The USACE Little Rock District water level app is now available for iPhone and Android. Search “USACE Little Rock” in the Google Play or ITunes App Store.

It took all of 5-10 minutes to see what it contained. Anyone already familiar with the Corps’ Water Resource pages will recognize the info provided. Here’s a run down of the app menu items.

• Releases – This contains table formatted data for all the Little Rock District lakes. The table gives lake elevation, tailwater stage, turbine release in cubic feet per second (cfs), and generation in megawatts. The latest entry is pretty much realtime (about an hour or two delay), and you can view past data back about 36 hours.
• Lake Forecast – This is the Little Rock District lake pools forecast. It forecasts three days out and also tells when a lake crested and when its flood storage is forecast to be empty when applicable.
• MKARNS – This is table data for the locks and dams on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. It includes pool elevations and release info for below the dams.
• MKARNS Forecast – Find the forecast page for the locks and dams on the navigation system here.
• Ark River Basin – Stage readings for sites on the river in table format.
• Black River Basin – Stage readings for sites on the river in table format.
• Little River Basin – Stage readings for sites on the river in table format.
• White River Basin – Stage readings for sites on the river in table format.
• Real Time – This is the current conditions page for Corps lakes, White River, and MKARNS sites—again in table format.
• White River Forecast – Longrange forecast for the White River Entrance Channel to the MKARNS is here.
• SWPA Forecasts – There is a convenient link to the Southwestern Power Administration generation forecast pages.
• USGS – Likewise, a handy link to the USGS water resources streamflow pages by station is here.
• At the bottom of the menu are links to contacting the Little Rock District, news releases, and district Facebook and Twitter page links.

The app is handy, but noticeably absent are links to the graphic realtime data pages. Also, there are no phone numbers for current status generation or the SWPA generation forecast number. It would be nice to have those on the contact menu. Those links and all of the above have been on my river report page since they were first introduced and will continue to be available there as well as on the Corps district website. You might prefer one layout over the other, especially if you are only interested in White River tailwater data.

© 2013, Scott Branyan

The ClustrMaps log for my blog is showing visits from 48 states and DC. It included Alaska. What are the hold-out states? Hawaii and Rhode Island. Please contact your friends there and have them visit the blog! I’m joking!!!

Thanks for all of you who have visited and keep coming back. I appreciate all the comments I’ve received on the website over the years. I have the best web audience there is!

© 2013, Scott Branyan

I always enjoy putting together the end of the year review and electronic holiday greeting card. The Ozark Fly Flinger 2012 Holiday Card is now officially out.

Many thanks go out to my clients and website readers. You all are great.

The Branyan family wishes you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

© 2012, Scott Branyan

[Update 11/12/12 - the Corps website was back up by Monday afternoon.]

The Little Rock District Corps of Engineers website servers are down for maintenance this weekend. The outage began Friday afternoon and will continue until Tuesday morning.

The links to the Corp’s site on my fishing reports page have not been working during this time. Southwestern Power Administration’s Generation Forecast, the USGS Arkansas Water Data links, and the  USACE RiverGages.com mirror site will be available. These offer alternative gaging options. I recommend you bookmark these for use during any future outages.

The current status telephone numbers have been working.

Soon, the Little Rock District will be updating its website to a new standard design. It will then have a design like the other districts and the Corps Headquarter’s page.

© 2012, Scott Branyan

I’ll be presenting a program on White River Hatches at the Arkansas Chapter of TU in Fayetteville on March 5th.

This presentation will discuss some of the major hatches we see on our tailwaters and how you can use knowledge of hatches to better your effectiveness and enjoyment of fly-fishing.

Looking forward to seeing many of you then.

© 2012, Scott Branyan

I’ll be speaking at the White River Chapter of TU in Mountain Home, AR on February 6th, presenting a program on White River Hatches. This presentation covers some basic insect biology, how to locate and identify insects, solving imitative problems, and resources available to anglers. Of course, there will be photos!

On February 21st, I’ll be presenting A History of Fly-Fishing in Arkansas at the North Arkansas Fly Fishers, also in Mountain Home. I’ll talk about how folks traveled to their favorite streams in the 1920s-1930s, the rise of the fly-fishing tackle industry and connections with Arkansas, a native Arkansan who went on to become a nationally known custom bamboo rod builder, the development of public fisheries and lakes and ponds across the state, smallmouth fly-fishing on the White and, if time, the transition to fly-fishing the early days of the tailwaters and the development of the trout program in Arkansas. I’ll bring a few pieces of tackle from the past and some other display items. I encourage others to do the same so we can share stories.

