SOME CAMPSITES AT DAM QUARRY PARK TO TEMPORARILY CLOSE

MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. – The Army Corps of Engineers will temporarily close 17 campsites at Dam Quarry Park below Norfork Dam to repair damage from 2008 flooding.  Campsites 14 through 30 will close the week of March 8 and reopen in mid-July, barring weather delays.  The park’s other 51 campsites will remain open.

Jordan Park campground is a nearby alternative in the lower portion of Norfork Lake.

The campsite renovations and paving work are part of an overall effort to repair damage incurred during the April 2008 flooding in which the access road and other park structures and utilities along the Norfork River were damaged or destroyed.

The Corps regrets any inconvenience this closure may cause, but the end result will be improved campsites and a renovated access road when work is complete.

For more information, contact the Mountain Home Project Office at 870-425-2700, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays.

Additional Norfork Lake information is available on the internet at http://www.swl.usace.army.mil/parks/norfork/index.htm, and Bull Shoals Lake information can be found at http://www.swl.usace.army.mil/parks/bullshoals/index.html.

Here is the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s 2009 Annual Report on the trout management program.

[Update 3/9/2010] Here are the specific tailwater managment plans and creel reports. You can find some of the biological objectives in the specific plans. They are generally given in fish per hours of electroshocking.

© 2010, Scott Branyan

Remember what it looks like to see conservation pools in all of the White River lakes?

You probably don’t unless you made a note of conditions back in early October.

As wade fishing possibilities resume, anglers should exercise caution as always and not assume. Practice safe wading. Don’t wade where you shouldn’t be if water was to rise. Always have an escape route. Get out at the first sign of rising water or if in doubt.

Also, please remember the Corps is upgrading their realtime graphs and charts, and some of the information reflects “No Data” or incomplete data rather than low water. The Corps forecasts the data will be up-to-date by mid-March. As always when checking for low water, do not rely on one source of published data. Onstream conditions rule. Be aware of your surroundings.

Take advantage of the low water opportunities now. I suspect they will be short lived again this spring.

© 2010, Scott Branyan

In a creative public relations arrangement, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Chesapeake Energy of Oklahoma City have partnered to bring the Totally Trout family event back to the Arkansas State Fairgrounds March 6, 2010. What’s wrong with this picture?

Chesapeake begins seismic testing this spring on the AGFC Gulf Mountain Wildlife Management Area and continues to pursue a lease of 64 acres from AGFC at Cow Shoals on the Little Red River. Landowners along the Little Red with as little as one acre of land are being pressured to sign lease agreements. In addition, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission allowed the trucking of one million barrels of waste water in from October to December from frack drilling wells in Arkansas’ Fayetteville Shale play to waste containment wells in an area in Oklahoma whose residents don’t want it.

AGFC was scheduled to discuss the Little Red lease as last month’s commission meeting, but apparently it has been put off until the March commission meeting.

Federal and other state agency employees I’ve talked to are incensed over the power of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission and AGFC’s compromising stance with regard to the resource it manages, and I would not be surprised to see further legal action to try to halt the fracking menace in north central Arkansas. As one federal worker told me, “ground water is surface water,” and contamination is a big concern. Be watching.

© 2010, Scott Branyan

Banquet and ticket information is out for the Spring Fundraising Banquet which is Friday, March 5th.

© 2010, Scott Branyan

The National Weather Service in Tulsa has posted its spring flood outlook. Long and short of it: an enhanced chance of above normal precipitation for March in Northwest Arkansas.

HYDROLOGIC OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
337 PM CST FRI FEB 19 2010

…SPRING FLOOD OUTLOOK FOR EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS…

SPRING FLOOD POTENTIAL…
THE POTENTIAL FOR FLOOD CONDITIONS IN EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS WILL BE NEAR AVERAGE THIS SPRING. EXCEPT FOR THE MAINSTEM OF THE ARKANSAS RIVER…FLOODING IN EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS USUALLY OCCURS IN RESPONSE TO SPECIFIC PRECIPITATION EVENTS. THE ARKANSAS RIVER MAY FLOOD IN RESPONSE TO MORE WIDESPREAD UPSTREAM CONDITIONS. THERE ARE CURRENTLY NO INDICATIONS OF EXTREME HYDROLOGIC CONDITIONS TO ALTER THE FLOOD POTENTIAL OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS.

