Happy Fathers Day II and KC Star article

[Smithvillesteve]

Happy Fathers Day to all you Dads out there. I will assume most of you Table Rock forum readers love to fish because your Dad took you fishing when you were young. I periodically see pics of some of you with your young ones holding up a fish. It always puts a smile on my face. My two young boys love to fish and hunt and its because i took the time to take them when they were young. There is an article in today's Star, front page, on what the big boats and the big waves are doing to LOZ. Dock damage, shoreline erosion, boater safety issues. I am concerned that is going to happen to our beloved Table Rock lake. My dad took me to Table Rock when i was very young. I fell in love with the place. I didnt get back down there very often until a few years ago when one of my friends bought a place up the White. Now i try and get back down there as often as possible with him. I'm retired so i get to fish during the week most of the time. Head home on weekends. But i read with dismay the thread started a couple of weeks ago about the legislatures taking the ban off more docks being put on Table Rock. I hate that Table Rock could possibly turn into another LOZ in the near future. That is just such a beautiful place to go fish. Bigger boats, bigger waves, more boats, more waves. 

[Quillback]

Here's a link to the article.  No one has an answer.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article156461774.html

[dtrs5kprs]

There are answers. Probably none that are perfect. What is lacking is courage to face the inevitable fallout any of them will cause. Cowardice of the elected.

 

[vernon]

This line from the article is a great example of what I was describing in a previous thread about what they say vs. what they really mean.

"Even grandfathering in the large cruisers already on the lake invites bureaucratic complexities sure to tick people off and confuse everyone, say politicians and the local residents they represent."

Breaking the "code" on this statement isn't very difficult primarily since it was translated and composed by a newspaper writer and not a "skilled" government bureaucrat trained in the "art" of literary deception!

 

"invites bureaucratic complexities" just means dealing with this thing is way too hard and way too much work to get involved in because, after all, hard work isn't what we signed on for plus I got a bunch of big time donors with big boats over there and we like going to stay with them on long weekends and boat ride too and, besides, we're about to leave for summer recess at the lake so we're just going to ignore this thing altogether but, yes, another expresso would be great, thank you.

 

"tick people off and confuse everyone" means we're just looking out for our constituents and would never do anything to upset or confuse the many great Missourians that vote for us every two years.  Everyone knows that there's already too much confusion in government and we certainly don't want to do anything that would further muddy the waters unless, of course, it involves a huge pot of money for us in which case it would be "a topic certainly worthy of consideration."  

 

"say politicians and the local residents they represent".  Always have to get that one in there.  Better political cover than popping smoke to always remind the reader that this is what "you, the people" asked for and, indeed, demanded and we're not going to let you down!  

 

Even though most readers are thinking to themselves, wait a minute, that's not what me or Tom or Jack or Harry or anybody else I know wants.  Oh well, I guess we must be in the minority after all and should quit whining if that's what everybody else really wants.

 

Kind of like the 800 emails.  If there's 10 of 'em that at least kind of agree with what the elected official wants then it's OK to generalize and pretend that it's the overwhelming majority cause, well, nobody's ever gonna know the difference anyway and there's about 6.5 mil in it for me not to mention some really great tax write offs and if you guys were in my position you'd do the exact same thing so don't act so dang sanctimonious and stuff.

 

Are we about finished here?  I've got a tee time over at Old Warson in a couple of hours and I hear it's in really great shape so I need to get goin'.

 

Sorry.  

 

There I go again.
 

[sjcorpst]

Maybe they need to force some of these Politicians to spend a Saturday afternoon out in the middle of the lake in a small rowboat with their Wife and Kids and tell them "You're on your own to get back to shore".  That might make the problem sink in a bit more.

[dtrs5kprs]

18 minutes ago, sjcorpst said:

Maybe they need to force some of these Politicians to spend a Saturday afternoon out in the middle of the lake in a small rowboat with their Wife and Kids and tell them "You're on your own to get back to shore".  That might make the problem sink in a bit more.

In all senses of "sink".

Seriously, it needs to be addressed. As it stands, it makes the state of MO look like they have a "life is cheap here" attitude with respect to LOZ. 

Lot of things could be done. Make boaters responsible for wakes. Maybe a no-go line for boats over a certain length, or displacement. Making some of the creeks no wake would at least give folks with smaller boats a place to enjoy the water too. 

[vernon]

49 minutes ago, dtrs5kprs said:

In all senses of "sink".

Seriously, it needs to be addressed. As it stands, it makes the state of MO look like they have a "life is cheap here" attitude with respect to LOZ. 

Lot of things could be done. Make boaters responsible for wakes. Maybe a no-go line for boats over a certain length, or displacement. Making some of the creeks no wake would at least give folks with smaller boats a place to enjoy the water too. 

Great ideas all.

However......

Legislating changes of that nature would be difficult and controversial (controversy costs votes) and require lots of work and thought (summer recess remember?).

But more importantly, it would upset their primary donors who either own and operate their own ocean liners or make big money by providing docks and storage for the sea worthy creatures.

One doesn't make it to the U.S. or state senate much less stay there very long by biting the hand that feeds them.

Too bad bass fishers and campers don't bankroll many politicians.

Man, I'm depressing.

[Champ188]

Money doesn't fight fair, therefore it pretty much always wins.

[Quillback]

The below is what makes me laugh.  Can't handle the wakes?  Just get a bigger boat!

"Boaters talk of buying bigger craft just to stay afloat — going to a 28-footer from a 22-footer to avoid getting swamped by the 50-footer that replaced a 40-footer.

Troopers patrolling the lake say that escalation of boat size, combined with more traffic on the lake, makes for more treacherous waters."

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article156461774.html#storylink=cpy

[rps]

One of the reasons I do not go down lake of Big M very often is that from there on down even my deep v is not enough. Every once in a while some sport with a large wallet and small hands will "cruise" up here into the skinny water, and that can be brutal. Fortunately that does not happen all that often. Up here we mostly have to dodge wake boats.