Devil’s Den State Park between West Fork and Winslow, AR will be celebrating Aldo Leopold Day on May 19-20. I’ll be there both days doing some fly-tying and fly-casting demos as well as presenting my program on A History of Fly-Fishing in Arkansas.

Hope you can make one or more of these programs. I hope to see many of you there.

© 2012, Scott Branyan

Cabelas has announced it is building a new store in Rogers at Pinnacle Hills Promenade. The store will be next to the present Target store and will be a 100,000 square foot traditional log store with glass front. It will have an aquarium, five elevated displays and gun library. Cabela stores are also noted for their well-stocked fly-fishing departments.

The company expects the construction to begin early in 2012 and to be completed by June. It chose the Arkansas location because of the high percentage of customers from the Rogers and Northwest Arkansas area.

Welcome, Cabelas.

© 2011, Scott Branyan

ClustrMaps is showing blog visitors from 47 states of the US since June 2010. Thanks!!!

© 2011, Scott Branyan

I received this from Jeff Williams with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission this afternoon concerning changes in releases below Norfork dam.

All,

Just wanted to give you a quick update on some flow issues we are currently dealing with on Norfork.  Both turbines our down at Norfork as a result of leakage problems in the wicket gates.  It is not known exactly how long they will be down, but the current estimate is about two months.  The reservoir elevation is just in to the flood pool and in accordance with the control plan the Corps of Engineers needs to begin evacuating that flood storage.  Since both turbines are down they have had to look at alternative means.  Yesterday they opened the sluice gates at Norfork to begin releasing some of the flood water.  Some of you may have realized this when the flow recording was reporting 0 units on line, but there was flow equivalent to 2 + units in the tailwater.  As an aside, I suggested to the Corps of Engineers last night that sluice gate releases should be indicated on the recording.  The sluice gates draw water from low in the reservoir so there was no concern regarding high water temperatures.  However, the Corps had concerns about cavitation in the sluice gates and has opted for flood gate releases to lower the lake elevation.  Twelve flood gates were opened about 1.5 feet at Norfork at 12:00pm today and the current discharge is about 2,300 cfs (less than one turbine’s full release capacity).  As the lake receives inflow from last night’s rain the lake elevation will increase, but will also increase the flow over the flood gates to about 5,050 cfs (almost 2 full units).  That is where the Corps will keep it at as long as downstream conditions allow.  I went down to Norfork a little while ago to check the water temperature and at the boat ramp at Quarry Park the temperature was about 56 degrees Fahrenheit….no problems.  Before leaving the office I had checked on the lake surface temperature and was told it was in upper 50’s to low 60’s so I did not anticipate a problem.  If this situation progresses into June, however,  then water temperature will become more of a concern.  This may require tempering flood gate releases with small releases through the sluice gates, but it will be up to the Corps.   Another issue that I initially had a concern with was the potential for gas bubble trauma.  This can occur with high volume releases over the tops of dams and was the cause of the fish kill that occurred on the Arkansas River earlier this year.  The releases can cause dissolved gases (oxygen and especially nitrogen) to become supersaturated.  This means that the gases are present in a much greater amount than what would normally be found.  The fish have difficulty in ridding themselves of the excess gases and it can result in a condition similar to the bends in humans.  I also checked dissolved oxygen when I was at Norfork and found it to be within acceptable limits.  I saw no signs of dead or dying fish and given the relatively low volume that is anticipated, I do not foresee a problem with gas bubble trauma at this time.  We will continue to monitor this situation closely and coordinate with the Corps to limit impacts to the fishery.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks and have a great weekend.

Jeff Williams

Trout Program Coordinator

Please be aware of these changes; and since this is a special circumstance, do not assume anything about time, changes or reliability of flows. The recording from the dams has not been reliable since they have discontinued the automated recording, and updates often do not include a time/date stamp.

© 2011 Scott Branyan

The US Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to install the siphon pipe for minimum flow along with performing some other work along the face of the dam. This will involve cutting a large hole through the dam wall. This was taken yesterday afternoon as federal workers were preparing for a possible shutdown.

© 2011, Scott Branyan