|
Kirby Landing News
February 27, 2008
Dear Boat Owner,
January was colder than average
and the cold was only rarely interrupted by an
occasional warm day. February has seen the cold
interrupted by a few warm days with a lot of rain.
The lake level is too high for this time of year at
546.5 feet, which is 1.5 feet below full pool,
allowing very little storage capacity for the spring
rains. The surface temperature is between 47-50º and
warming. The jonquils and crocuses are slow in
coming up, but evidence of spring is showing with
the elms and maples beginning to bloom. The cool
season grasses and clovers are growing again along
the roadsides on the occasional warm day.
Hunting seasons are now fond
memories. Neal Fletcher showed us pictures of a
couple of nice bucks that he and his son, Hunter had
taken, Brad Bates harvested a couple of nice bucks
with his muzzleloader, and Jessica took a fat doe on
the farm and was telling how good the roast was.
Donnie Vaughn shared his adventures of a really
fantastic goose hunt, and Darryl Morris shared his
experiences of his son’s first-ever deer hunt. Lane
took Jessica and Sarah duck hunting on the lake
early on one of the coldest, windy, winter days.
Jessica’s dogs both shortly came back to the house
all wet, so I thought something terrible might have
happened. I immediately went out on the lake looking
for them, but met them coming in. They hadn’t even
taken her dogs with them; the dogs had just tried to
follow their boat. I got all I wanted of the cold
that morning.
My brother, Steve, and I went
to Colorado again last fall, and he harvested a nice
mule deer near the Ute Indian Reservation in SW
Colorado. I harvested a young 4X5 bull elk near Wolf
Creek Pass. We also took a couple of nice bucks each
on the farm during the Arkansas deer season. We
enjoyed watching lots of deer particularly on the
food plots. After the first frost, the deer really
went after the turnips. In the last of the Christmas
hunt, Betty took what she thought was a large doe,
but it turned out to be a buck that had already lost
its antlers.
Turkey season is coming up in
April and lots of birds with whiskers are being
seen. Recently on the farm, Betty and I saw the
biggest flock of turkeys that either of us had ever
seen. Some may already be hunting turkeys. Recently,
Steve and I were looking at food plots when a large
bald eagle flew up out of one. When we got to where
the eagle had flown from, there was a large
freshly-killed gobbler with an 11” beard and 1”
spurs. The Corps’ eagle survey on Lake Greeson
counted 60-70 birds using the lake.
This winter, fishing guides
Darryl Morris and Jerry Blake have been assembling
and sinking tremendous numbers of bamboo crappie
condominiums. Never before in the history of Lake
Greeson has so much fish habitat structure been put
into the lake. This is being done in cooperation
with AGFC Fishery Biologists Drew Wilson and Les
Claybrook, out of the Hope office. Large numbers of
crappies fingerlings have recently been stocked to
take advantage of the new habitat. Jerry says that
he and Darryl alone have been placed about 750
structures in the lake for fish habitat, and the
Corps sinks woody structures as well. Some of the
largest crappie ever taken in Lake Greeson are being
caught. Many over 2 pounds have been taken, and
Darryl recently caught one that weighed 2 pounds, 14
ounces and is having it mounted. All the crappie are
in really good shape because of the large numbers of
shad and quality habitat. If lake levels will
cooperate, there should be a really good spawn early
this spring.
Usually the best fishing of
the year is in March and April, as the lake warms up
and fish attempt to spawn. Walleye should be very
nearly spawning now with suckers, white bass and
stripers shortly after. The crappie and black bass
come later at about the same time the dogwoods
bloom. Catfish spawn around the last of May or first
of June. Bluegills can be seen defending their nests
throughout much of the summer.
Shane Krueger and Barry
Murdock have caught several trout while fishing the
Little Missouri River below Narrows Dam. Erma really
appreciates them sharing those with her. Lynn
Benedict’s grandson fishing from Dock A, has caught
several really large bluegill.
On February 3, Ethan Dycus
brought his red Crownline and pulled Sarah on the
wake board. She wore a wet suit and started from the
pump station dock to avoid getting wet at first. She
road for at least a couple of miles before she went
down. There was a lot of hollering as the 47º water
filled her wet suit, but she got back up and went a
few more rounds. Now that is dedication!
