CONWAY – Due to the heavy rains pounding central Arkansas, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has been dropping Craig D. Campbell Lake Conway Reservoir’s water level for the past few days. The threat for flooding is very high and the predicted rain totals have continued to increase. Central Arkansas is predicted to receive as much as 10 inches of rain by Thursday.
Lake and downstream property owners should take precautions. The lake is not a flood control reservoir and the drawdown will provide only minimal storage. It will not mitigate the need to remove water from flash flooding that may occur in the watershed.
“The amount and intensity of rain we receive in a short period of time can cause much more water to be flowing into the lake than could flow out,” said Matt Horton, lake manager with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
AGFC Chief of Fisheries Mark Oliver has announced that all 15 of the lake’s spillway gates are open to evacuate water in anticipation of this flood event. “All 15 spillway gates are open. This is an unpredictable weather system and the speed that it travels will have a lot of influence over rainfall totals. If the worst happens, we’ll distribute sand and sand bags to Paradise Landing, Palarm, Caney Creek and Lawrence Landing access areas for lakeside landowners to use for protecting low-lying structures,” Oliver said.
Horton said another reason for opening the gates early is the majority of the heaviest predicted rain is to fall right on the Arkansas River valley, from western Oklahoma to central Arkansas. “Given the intensity and duration of this rain event, it is possible that the Arkansas River could reach the flood stage or at least rise significantly. This would cause water to back up in Palarm Creek and drastically slow the discharge of flood water from Lake Conway,” Horton explained.
The AGFC will be monitoring the rain event around the clock. Once the rain event is over, the AGFC will shut all 15 gates to allow water levels to reach the normal pool elevation of 263 feet above sea level.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
AGFC releasing water from Craig D. Campbell Lake Conway Reservoir as heavy rains hit central Arkansas
Thursday, March 1, 2012
EverStart Series Central Division Headed To Table Rock Lake
EverStart Series Central Division Headed To Table Rock Lake
KIMBERLING CITY, Mo. - The EverStart Series is headed to Table Rock Lake March 1-3 when as many as 300 pros and co-anglers take to the water for the first of four stops in the Central Division.
"It has been unseasonably dry and warm in Southeastern Missouri," said Pickens Plan pro Randy Blaukat of Joplin, Mo. "The fish never stopped biting; it has been like a pre-spawn all year. It is going to fish more like the first week of April rather than the first week of March.
"Anglers should be able to find fish just about any place they go on the lake and do well," Blaukat continued. "I think I would concentrate on the lower third. The water tends to be a little more clear and the fish seem to be a little more active down there.
"There are a lot of crawdads that the bass are feeding on now - I would try using crawdad crankbaits. Jerkbaits, spinnerbaits and jigs will work as well."
According to Blaukat, the mild winter has kept the bass shallow. He believes that anglers will be surprised at how shallow they will be able to catch fish. Normally the bass would be suspended out deep this time of year, however, right now the bass are bank-oriented and he thinks anglers will be successful fishing in 5-foot depths.
Anglers will take off from Port of Kimberling Marina located at 72 Marina Way in Kimberling City, Mo., at 7 a.m. daily. Weigh-in on Thursday and Friday will be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday's final weigh-in will move to Walmart located at 18401 State Highway 13 in Branson and begin at 4 p.m. Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public.
Pros will fish for a top award of $35,000 plus a Ranger Z518 with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. Co-anglers will cast for a top award consisting of a Ranger 177TR with 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $5,000 if Ranger Cup guidelines are met.
The EverStart Series consists of five divisions - Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western. Each division consists of four tournaments and competitors will be vying for valuable points in each division that could earn them the Strike King Angler of the Year title along with $5,000 for the pro and $2,000 for the co-angler. The top 40 pros and co-anglers from each respective division will qualify for the EverStart Series Championship that will be held on the Ouachita River in Monroe, La., Nov. 1-4.
The EverStart Series tournament on Table Rock Lake is being hosted by the Port of Kimberling Marina.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWOutdoors.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the EverStart Series on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Central coast closed to all-depth Pacific halibut fishing until August
Newport, Ore. – With only about 1,000 pounds remaining in the harvest quota, fishery managers today closed the spring all-depth Pacific halibut fishery for the central Oregon coast.
The spring all-depth Pacific halibut fishery for the central coast subarea (from Cape Falcon south to Humbug Mountain) was open 15 days, resulting in the harvest of approximately 115,000 pounds of Pacific halibut. After the most recent opening on June 23-25, only about 1,000 pounds remained in the quota. Not enough to have another spring opening, according to Lynn Mattes, ODFW halibut fisheries project leader.
Instead, remaining quota will be transferred to the summer all-depth fishery, which opens on Aug. 5. The summer all-depth quota will be approximately 43,500 lbs.
Anglers are allowed to harvest one halibut per day of any size. The possession limit is one daily limit at sea and three daily limits on land. The annual limit is six fish per angler.