Caught fishing with Bink's this morning.
The lake level hit 579.44 earlier this afternoon and a lot has happened since then. We received 3-inches of rain last night and the creeks were running hard. Then later another front came through with one more inch of rain and the water was heading over the spillway. They then started one generator (everything was shut down until then) and a little later opened all 12 spillway gates 1/2 foot. This is about 6,600 cfm spillway and 2,900cfm generation for a total of 9,500 cfm with is just over an equivalent of 3-generators. This is enough to keep the level from going over the spillway but not drop very much. We will see what they do when this slug gets to Newport. It is not up to 26-feet there yet which is the minor flood stage. With all of the lakes nearly full they have gotten themselves in a bind. If they just keep Norfork barely from going over the spillway and hold Bull Shoals more, the results will not be good. The motto of hold and hope is not working. On a positive note at least it has brightened up and the sun is shining now and Blackburns big pool is open and ready for use. You can still drive to our dock and park there but there is no launching or no trailers allowed at our dock. You must launch elsewhere (we are using Panther bay) and drive your boat to our dock. It is between one and two miles. If you are in a big group please consolidate and drive a minimum number of cars to the dock. There is no place to leave our dock in a boat and pick other people up elsewhere or have non-guests meet you at the dock. Day use people are going to have it tough if you are not staying at a resort. We have absolutely no place for locals looking for a free place to swim or kayak. Sorry but that is the way it is. I am not going fishing until the weekend is over so I can not help you much in that area. The surface temperature is about 66 degrees. The launches will be full so be prepared to park far away and wait to put in and take out your boats. There is no public swimming available but most of the better resorts have pools and you can also swim off their docks if they have one.We have both.The water is clean and clear away from the bank. If and when it rains we have a big pavillion with ping pong and floor shuffleboard. We have all individual cabins with no duplexes so you can social distance and all cabins have big covered porches. You will find out why that is important when you do not have one. No tents here .