BASED ON OBSERVED SOIL MOISTURE CONDITIONS…OBSERVED STREAMFLOWS AND NORMAL SPRING RAINFALL PATTERNS…AN ABOVE AVERAGE FLOOD POTENTIAL IS EXPECTED THIS SPRING OVER THE WHITE BASIN IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS.

THIS SPRING FLOOD POTENTIAL OUTLOOK GENERALLY DEFINES THE RISK OF LONG TERM RIVER FLOODING. IT DOES NOT ASSESS THE SHORT TERM RISK OF FLOODING…PARTICULARLY FLASH FLOODING. LOCALIZED…HIGH INTENSITY RAINFALL CAN CREATE FLASH FLOODING AT ANY TIME. THIS IS TRUE EVEN DURING PERIODS OF DROUGHT.

PRECIPITATION…
WATER-YEAR /BEGINNING 1 OCTOBER 2009/ RAINFALL TOTALS ARE GENERALLY NEAR AVERAGE ACROSS EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS. HOWEVER…SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA RECEIVED ABOVE AVERAGE RAINFALL. ACCORDING TO THE OKLAHOMA CLIMATOLOGICAL SURVEY…SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA RECEIVED NEAR 130 PERCENT OF NORMAL RAINFALL AND IS RANKED AS THE 10TH WETTEST OCTOBER 1 THROUGH FEBRUARY 18 PERIOD SINCE RECORDS BEGAN IN 1921.

RAINFALL TOTALS OVER THE LAST 60 DAYS /21 DECEMBER 2009 TO 18 FEBRUARY 2010/ WERE ALSO NEAR AVERAGE ACROSS EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS. SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA REMAINED ABOVE AVERAGE DURING THIS PERIOD WITH OVER 150 PERCENT OF NORMAL RAINFALL AND RANKED AS THE 12TH WETTEST PERIOD SINCE RECORDS BEGAN IN 1921 ACCORDING TO THE OKLAHOMA CLIMATOLOGICAL SURVEY.

SOIL MOISTURE CONDITIONS…
ACROSS EASTERN OKLAHOMA…SOIL MOISTURE IS GENERALLY ABOVE AVERAGE WITH SOUTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA IN THE 80-95TH PERCENTILE. SOIL MOISTURE WAS IN EXCESS OF THE 90TH PERCENTILE ACROSS THE WESTERN PORTION OF ARKANSAS. SOIL MOISTURE CONDITIONS FOR THE WHITE RIVER BASIN IN NORTHERN ARKANSAS ARE ALSO ABOVE THE SEASONAL AVERAGE.

RIVER AND STREAM CONDITIONS…
RIVERS AND STREAMS ARE FLOWING AT NEAR AVERAGE LEVELS ACROSS MOST OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA. HOWEVER THE RED RIVER IS FLOWING AT MUCH ABOVE AVERAGE LEVELS. RIVERS AND STREAMS IN WESTERN ARKANSAS ARE FLOWING AT AVERAGE TO ABOVE AVERAGE LEVELS.

LAKE AND RESERVOIR CONDITIONS…
ACCORDING TO THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS…RESERVOIRS IN THE ARKANSAS AND RED RIVER SYSTEMS WERE BOTH AVERAGING 93 PERCENT OF FLOOD CONTROL STORAGE AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. BEAVER LAKE RESERVOIR IN THE WHITE RIVER BASIN HAS 85 PERCENT OF FLOOD CONTROL STORAGE AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME.

RECENT FLOODS…
THERE HAS BEEN NO MAINSTEM RIVER FLOODING IN EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS SO FAR IN 2010.

DROUGHT CONDITIONS…
ACCORDING TO THE U.S. DROUGHT MONITOR…NO DROUGHT CONDITIONS EXIST IN EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS.

TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION OUTLOOKS…
THE MARCH OUTLOOK FROM THE CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER /CPC/ INDICATES AN ENHANCED CHANCE FOR BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND ABOVE NORMAL PRECIPITATION ACROSS ALL OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS.

THE SPRING OUTLOOK FOR MARCH-APRIL-MAY FROM CPC INDICATES AN ENHANCED CHANCE FOR BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND AN EQUAL CHANCE OF ABOVE…NEAR…AND BELOW NORMAL PRECIPITATION ACROSS ALL OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS. HOWEVER…THERE
IS AN ENHANCED CHANCE OF ABOVE NORMAL PRECIPITATION JUST WEST OF THE NWS TULSA HYDROLOGIC SERVICE AREA IN WESTERN AND CENTRAL OKLAHOMA.