Several people are working on
their boats now, in preparation for summer. Jack and
Teresa Long recently had new carpet put in their
houseboat. John Gould has been putting a canopy on
the back of his new boat. The parking lot looks like
a shipyard right now with three houseboats out on
trailers. Birkett and Stacy Wiley have worked some
very long days on their boat to repair the two
existing pontoons and to install a third center
pontoon. Barbara Wiley has been working hard at
rolling paint on the pontoons. Wiley Joe Robinson
has his boat out, and he and Butch Gunter are
repairing the out drive and transom. Ethan Dycus has
his boat out to repair his Honda outboard. Sam
McJunkins is hoping to pull his boat out and
refinish his pontoons, and do some remodeling. Butch
Gunter is replacing Michael Lambright’s outboard
motor on his houseboat.
In the area beyond the paved
parking lot, we had some timber removed to make a
level spot for houseboat repairs during the summer
without tying up the paved parking area. Carroll
Grant dug out the stumps with his backhoe, and Chad
Moore will use his bulldozer to finish the area, as
soon as it is dry enough. Now is the best time of
the year to get boats ready for summer use.
There will be a motorcycle
race on the Bear Creek Cycle Trail between Kirby
Landing and Bear Creek on Sunday March 16th.
The race sponsored by the Arkansas Dirt Riders is
described as the Hare Scramble Race and over 100
riders are expected to participate.
I am eager for warm days and
sunny skies, the sounds of jet skis and outboards
churning up and down the lake, the voices of distant
conversations carrying from campgrounds across the
water, and kids playing in the sand by the walkway.
It won’t be long. See you soon!
Sincerely yours,
Clay K. Crump III
October 10, 2007
Dear Boat Owner,
The first day of fall has passed, but summer keeps
hanging on with temperatures in the upper 80’s and
low 90’s. With the fewer hours of sunlight,
the surface water temperature has dropped to about
78 degrees, and swimming is cool but not
uncomfortable. Sarah says this is the best
wakeboarding water we have had all year, but few are
taking advantage of it.
Fishing has improved considerably as the water has
cooled. Spotted bass fishing has been excellent
using live crawfish for bait on the rocky points. I
recently fished with Darryl Morris,
www.familyfishingtrips.com, and with four people
fishing from the boat; we had 38 bass and one
catfish before running out of crawfish before 10:00
AM. The fishing guides are continuing to put a lot
of bamboo fish structures in the lake. A few big
catfish have been hooked on Dock I, but none have
been landed. The lake has collected one more fishing
pole when a fish pulled it off Jack and Teresa
Long’s houseboat.
A black bear has recently been seen several times
in the area. Sarah saw the bear early one morning by
the amphitheater and called home all excited. Betty
and I jumped in the truck and went bear hunting. We
drove by the amphitheater and through the east camp
ground and saw no bear. On the west camp ground
driving up the hill toward the bathrooms “There he
is! There he is!” shouted Betty. A grown black bear
was peering out of the brush on the right of the
road not 50 feet from the bathroom. When we stopped,
he stood only briefly before heading east in the
woods. We then drove the dirt road to the back of
the west cove and soon saw him coming through the
woods. He began loping as he crossed the mowed
opening in the back of the cove. Two people have
reported having seen a bear swimming the lake, and
our barge renters saw it just west of the new
addition to the campground.
Cooler weather will be here soon bringing beautiful
fall colors. With the cooler weather, bald eagle and
migratory waterfowl sightings increase. Some boat
owners may choose to hunt the public accessible
Corps of Engineer’s property around the lake which
is marked with yellow paint on the property
boundaries. ‘No Hunting’ areas around the
campgrounds are marked on the trees with red on
yellow. Squirrel hunting should be good around the
lake this fall, because most of the acorns that
didn’t get hit with the late frost are close to the
lake. The west side of the lake is the Lake Greeson
Wildlife Management Area, and Arkansas Game & Fish
Commission permits are required to hunt during the
muzzleloader season or the modern gun seasons.
The lake is really low right now at 13.6’ below
full power pool (548’). Repairs on some of the
houseboats have been delayed because the boat ramp
by the parking lot is out of the water. Birkett and
Barbara Wylie’s houseboat is in the parking lot now
and will not be back in the lake until we have more
water. An area just beyond the paved parking area in
the west cove is going to be leveled so that house
boat repairs can continue through the summer without
compromising the paved parking areas.
Ghosts and Goblins in Kirby Hollow (hollow
particularly applies with the lake so low) are
abundant as Halloween approaches. On Saturday,
October 27, there will be a costume party and dining
with all the ghosts and goblins. There will be a hay
ride and lots of fun planned. Main dishes will be
provided, so please bring side dish or dessert or
trick or treat candy. Please R.S.V.P to Teresa Long
(Baby), at 1-800-542-5664 by October 19. We hope to
see you at the Halloween bash, if not before.
Sincerely yours,
Clay K. Crump III
(870)
398-4434
klm@kirbylandingmarina.com
|
