Heavy water releases continued at Bull Shoals Dam today. At one point in the day the water cleared up above Gastons in the afternoon. Then the CFS was upped somewhat and the moss again accumulated and stirred up the moss pretty good. We attempted to stay in front of it but caught the moss at White Hole as we moved down stream to stay in front of it. The lake level is down to 660.00 and should be below that by a few more inches in the morning. At this level the lake should begin to drop more rapidly due to the funnel effect. The lower it gets the faster it will drop assuming the same discharge of water continues and no rainfall comes into play. We call it the funnel effect. Just like a funnel draining of water or any liquid the lower it gets the less water it holds and the faster it will drop.
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Monday
Another conduit gate was added to the one opened on sunday in an effort to bring down the lake level at Bull Shoals Lake. The lake level is 660.34 above MSL and has dropped about a half a foot in the last 24 hour period ending at 3:00 am this morning. I’m looking at the flow charts and seeing only 13,000 and 11,000 cfs and am scratching my head because when I took out yesterday afternoon it sure looked like it was closer to 22,ooo or more CFS at the White Hole access. Water was high up the boat ramp and just about covering the protective rock barrier at that ramp. Perhaps the charts are not working again.
If you call the phone number for the dam they are saying sluice gates are open. However the last two times these gates were used (dec & jan) they were called conduit gates. If you see the squares on the dam in the picture water can come out of those as well and I always though those were the sluice gates. As confusing as this may be what is even more confusing is the fact that only 4 generating gates were open at this time. The amount of water coming through the dam could easily be pulled through 7 generation gates so go figure. The fishing isn’t bad though. It did get pretty dirty when the extra gate was opened so we stayed in front of it till lunch time. There is also another video in the video gallery with the extra gate open as well as some of the fish we caught yesterday. Two brown trout and a good bow.
Our temps hit 83f yesterday and the forecast is for the same today. I’ll take it. I’d talk about the generation schedule but it dosn’t seem to matter at the moment as it’s gonna be wrong anyway. Perhaps the C.O.E. and the quasi governmental agency known as S.W.P.A. (South West Power Administration) are at war with each other… ;-} Who knows. Trying to figure out what what is happening with water flows and these two groups is a waste of time and mental energy. I’ll just deal with it and go with the flow.
Ha pun intended….
Weather: Looks like a chance of rain shows up Friday with a 40% chance of rain and on Saturday with a 20% chance. Sunday also carries a 20% chance of rain.
Till next time.
Jim