Table Rock Holding Steady to Raising

[Bill Babler]

Denny just saw on Facebook where the COE closed the ramp at Cape Fair Marina after opening it earlier this week, telling the folks at the Marina that the lake was headed up again.  If you look the lake has basically stayed the same for the last 24 hrs. or risen a inch or two.  Would be interesting to know what the plan is.

Got to think they are starting to drop Beaver and let it dribble out at Bull Shoals.  Looks like we are going to be the catch basin for a while. 

All reports coming from mostly Big Cedar as they have a private ramp their guides are using that the bite in the dam area is very good early on a blade and then fair to middlin later on tubes and swimbaits, on the old bank line but they are getting bit.

[Quillback]

Seems in the past it was always Bull that acted as the catch basin.  Maybe it is up pretty high too?  Maybe they are concerned about downstream water levels in the lower White and Mississippi? 

[dblades]

Bull still has 20 feet of storage if I read the table right.

[vernon]

I'll be really surprised if Bull doesn't eventually get to 35' above normal.  It's just kind of a staging process between Beaver, Table Rock and Bull Shoals with much consideration for down south factored in as well as the Landing.

But Truman and Bull Shoals are pretty much the Alamo for the area and Bull has almost three times the storage capacity that Table Rock does.

Gonna be a tuff Memorial Day weekend for a lot of folks but it sure won't be the first time.

[Ellros]

  There was a lot of water coming down the James, probably why they closed Cape Fair.  They still had flood warnings until saturday in some spots to the north.

[sfiser]

17 hours ago, dblades said:

Bull still has 20 feet of storage if I read the table right.

Bull as 7 feet left.  Its at 688 and top of flood pool is 695.  Its coming up just over an inch per hour

[Bassmod]

Bull shoals is pretty high. It's going to be a slow process imo.

http://www.lakelevels.info/USA/Missouri/

[Sore Thumbs]

This might be a dumb question. Why don't they open all of the dams before the rain comes and have steady flow going instead of waiting and dumping a bunch at once? Beaver didn't start dumping water til it was 10 ft above normal. What am I missing? 

[Ellros]

25 minutes ago, Sore Thumbs said:

This might be a dumb question. Why don't they open all of the dams before the rain comes and have steady flow going instead of waiting and dumping a bunch at once? Beaver didn't start dumping water til it was 10 ft above normal. What am I missing? 

There was a link in another thread about this.  There are a lot of issues the Corp has to take into account. Among which (but not the only) is power generation.

 

  Vernon and RPS both have some insights on page 15 of the "Lake elevations" thread.   Plus this link that one of them had posted there....

http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/pages/docs/WR_FAQ.htm

[Bill Babler]

Phil Lilley knows a lot about this, but I also believe there is some type of a congressional mandate about the water level below Bull Shoals dam.  I think it goes back to the flood of 08 and there is some type of a release restriction under certain circumstances.

Remember it was mot very long ago we were at 909 and we were wondering about not having enough water.  I think the COE is dong a good job on this, the best they can, and as you all know I'm not the first person to brag up any governmental agency.

Lots of things come into play here that the common lay person just does not have the information to make or understand these decisions.