Quillback

Sadly, the Finches have migrated south for the winter. A lot of them can be found in New Orleans in February.

Got this out of the Arkansas Gazette, at least the state seems to be monitoring what is going on. A second facility used to store and dispose of discarded water used by natural gas drillers can no longer accept the wastewater, the director of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality said Tuesday. A property owner reported seeing dead fish on his property near the Griffithville disposal site operated by Searcy-based Central Arkansas Disposal, said Teresa Marks, director of the Department of Environmental Quality. After investigating, the department issued an emergency order Friday after an inspection found a "large unlined, unpermitted waste treatment reservoir," being filled through an underground pipe from the licensed facility, the emergency order states. On Dec. 3, the department closed a wastewater storage and disposal facility near Carlisle for improperly applying the water onto farmland. Marks imposed a moratorium on new permits for drill fluid storage facilities until a study is completed examining the effects the operations have on soils and waterways. She said Central Arkansas Disposal was already scheduled for sampling. The director said the complaint coincided with the ongoing study. "We did have some sampling that was part of the scientific study, but also had a complaint about a reservoir that a citizen was concerned about," she said. "We went out to test as a result of the complaint and determined that it had high a level of chlorides." The manager of Central Arkansas Disposal, Ron Carl, was traveling out-of-state Tuesday and was unavailable for comment, according to a man who answered the phone at the company's office in Searcy. The unpermitted reservoir was emptying into Raft Creek, the emergency order says and an employee from Central Arkansas Disposal "stated that the fluid within the reservoir was from the Central Arkansas Disposal facility. The employee did not know if the fluid reached the reservoir by pumping or gravity flow." A water sample also found high chloride levels in the stream. The creek feeds the Steve Wilson/Raft Creek Wildlife Management Area in White County. Mike Armstrong, chief of fisheries for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said because the fish found on the landowners property had been dead for at least a week or more, it was hard to determine the magnitude of the fish kill in the creek. "We did delineate that between a one-mile and two-mile stretch of the creek was affected," Armstrong said. "We found several largemouth bass up to 4 pounds and quality sized crappie so there was a robust fish population in those ditches." Armstrong said the commission would study data on similar habitats to make an estimation of how many fish should be in the area. "I would suspect that kill would be in the thousands with dead bass in the 2- to 4-pound range," he said. Land farms consist of at least two large plastic-lined ponds that hold drilling fluid - which is mainly water and rock sediment discarded during drilling. After obtaining a permit from the department, land farm owners are allowed to irrigate crops with the fluid, after sending samples to the department. The fluid is generated by companies drilling for natural gas in the Fayetteville Shale, a geologic formation that stretches from north-central Arkansas to the Mississippi River. The formation is expected to have a $22 billion impact on the Arkansas economy by 2012, according to a University of Arkansas study. Marks said she is unaware of any drinking water in the area that could be affected, but that the company now faces a penalty of up to $10,000 per day of being in violation of its permit. She said the emergency order simply calls for the company to cease operation, but enforcement action will follow. "We have a matrix at the water department and we can plug in such information as whether or not harm was done to the environment; whether or not it was an intentional act and whether or not the company has a history of violations, things like that."

I have been doing a little on line research and I noticed Kansas and Nebraska both seem to have quite a bit of public land available. Once I get back into bird hunting I'll check them out.

Sounds like he did not get the permit which is a good thing. The guy should not be allowed to own or carry firearms whether concealed or not.

Just curious, were you on public land? I don't expect you to tell me exactly where, but just curious if the public land in Iowa is worth hunting.

How about when millions of buffalo roamed the plains?

Thanks for the rport, I did not make it out there, boat problems. But everything is back together, and I'll hopefully get out there around the holidays - if it isn't too cold.

Nice fish!

Sorry to see Inbev jumping in, I was hoping they would leave A-B alone, but that's just wishful thinking, anytime there's a corportate takeover people get cut no matter what's said up front. I imagine that eventually the Clydesdales will be replaced with Belgian weiner dogs or something similar - something that is smaller, eats less, and isn't associated with the USA. Kinda like they dumped all the US symbolism with their new logo.

I have left the plug out myself once. I think just about anyone who has a boat forgets about the plug at least once in their lives. What did you catch the whites on?

Those are some great dog stories - bad endings mostly for the dogs, but funny to read. JD - I think having that guy spray the country side with that MP5 would have me more upset than the dog - ATF finds out he has a full auto weapon he could be in big time trouble.

I'm thinking about fishing it around Thanksgiving when I can get out during the week, that lake can get crowded on a weekend during the winter. I haven't been there since they started allowing people to keep bass - I wonder how the fishing is holding up. Sounds like there's some cats in that lake, never have tried for them, I'll have to give it a try this year.

Dirfted the flats in the mid lake area yesterday, picked up 5 nice blues on fresh shad. Beautiful day to be on the lake.

Thankfully I have not experienced stink bait so bad that it makes you hurl.

I take you seriously Big Red, population growth is the root cause of most of the earth's problems. More and more competition for resources. And everybody wants to have their 40 acres and a mule

Buffet may be taxed at a lower rate, since he mostly makes money through investments rather than salary, but he pays millions vs the secretary paying thousands - and what does ol Warren get for it from the federal govt. that his secretary doesn't? It's an easy argument to say that the tax system as is, is unfairly biased against wealthy taxpayers. (Not that I'm one of them). Personally I'm in favor of a flat rate no exceptions tax system. Our tax system is uneccessarily complicated.

Yep, these are great reports! Keep it up!

Those are some great looking nets!

They were catching crappie this spring out of Lake Leatherwood which is just west of Eureka Springs, don't know how it will be end of August, it's a no wake lake, perfect for your boat.

I like that ladybug idea, I did a quick search online and they aren't that expensive. I'll have my own army of ladybugs! I wonder if I can train them to go after the neighbors dog when it craps on my lawn..

Patfish - What do you use to keep your vines in such good shape? Some bugs, either mites or aphids are killing the tomato leaves on my plants. I have tired spraying them with the organic spray walmart and Lowes carry, but it doesn't seem to slow them down. I have alos tried dish detergent mixed with water. I have heard Sevin works, but I am reluctant to use it.

I never had heard of the purple paint thing, now I know.

What's weird to me is that I had never seen a Stella Artois (An Inbev brand) TV commercial until about the time the buyout talks started. It probably doesn't mean anything, but sure was coincidental. Inbev is known as a cost cutting machine. I fear for the Clydesdales.

Near the mouth of the Monte Ne arm.

I went out early Saturday and trolled Bandit 300's and picked up half a dozen crappie and my first Beaver lake walleye, a nice 20 incher.