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Water was running so fast across Old Prarire Creek road (we live just off that road) yesterday that it peeled up the pavement in one spot:

Yeah, I sure believe that. Been raining HARD most of the day here. Sounds like it might be worth a drive to the dam in the next couple of days to see the water going through the gates. Hopefully, they'll turn the turbines loose, too. Shame to waste all the potential electricity.

Wow. 10' in 4-5 days. 8' rise in just the last 48 hours. That's incredible. Bass must all be flushed down to the dam by now. The new rain gauge says 3 3/4 inches here at PC in the last 24 hours.

Exactly. That's what they were sent to DC to do. And yet the premise of this thread is to demonize their efforts to save money if it runs afoul of someones pet project or notion about being progressive/socialist. It's all well and good to waste money and/or spend more for feel good stuff, if you have money to waste. We no longer do. We are all going to have to accept that we as a nation were on a drunken spending binge that has hurt our economy and our future world standing. We are all going to feel a lot of pain to get back on the right tracks, fiscally speaking.

I was down at White Rock Mt yesterday, and drove home during a particularly strong deluge. Very impressive to see the water just gushing out of the woods and down the rock bluffs along Hwy 16. Never seen anything quite like it. All of the White River branches through there were running very hard, and Prarire Creek was crazy fast and muddy when I finally got home. Lake level is shooting up, and the weather forecast I just watched said up to 5" in the next 24 hours or so. Glad I live at the top of a hill.

For myself, I did not express my views in this thread because I expected the thread to get locked or nuked, per Lilley's recent thread on this. I strongly disagree with some of the views stated in this thread, but kept my opinion to myself out of respect for his request. Still a bit confused on political threads here, but will have to feel my way along, I guess. Thanks for the input.

I don't mean to be a trouble maker, but it's confusing when you say "no politics" but then allow a thread so heavily into politics. Is it only okay when it's not the crunchy granola party getting trashed? Just trying to figure it out. I don't like to see politics in a forum like this, and I guess I should just turn a blind eye to it here. But if it's going to continue, I feel like I should try to add some balance to threads like this.

Just discovered my rain gauge developed a crack over the winter. I had it turned upside down all winter, too. Oh well, there's another $5. So no idea how much we got in the PC area. A bunch, that's for sure.

I guess Lilley should have pinned this thread.

Just got done watching it (recorded it). Close contest this year. Crazy the size of bass they were getting at that time of year. I guess that's why they're pros, and I'm NOT. A little surprised to see at the end that they did not display the top 5 or top 10. The way they made it sound was like Shuffield was 2nd. Thought that was kind of poor, but otherwise decent coverage. Thanks for letting us know about the show, Jeff!

That's 100% correct. I would for sure assume that any grade of gas contains, or can contain, 10% ethanol if the pump has the "can contain up to 10% ethanol" sticker. Many states do allow premium fuel to be ethanol free, but that does not mean all the premium is ethanol free.

Cool. Just added the 3rd. Went right into the database, too.

Thanks for the link. 2 of the 3 in my area made the list. So it's not a complete list, but good info, none the less.

I agree. I'm a big believer in spending to get the good stuff, and paying for protection. But that's not really a safety feature. That's really just additional assurance that it won't accidentally deploy. Both will deploy once you submerge them.

Mustang calls that their "HIT" system (Hydrostatic Inflator Technology). We have one of those, too. Mustang with LIFT and HIT. The wife uses that one. It is pretty warm to wear in the summer, though. But they also make the "normal" sized inflatable, like the one I linked in above, with HIT now. Pretty good price increase to get it, though.

I think it's overblown a bit. I did read the article, and we should not run more than E10 (10% ethanol) in our motors. But any modern outboard, say at least in the last 10 years, and probably more like 15-20, should have no issue with it. I lived in MN for 35 years before moving here 6 years ago. We were the first state to mandate E10 in all pump fuels statewide. Corn belt and all, you know. I never had a single issue with it in any of my boats, dirt bikes, chainsaws, ATV's, generators, RV's, vehicles, etc. All of them were fairly new, though, and the owners manuals said E10 was fine. Never used any additives unless it was for storage going into the winter. E10 can certainly cause issues with older stuff. Consult the owners manual or call the company when in doubt. And if you store your boat on the water, I'd be much more concerned and probably use the Stabil stuff. Having said all of that, it is nice down here that we have a choice. There are 3 stations, at least, within 5 miles of my house that sell non-ethanol fuel. So I almost always get my boat fuel at one of those now. I know E10 is not an issue for my motor, but why not minimize the tiny risk that is there for a few pennies more a gallon, I figure?

I have this Mustang. Had for about a year now. It's never inflated on me. I do take reasonable care to make sure it stays dry, like most all of my stuff. But I've had it in the rain a couple of times with no issues.

Spent most of the last 3 weeks out in the woods with my dirt bike club putting on some events, so it was nice to get out on Beaver yesterday with Quillback and wet a line. It was windier than heck out there. My trolling motor will handle it just fine, even right into the big gusts yesterday, but it's not much fun fighting it. We caught a few on a variety of baits. Jerk baits are still working well. Water temps are getting there, at least around the PC to Ventris area. We saw anywhere from 49 to 51. Water clarity varied from about 3' to maybe 6' or so.

Can't help with those motors. I own a Minn Kota 70# motor, but it's the powerdrive V2. But the 5 speed vs variable I can help with. 5 speed is just that. You are either in 1 or 2 or 3 etc. Nothing in between the speeds. Variable speed is like a variable speed drill. That gives you a lot more flexibility when working in the wind or current.

Just make sure they are polarized. The majority of Oakley's are not. I have a bunch of Oakleys, and they are good sunglasses, but I use some perscription polarized WileyX glasses for fishing. They are nice because they have a foam insert on the back side I use in the winter that blocks out the cold wind that always seems to be blowing in the winter months around here.

Thanks for pasting that in, Jeff. Good to see King take 2nd place.

Good to see Stacey King in the top 5. We went to a seminar at BPS in Springfield last weeekend that he gave. Good speaker, and seemed like a nice guy. Plus he's from this area. It'd be great to see him pull it off. Blaylock sure made a big jump from 1 fish on day 1 to 5 for 18lbs on day 2!

Here's an FLW video of the first day. Sucks I'm traveling. I'd love to go to the weigh ins and be out on the lake seeing what these guys are doing. The results are about what I expected, though. I told Quillback that I figured only the top 5, maybe top 10 guys would get limits. Tough lake when even the pros have problems pulling in 5 legals.

We saw Ish at BPS in Springfield on Saturday. Seemed like a nice guy. He was helping out at their electronics counter.

Had a few hours of free time sneak up on me yesterday, so went fishing from about 10-1. The pro's were blowing up the lake. I expected to see a few of them pre-fishing, but they were all over. PC parking lot looked full when I went through the marina. Lots of them were back in the Avoca Cove area. Probably 5-6 wrapped boats in there at one point. I didn't see any of them close to me catch anything. Still pretty tough out there. Using mostly jerk baits, some cranks, some jigs. I can find active looking fish on the graph and lots of shad balls, but can't get the fish to bite right now. Water temp was 41-43 most places. Can't understand why it's still so slow on Beaver but Table Rock is doing well.