arrest and charge those in violation. MO WP tells the OA member and the dock owner at LOZ there is no such thing. So if there actually is such a law in Missouri then the MO WP is guilty of dereliction of duty ?? 2.) Authors also state there is some basis for a Civil (?) Law Suit for injuries and possibly property damages from large wakes....then is it up to the injured party to have proof of the cause of the injuries ( a video like the property owner at LOZ has ? ) and then retain an Attorney and file Suit ? I would think good luck with finding a Court in Missouri able to apply Maritime Law XX....we need a strong State Law that empowers the MO Water Patrol.

I apologize for contradicting you but one of the OA members who posts on the Lake of the Ozarks Forum has posted about a large, Commercial Dock owner on LOZ who knows that one particular boat that comes by his dock will create expensive structural damages from to the dock from its wake every time the boat passes by. The dock owner went to the extent of making a HD video of the passing vessel clearly showing the State registration numbers on the vessel's bow and following the wake that was created hitting his dock and doing a claimed $1500 in damages to the poles. The owner took the video to the Water Patrol where they viewed it and said they were sorry but there was nothing they could do due to a lack of enforceable State Law about wake damage. That is why I have posted that it's important to also communicate with your State Legislators about this issue. Our local State Senator and State Representative in the TR area both sit on committees concerned with Tourism and should be addressing this.

Then he'd better get on board with influencing the State Legislators to finally do something about limiting these incredible wakes that are filling-up fishing boats with water coming in over all four sides....or his market for fishing boats is going to dry up as more people get fed up with conditions on area lakes. Wasn't "Legend" yet another brand name that John Story made boats under ?

From what I've seen on the Lake of the Ozarks OA Forum where our "growing-problem" is even worse, the posts have said the Water Patrol claims there are no State laws in existence limiting boat speeds in combination with length. There is not even a law making the boat owner responsible for damages that their Vessel's boat wake causes ! The link to the KY3 article says dock owners are concerned with boat wakes from boats that are "speeding-by" which is NOT what produces these ginormous wakes from ballast-adding Wake Boats....it's their deliberate, slow-speed "plowing" meant specifically to produce a huge wake so one inconsiderate individual can pretend they are in the Ocean and "surf" the wake or jump their wakeboard over the wake while everyone else trying to share the Lake is forced to endure the effects of their play-toy's huge wake. Kudos to those writing their Congressmen but I think we need to start writing our State Legislators too and get them to pass laws limiting large boat speeds and making boat owners responsible for the damages their ridiculous-sized wakes do. Until those laws are on the books, the Water Patrol claims they are powerless as proven by the one LOZ poster who said the dock owner had video proof of the passing boat and the $1500 in damages it caused.

There's a scene showing Bateman crossing the main channel of the Lake in a 16', open, aluminum V-bottom with a tiller-steered outboard powering it. Not another boat nor a boat-wake in sight during daylight hours on a nice, warm, Sunny day. Now imagine the shock when viewers decide to go to LOZO based on scenes from "Ozark" and the surprise they're going to get

The second episode shows the money-launderer crossing the main channel of the Lake in a 16' open aluminum v-bottom with a tiller-steered outboard. Can you imagine doing that without bad results on LOZ ? LMAO ! There are several scenes filmed in the LOZ area but as soon as they show the Lake you know you're not at LOZ because you don't see the usual wall-to-wall docks lining the shore. So far, the series has not been kind in showing interactions with Locals. Also showed the guy buying a stringer of catfish for $100 from an angler tied up to a dock...

Regarding your oh-so correct comment about total lack of action and expressed concern about ridiculous boat size and their huge wakes they are generating makes any person very aware of just how freaking hypocritical the Bureaucrats and Army lifers in the Corps of Engineers truly are. Stating their supposed concern about environmental characteristics of the shoreline without addressing this huge wake issue is just further proof that the worst thing you can hear is: "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help" !

no! per the thread author.

What happens to those expensive, glass Solar panels after one of our frequent hailstorms ? Wait till your Insurance Companies figure that one out and adjust Premiums accordingly... ! At least they'll hold down the tin dock roofs better in windstorms.... How heavy are those multiple panels + necessary batteries and how much lower will that added weight make the docks sit in the water ? Will the dock owner(s) then run afoul of the ACOE minimum distance required between water level and the metal on the underlying dock structure ? Maintenance on these Solar systems ain't cheap...now you'll replace solar batteries as often as you replace trolling motor batteries.....might be time to invest some $$ in the Doe Run Company (formerly St. Joe Lead).

So, has anyone taken the few minutes necessary to send an email on the subject to your State Legislators ? If you aren't sure who they are there's an easy way to find out and they all have email addresses. Try....http://www.senate.mo.gov/LegisLookup/default.aspx/leg_lookup.aspx for your State Senator http://www.senate.mo.gov/LegisLookup/default.aspx/leg_lookup.aspx for your State Representative. Get your family and fishing buddies to do the same an let's get this "growing" problem stopped...now !

The location in question in the article is LOZ...but don't ever think this isn't headed right here. The time for action is now to contact State Legislators about a needed law concerning boat wakes. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/bigger-boats-bigger-wakes-breed-conflict-on-lake-of-the/article_1cecbedd-e647-5302-93ae-7a78974dc6c8.html?mode=comments#_=_

A great three-day Summer holiday entertainment was always a shady spot for lawn chairs accompanied by some cold refreshments down by the launch ramp. Several times though, you get to feeling so bad and so sorry for the folks trying to launch or recover that the Christian thing to do is go and offer to help them....if they'll accept it ! Usually the poor woman driving the tow-rig will but the male in the boat won't.