Be Careful ...

[Duck]

Many years ago Table Rock was 15 or more feet low, it was the perfect way to see how many dangerous places there are. I know there are always changes made with flood but still a great lesson. I have been running TR since 1976 and still learning. One of the places to watch carefully is the mouth area of Rock creek and the first bend down past Eagle Rock. Also swing wide going into Roaring River and respect the markers.. Anyone else have warning areas, maybe we can save someone from trouble. Be Careful, Duck.

[GNSfishing]

This was just posted on FB by Rick Kettles, owner of Lakeside Resort. The picture caption was bad day to be on Table Rock. I dont recognize the area. This just goes to show ya, we need more gravel bars !

Amen to that...

[GNSfishing]

Jerry, I do not agree with you. Yes everyone has a right to be there, But! you are still responsible for your boat wakes. If you cause another boat to either swamp or capsize due to the size or proxsimity of your wakes, you can and will be cited. You are also responsible for any damage that your wakes cause such as dock damage.

Got a feeling there is just about to be a new set of rules and some new marshals in town, due to these wake boats. Rumor has it there is just about to be something done.

Something is just about to happen on this and we will see. Any boat taking on ballast that is causing excess wakes,might just be completely put out of business in Missouri.

I hope something is done about those boats and restrict the large boats which does not plane but push a wall of water. I was way in the back of Little Indian at Baxter when this wake boat went by us with someone riding a surf board. We were almost pushed up on the bank from their wake. I was hoping that they would catch a tree top through the bottom of that boat. That is the real problem they go up the creeks which is not wide enough for these big boats. The big boats was why we were fishing the in the creeks in the first place. We need to start getting the boat numbers and reporting them. There are laws and rules against what a lot of these boats are doing.

Last night we were in Piney Creek and it was dark and here came a jet ski wide open ran up into the back end turned around and come out, the rider had a flashlight on them. We pulled out a 1/2 hour later and meet the same jet ski on our way back to Cape Fair above Buzzard still running. We called the water patrol and reported it but was told the closet one was at Shell Knob. They was going to have him go to Cape Fair any way. So there is part of the problem no patrol on the water close enough to catch things like that. The presents of the water patrol on the lakes has become less after they have been combined with the highway patrol. Got to have there presents on the water and start cracking down on the violators of the rules and laws.

[crazy4fishin]

I can tell you that TableRock is not alone regarding this issue.....here in Nebraska we have way smaller water and I see the same thing.

Just this last week on the 4th I decide to fish....now I have a 20' Bass boat but I didn't feel like fighting the crowds so i decided to bank fish. While at one of the few lakes that has an open speed limit I watched a guy unload his boat, held it while his wife got in it....drove up to park the truck and while he was gone the boat floated away from the dock...the wife just stood in the middle of the boat with a perplexed look on her face.

Then their little boy comes to the dock yelling for her to come back and she tells him that she doesnt know how...by this time the husband comes to the dock and tells her to start the boat - she had no clue how to do that and flooded the engine. He then told her to get out the paddle and paddle back to the dock....18' deep V, wind pushing away from the dock...small paddle....not gonna happen.

Finally another boater was unloading and they took the Dad and the boy to the drifting boat - which by now was 40 yards out. The lesson here is two fold 1) don't get in a hurry and do things like you would normally 2) Make sure all responsible persons know how to operate the boat.

Bill - dont we need one of those Missouri sayings about now to drive this home?....some thing about toads etc? They crack me up! :]

[Sore Thumbs]

Sorry to say this. I am afraid those wake board boats aren't going anywhere. It's all about money and those are the hottest selling boats out there. Better get used to them. As for fishing. It seems that after dark is the time to go. I went last night and had a nice and quiet evening. A whole lot cooler too.

[Feathers and Fins]

Some simple 5MPH or even 10mph zones on the lake say within 150 yards of shore and in river arms would go a long way.

[motoman]

Not sure if I mentioned it here before or not?; but with the increasing number of people with smartphones with video capability; I would think a few

second video with the registration number of a boaters bad behavior, would have some clout with water patrol?

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Or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part.:-(

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Either way; I keep my iPhone dern close to catch a video of some of the previously mentioned behavior.

[Champ188]

Being on the water is one thing ... yes, everyone has that right. But no one has the right to darn near run over or swamp someone else.

[abkeenan]

Sorry to say this. I am afraid those wake board boats aren't going anywhere. It's all about money and those are the hottest selling boats out there. Better get used to them. As for fishing. It seems that after dark is the time to go. I went last night and had a nice and quiet evening. A whole lot cooler too.

x 2. Fished from 5-9AM (starting Wed morning ending Sat night) and fished evenings from 830ish til around 11PM. Temps cooler and also less boaters. Wakers and Skiers out at 7-8AM and wave runners sleep about an hour or two later and come out around 9-10. That was my observation for the last 5 days.

Jason I know what you mean about the crazy and careless boaters pulling the poor little kids that don't know any better and have idiots for parents. I was out on Friday night and was fishing in Beardsley branch around pt. 2 and a guy in a center console Mako (not 100% sure if that was the make) was pulling his son (about 6 y/o or so) with 2 other sub 10 years olds in the boat at about 9:30ish in the evening right out in the middle of the creek. It was entirely too late to be doing any sort of water sports and it was down right dangerous. He also stopped about 2-3 times right out in the middle of Beardsley to let the other 2 in the boat jump out into the water for a short 1 minute swim while the other younger one just sat in the tube waiting to get pulled again. Just idiotic. Don't even think he had a ski flag up and even if he did not even sure you would have been able to see it, it was that dark out by then.

[Stump bumper]

Driving back from Little Rock on I40 today I saw a wake boat flipped over on the side of the road trailer still attached to the SUV that looked to have rolled a couple of times and 4 or 5 damaged cars in the center median. I had to smile when I thought "they can't drive a truck either". Sorry I know that is mean....but I have always been more honest than nice.

Just read on Yahoo Usher's 11 year old sun killed by a jet ski, we had a death on a jet ski last week on Beaver guess it takes a death in the family to get people to wake up to the fact a boat on the water is the same as a car on the Highway and if you let you kids play in a busy highway they die.

Cars almost didn't take off 100 years ago because mother's didn't know any place for their children to play other than the streets, 30 years ago there were very few 50mph boats on the lakes, now maybe is our time to stop letting the children play in the "street".

I am not saying there can't be a "playground" on the lakes but maybe it should be marked off and some travel lanes set up just like we did on land, or let natural selection take place...