River Navigation with Prop

[Stein]

So far I have only played once with my Ozarkian boat that I built but it was running 23,000 cfs so no worries navigating.  Heading down in two weeks.  Before I get myself into a bad situation, which shoals will be navigable going upstream in my wooden jon / 9.9 motor without killing the motor and at what flow?  Skeg is 8" below bottom and draft is about 2" with two of us aboard so figure I need 12" to be safe.

Actually a better question would be at what flow is each shoal navigable (12") going upstream?  Also, if there is suggestions like "stay left, center, right, watch for the one big rock at the top but otherwise no problem" etc.  If some aren't I assume I'll just have to launch and fish them pool specific.

Really only concerned about the shoals in my local area at present.  Will venture further in future years.

Dew Eddy

Partee

Three Chutes

The Narrows

Tucker

Wildcat

 

 

[Stein]

Actually going through Google Earth and thumbing back on the years I found very low flow satellite images on 9/28/09 so I can clearly see the deepest channel so really guidance on minimum flows would be helpful.

[sfiser]

you shouldn't have an issue with navigation.  Bull shoals is 30 feet over normal pool and they need to generate to bring the lake down.  Look for 5 or so units to run around the clock soon.   Once that happens the shoals aren't shoals anymore, the river is just big and flat. The only reason its been lower the last few days is the Newport river guage came up over the mandated limit to allow bull shoals to generate much water.  They had been running 3-5 units around the clock until the Newport gauge went about 13'.  Once that guage drops (its currently at 13.8 and needs to fall to around 12ish) then there will ample water running around the clock for the better part of 2-3 months until the lake comes down to normal pool. 

[fishinwrench]

Here's what my dad did, and it has always worked great for me.   While sitting in the back seat of the boat, pole it into a shallow area with a paddle until the skeg touches, then put a mark on the paddle that references that depth.   Take it slow and use the paddle as a guide until you no longer need to (after a short time you'll just know by the looks of the water).   

You might bump the skeg occasionally after that, on a high rock or something, but you won't smack the gearcase or bust a prop very often if at all.    I haven't trashed a single prop in over 15 years.

[Stein]

35 minutes ago, sfiser said:

you shouldn't have an issue with navigation.  Bull shoals is 30 feet over normal pool and they need to generate to bring the lake down.  Look for 5 or so units to run around the clock soon.   Once that happens the shoals aren't shoals anymore, the river is just big and flat. The only reason its been lower the last few days is the Newport river guage came up over the mandated limit to allow bull shoals to generate much water.  They had been running 3-5 units around the clock until the Newport gauge went about 13'.  Once that guage drops (its currently at 13.8 and needs to fall to around 12ish) then there will ample water running around the clock for the better part of 2-3 months until the lake comes down to normal pool. 

Good to know.  Been watching the releases and I saw they had dropped them and didn't know why since they were still only 7 ft from flood level on the lake.

[Stein]

31 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

  Take it slow and use the paddle as a guide until you no longer need to (after a short time you'll just know by the looks of the water).   

 

Makes sense, will do.