Quote Originally Posted by cricket george View Post
Lordy, Lordy its warm and humid. I am sitting here and its barely the middle of JUne and it is already hot. Summer crappie patterns should be kicking in pretty soon.

The A/C is kicking in a bit early this morning. I got to thinking about the Corps of Engineers and what they do. I know we cuss them when it is Spring and the crappie fishin is in full swing and the lakes are yo yoing. Let us not forget what their purpose is primarily.

1) Flood Control - hey, its spring and the monsoons have set in. The corps first job is flood control and boy do we need that. I just heard from the Kansas board that a Kansas lake came up 20' in 24 hours. Look oout Oolagah de water it be a comin. I bet the folks in Arkansas might be a wishin that the Little Missouri had not got so out of hand

2) Hydroelectric power is their second priority which we should be thankful for for at least the next few months so we can keep from melting. I can stay cool between fishing trips and work on gear without sweating my hinney off. Hmmm well that would burn a few more calories off my middle, maybe that would not all be bad.

3) Navigation is their 3rd priority and we need that to get goods up and down the navigational channel. This helps our economy which needs all the help it can get right now. I know in my business the money is not moving and alot of people are hurting.

4) Recreation is last unfortunately. If we did not have the lakes then where would we fish and have good crappie fishing and an opportunity to have fellowship. You know if we did not have the lakes then we would have untold amount of damages because the flood water shows no mercy. The Corps has saved millions of $$ of damages because of the lakes holding back the floods. So when the lakes are high and have hydropower units on them
and there is a demand for electricity then they will be used first for electricity production. The electricity is sold to the various coops around the state for everyones use. Think on the bright side for a minute, if the Corps is releasing water then the fishing below these dams will cause the fishing to pick up.

We all must realize that we must endour some bitter with the sweet and we must work together to survive. Yes, the Spring weather causes the lakes to rise and fall but don't we all have a few fish in the freezer from this year?? Besides the summer pattern is here now and we can be happy that fishing should be stable and we can enjoy a couple of fish frys. WE may be sweating but so are the crappie because they know that Odie, LRippers,Reaper and, OMG the worse plague of all, the Chattster, CRAPPIE CHATT is on the hunt and will show no mercy.:D Laissez les bonne temps roullez.

So grab some gatorade, some minners and lets get after them.:p
While those are some valid points, I'd have to say when it comes to excelling at all four, the Corps doesn't excel at any of them. You have to remember, they're a Gov beaurocracy and can trip over their own red tape.

When I first moved to Texas in 1999, I was amazed to find out there were very few Corps lakes. They have a lot of lakes, just like we do here, but most are ran by the State under river authority's set up by the State legislature.

I'm sitting here trying to think of the most run down or closed park I found on Lake's Conroe, Livingston and Houston while living there and I can not think of one. Yet, I can name a handful on Lake Eufaula alone.

While their lakes are constructed for basically the same purposes that ours were (with the exception of navigation, but then we don't have many that were built for that purpose either), their lakes seem to be managed better than ours, with more features (I'd love to see cleaning houses at our parks!)

I'm betting that if the State of Oklahoma managed our lakes through some type of authority boards, we wouldn't be fussing and cussing the Corps nearly as much as we do now.

Just saying, this is another example of something the States could do better than Uncle Sam...