skeeter

You can forget windy banks. Hard to believe the amount of leaves, trash, driftwood, trees etc. that is floating up against a shoreline exposed to this NW wind. Just looked outside and the "crap-line" extends out an easy 35 feet from the current high water line at the bank edge. Seems to be mostly leaves and that is going to really hit the pH hard from all the Tannin in the leaf litter.

So it's 12:46 A. M. and sleep ain't happening and I'm screwing around on the Computer. But what to my wondering ears goes zooming by but a Bass Boat on Dec. 23 at very high speed ! Hard core indeed, but hey, it is (amazingly) 59 degrees and the Moon is bright thru the openings in the clouds !

If you aren't local and/or haven't heard, the Bridge closes for 24 hours to all traffic at 7 AM Tuesday Dec. 8th and is scheduled to re-open at 7 AM Wednesday Dec. 9th. Saw a couple of anglers towing their rigs across the Bridge yesterday and, if you haven't been across it lately, it's claimed to be about 9'6" in the open lane at best. Not much wiggle room..

If you purchased a Mustang Brand auto-inflating PFD lately, you might want to read these. Came to me in a letter from Bass Pro today.

If you purchased a Mustang brand auto-inflating PFD lately, you might want to read this. Came to me in a letter from Bass Pro today.

At today's prices and if you plan on keeping whatever you purchase for a few years, I'd pay close attention to Matt's #2. Lowrance has this Corporate Policy of declaring their units "obsolete" after a while Won't support them and won't repair them and you are then forced to buy another unit. Of course, it's up to you. Good luck !

thank you.

Wrench...answer...a dishonest Mechanic ! ;-)

Phil, When I make a simple, hopefully informative post about downstream water levels and the opportunity for the ACOE to reduce water levels in the Tri-Lakes chain from the lengthy and troublesome high levels this Summer and some know-it-all blasts me for my use of the word "choice", yeah, that sets me off. No, there's no "history" and that's the other part of the problem. Total stranger (to me) types an accusatory comment about my use of the word "choice" (what else would you call it when none existed before ?) and I'm not going to "take it".

Thanks.

You're quite welcome, now if you had just kept your all-knowing, contradictory comment to yourself in the first place instead of popping-off about someone's post that wasn't remotely directed at you and none of your business, none of this unfortunate exchange would have happened. You continue to prove my point with each succeeding outburst but, again, you started it.

Where's a good source for those ProGuides please ? My Interstates are four years old and getting suspect. I read big c's story about Optima's and had the Batteries Plus people in Sprgfld. warn me off of them. Seems they quit selling them before last year due to too many warranty returns and the manager told me they had moved their production out of the U.S. Batteries Plus recommended Northstar AGM which are made in Sprgfld. but the cost is $300+ per battery. Yikes ! Thanks.

Correct, some are sensitive to contrarian, deliberately obnoxious, accusatory, contradictory and deriding comments on a totally innocent posting. Always someone (you) out there ready to pounce-on, complain-about and belittle some total stranger's thoughts and information. If you can't say anything positive just shut up ! You should have learned that by the time you were 12 yrs old but didn't. FYI, Mr. Wonderful hydrology expert, lower water levels on the lower Miss. DO give the COE the "CHOICE" whether or not to release water from the Tri-Lakes chain. Prior to the subsiding of the Miss. levels, there was no "choice", the high lake waters were held back to protect the Farmers in the Arkansas Grand Prairie area as well as further downstream on the White and the Miss..

Took that word "choice" the wrong way didn't you ? typical Kansas confrontational attitude. Try a little non-accusatory courtesy in your next post, if possible.

According to news reports, the high water conditions on the lower Mississippi are greatly reduced so the COE should now be able to lower the Tri-Lakes levels much faster.....if they choose to.

And a big Amen to the "silent" part, especially in super-clear water conditions. All depends on what they want that day but IMHO, on TR anyway, silent outdoes rattling. Not many baitfish have rocks in their guts that rattle :-) !

I'm well aware of the flat lands in Arkansas' "Grand Prarie" and how the slightest flood stage spreads out for miles but wasn't aware of the White and Arkansas still being close to flood stage. Must be a lot of "back-up" from the Mississippi not letting them drain faster. Marina owner told me the COE plan/forecast was for 917 by Labor Day barring any more widespread heavy rains.

Keeping my fingers and toes crossed it's not the LMBV again ! Maybe someone with better understanding of water conditions than me can explain why the water isn't clearing up ? Only thing I can think of is a continued algae bloom from all the nutrients that got washed in ?

Megabass bait looked good until discovery of the rattle in it. This year with the dingy water that might be OK but I avoid rattles in the normally clear water. Just sayin'.

As many of you know, the underwater Baxter ramp and access road require you to back thru the trees and adjacent rocks but the upper lot is still available for parking. Surely by now, the COE should be able to lower the Tri-Lakes at a faster rate than what we are seeing ?

Yeppers, and that was when the water was only about 918 and some change. This afternoon, the same highly intelligent person wouldn't have had any problem....she's on the way up at 920.5 and rising pretty fast. At least this time around all four turbines are operational at the dam so they will be making a lot of clean Hydropower. I still can't figure how he got that trailer over or under those parking lot cables but he did. The "Baxter Springs" inlet at the rear corner of the parking lot sounds like a Rocky Mountain Creek during Spring Snowmelt.

Media is reporting an evacuation of Roaring River Park and a four foot "wave" of water moving thru it. Kinda' doubt that came in the form of an actual "wave" but the water level did rise. Shell Knob reporting 5" this morning and we have 2.20" at Baxter....so far at 11:47 with more coming indicated on Radar.

Baxter ramp was the usual Funnyfarm over the weekend. Then, some highly intelligent individual decided to launch off the Marina parking lot. Don't know how he got past those steel cables strung at the lower extent of the lot but his prop managed to hit two dock-anchor cables on his way out.

Gosh darn, you recall that too huh ? Never forget being out in a boat with Dad and his buddy, a German bricklayer name of Henry Schumacher, back in a quiet cove on LOZ in about '55 or '56. Idiot pulling a skier buzzed Henry's boat about three times between us and the nearby bank while we were anchored close to a marked Crappie bed (remember those red on white heart markers on the shoreline trees ? ) and the third time, Henry pulled a lever-action 30-30 out from under the windshield somewhere and shook it at the clown. Bozo made the mistake of coming back for a fourth time and Henry pumped about three rounds from the 30-30 at the ski-boat's waterline. Certainly not recommended and way prior to having to have Registration numbers on boats. I always thought that was an isolated incident but you must have heard of others.

Saw their new docks....incredible !! New Marina office is a full size, two-story house floating on the water... very nice but is it really needed ? Instead of vindictive, unreasonable "shoreline management plans" the COE needs to limit boat sizes. NOW, before it's too late.