RESOURCES…
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE SPRING FLOOD POTENTIAL AND WATER SUPPLY IS AVAILABLE AT…
WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/ABRFC/WATERSUPPLY/INDEX.PHP
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/TULSA

INFORMATION USED TO COMPILE THIS SPRING FLOOD POTENTIAL OUTLOOK WAS PROVIDED COURTESY OF THE ARKANSAS RED BASIN AND THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER FORECAST CENTERS…THE CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER…THE USACE…THE USGS…THE OKLAHOMA CLIMATOLOGICAL SURVEY AND THE NATIONAL DROUGHT MITIGATION CENTER. 

$$

© 2010, Scott Branyan

Here’s the truth. Things are not looking good for wade anglers again this spring.

As the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned for Bull Shoals dam and reservoir, the engineers calculated that Bull Shoals reservoir would use its flood storage, based on past records, an average of 20 days per year (about 5% of the year). You may be surprised to learn as I was, however, even with record or near record rainfall events in 2008 and 2009,  that flood storage capacity in the lake was utilized 288 days (about 79%) in 2008 and 306 days (about 84%) in 2009.

We are currently still into the flood pools in early 2010. If one remembers way back to last fall, in early October rains brought the lake levels up from normal well into the flood pools in just a matter of days. For example, Beaver’s flood storage went from 0% flood storage to 50% in five days from Oct 8^th to Oct 13^th. By the end of November Bull Shoals was at 59% flood storage. The corps began lowering the reservoirs on December 1^st. In December, the corps was forecasting empty dates in mid-January. By January 15^th, however, those were moved to the end of January. Now we are looking at the middle of February or even the end of February—all because of additional rains we’ve received.

What the spring of 2010 holds for us in precipitation no one can predict, but it appears we are ahead of the game as far as lake levels go. Today, all the White River reservoirs are three feet or more above their previous five-year average.

Don’t be surprised if this spring turns out to be another poor year for wade fishing. I suggest a strategy the fishes use–adapt. Anglers will have to use more high water techniques: double-handled rods and shooting heads along the banks, find friends with boats, hire a guide, or pray for drought. But, it’s the truth.

© 2010, Scott Branyan

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Little Rock District awarded a $728,750 contract Nov. 30th to Gateway Public Authority of Garfield, Arkansas. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds will be used to install a waterline at the Dam Site River Park, which will modernize the park facilities. Work should already be beginning and is scheduled to be completed in July 2010.

New and enlarged bath house facilities have been completed in the last couple of years.

© 2010, Scott Branyan

[Update note: There is no archive. See the latest forecast.]

The first of the new fly-fishing forecast videos has been posted. This is an attempt to tell more of what goes into understanding the generation patterns on the tailwaters. Usual disclaimers apply (nothing official, everything subject to change!).

As this process gets easier for me, I hope to do an end-of-the-week video covering actual fly-fishing reports, hatches and fly patterns which are effective.

Here are the links to the Corps data pages I reference in the video. These are found on the Little Rock Corps District page. The graphs are already linked on the river report page. I will do some individual videos on the primary data pages from the corps to help give folks a feel for how I use them to help see trends and patterns.

Little Rock District Page

Current Conditions

Daily Reservoir Report

Forecast Elevations Report

Please let me know how you like, or not, the videos and any suggestions you might have. Thanks!

I am looking forward to a great spring of fishing,

© 2010, Scott Branyan

The corps has not published revised forecast dates yet for the White River reservoirs to have flood storage empty, but it looks like, based on current conditions, the earliest Beaver reservoir could start its draw down would be about January 20th. Bull Shoals, Norfork and Greers Ferry reservoirs should all have flood storage near empty at about that time. The lake temperature at Bull Shoals dropped under 50° today. It will take the rest of the month of January for it to fall near 41° where you start seeing major shad kill. The rub is that is about the time the heavy around-the-clock generation will end at Bull Shoals and Norfork dams unless we get more major precipitation. Beaver reservoir should reach the low 40s sooner than the other lakes. We may actually have superb shad kill fishing conditions in the tailwater the end of January here this year. So keep this in mind as you plan. Of course, actual conditions will probably change between now and then.

© 2010, Scott Branyan