I Talked To A Native Of Yellville Today

[gotmuddy]

I have noticed on CC that where a creek comes in has a gravel bar next to it, even Georges creek which doesn't run half the year(way less than half the year this year)

You can definetly tell where the gravel mining was but thankfully the fishing hasn't been degraded too much below there.

[flytyer57]

You can definetly tell where the gravel mining was but thankfully the fishing hasn't been degraded too much below there.

That is because the mining was stopped several years ago and the creek is starting to heal itself.

[Danimal]

The gravel mining helped the creeks to have some nice deep holes of water. These were great for smallies.

Same crap is happening on the Ouchita, Talked with Ric and M&M wed. and he said the holes are filling with gravel, he has been running M&M canoe rental since 1996.

gravel fills waterholes

Rick shuttles my vehicle occasionally and is a really good guy but I have to disagree with him on this. The problem on the Ouachita is NOT due to a lack of gravel mining. The problem, like Justin said, is stream bank erosion in the upper watershed (well above where Rick runs his canoes). Since I started fishing that river in the early 80's, I can take you to at least a half dozen locations where the river is roughly 3 times wider than it was back then. Some of this is actually a RESULT of hit and run mining, but for the most part, it's simply bad property stewardship by landowners. I stood slack-jawed one day about 10 years ago when I personally watched a 15 ft. high, 60 to 80 yd long, 4 ft. wide section of dirt embankment just fall off into the river (glad I wasn't wading under it). When I first started going there, it would take the river 4 or 5 days to clear up after a good rain, now it takes 8 or 10. I've also noticed that I catch more spotted bass and fewer smallies than before. The spots are not invasive in that river, but I think the habitat is changing in favor of them. I've decided to float the river this coming spring and mark problem areas on a map, then contact Steve Filipek and the Arkansas Stream Team to see if something can be done(I regret not doing this years ago). It won't work if the landowners don't agree to it, but at least I can say I tried. Dan-o

[steve l]

I feel like I'm putting out fan mail, but maybe the best thread I have seen on the forums since joining up.

[Al Agnew]

Maybe the best argument that it isn't a lack of gravel mining causing the streams to get shallower is...streams that have never had any gravel mining are also getting shallower!

If you look as you float the streams, you'll see gravel "deltas" at the mouths of every feeder creek and even a lot of the ravines and hollows. But if you really want to see how much gravel gets dumped into the rivers during heavy rains, you should have seen the section of Big River between Mammoth Bridge and Browns Ford a couple weeks after there was a ten inch rain in that area. It was the perfect time to see what happens with every big rain, because unlike most big rains, which fall over a whole watershed and raise the river to flood stage, spreading all that new gravel out, this rain, which happened ten years or so ago, only took place in that one small area along Big River. So the river above Mammoth Bridge didn't get much water and didn't rise. When I put in at Mammoth Bridge, I could see a mud line along the banks with rocks and foliage covered by dried mud, about a foot above the normal water level. So during the big rain, the river there only rose a foot. But as I floated downstream, the mud line gradually got higher and higher, until at Browns Ford where I took out ten miles downstream, it was 6 feet higher than the normal level. So the river rose that much in that ten mile section during that one rain.

And EVERY little hollow, where it dumped into the river, had a HUGE delta of gravel, including rocks up to the size of basketballs, right in front of it. Being familiar with the river, I knew those deltas hadn't been there before, and you could tell the gravel and rocks looked raw, with no algae growth whatsoever, so all that gravel was new. Some of those deltas were more than 20 feet across and a couple feet high, where before there had been water 2-4 feet deep. That's a lot of new gravel coming into the river when you consider that a good sized hollow comes into the river about every half mile on both sides, with small hollows in between.

That was an extraordinary rain event, but any big rain will wash gravel into the river, and if there is a lot of land clearing in the watershed there will be a lot of gravel coming in.

A while back I posted some Google Earth photos of a former gravel dredged hole on lower Black River. When the dredging stopped, about 40 years ago, this hole had been dug out into a pool over a mile long, several hundred yards wide, and averaging 25-30 feet deep with some places up to 50 feet deep. Lower Black River, regulated by Clearwater Dam, gets very few floods of any size, but is often almost bank full when the lake is high and they are letting a lot of water through the dam. Those artificial "little floods" move gravel.

In the 40 years since the digging stopped, that huge pool has filled in completely. Except for the lower end, where there is about a 50 yard long stretch where you can still see the former dredged banks and where there is still about 15 feet of depth in one small spot, the rest of that mile long pool is now a winding, twisting, narrow river channel with riffles and very shallow runs, with willows and sycamores along the banks. It doesn't look like the more natural parts of the river, but you would never know that it was once such a huge pool.

That's how much gravel moves in these streams, even in one where it doesn't really get big floods. And if a pool that big could be dug out, and fill in completely in 40 years, think how fast the smaller pools along Crooked Creek can fill in, especially since Crooked Creek is an undammed stream subject to big floods, in an area that has some highly developed areas (Harrison, etc.).

[gotmuddy]

That's how much gravel moves in these streams, even in one where it doesn't really get big floods. And if a pool that big could be dug out, and fill in completely in 40 years, think how fast the smaller pools along Crooked Creek can fill in, especially since Crooked Creek is an undammed stream subject to big floods, in an area that has some highly developed areas (Harrison, etc.).

Crooked Creek is as close to a true riparian watershed as we have in the area and when we get regular rains you find the flows go from reasonable to insane in just a few hours.

[Justin Spencer]

Did the flood gates opening change the White and North Fork much below the dams a few years ago. Would think it opened up some holes and really cleaned out the rivers.

[snagged in outlet 3]

On The Norfork it filled in a bunch of holes and made the river more shallow overall. This might have happened due to the development up the hill from the dam area though. They had been fined and warned several times about runoff and when the area was blown out I'm sure a bunch of gravel was deposited from there.

One of my favorite holes down near the confluence with the White is completely filled in. The White changed a little up near the dam with a lot gravel deposited below the first shoal.

Really it was the opposite of what you would expect.

SIO3

[Wayne SW/MO]

Anyone who is familiar with Bennett can see the results of loving a stream to death. As the area and the park became more and more developed, the stream became less and less of a stream. The term "hole" that describes many deeper areas of the stream were actually coined when they were holes. The severity of floods has also increased because of development.

[flytyer57]

When I float the lower Buffalo, I am amazed at how deep some of the holes are. Are the deep holes a consequence of the Buffalo being undeveloped or just a natural feature of the river? Probably a combination of both.

Where was most of the gravel mining done on Crooked Creek?

Between Snow and Georges Creek.