are 2 generators running at the Norfork Dam with 4 spillway gates open 2 feet each.

Beginning today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will release water from the spillway of Norfork Dam while a powerhouse turbine is out of service. The Corps’ Lakes Manager Jon Hiser said the release is a result of routine, planned maintenance being done at the dam.

Hiser said the spillway release is not related to ongoing construction to implement White River Minimum Flows. However, the release which is equal to two full units of power generation, is part of the effort to draw down the lake to more normal pool levels following last week’s heavy rainfall which dumped more than seven inches of rain on the Twin Lakes Area in four days, including more than six inches nearly a week ago.

Lake levels as of early this morning were 563.48 at Norfork and 661.68 at Bull Shoals Lake. Hiser said although the lakes are above normal levels, they’re in relatively good shape.

Lakes Manager Jon Hiser of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the release of water today from the spillway of Norfork Dam.

listen to KTLO report:

http://ktlo.com/wire/newstue/00419_Corps_plans_spillway_releases_from_Norfork_Dam_040045.php

Most of the lake has dirty water which should start cleaning up in a couple days. A lot of fish will be up in the flooded brush and along the old bank. There are parts of the lake that has water that isn’t as dirty or as off colored. 

The stripers and hybrids were starting to chase shad to the surface and will again as soon as the lake stablizes and starts clearing up.                 A client caught a 10lb. hybrid on a spook early in the week before the rain and we got a 18lb. striper on a swimbait in a main lake cove as the lake was coming up Wednesday.      They also got some nice largemouth and a couple good smallies in the 4 lb.range also on swimbaits. 

 Look for fish moving up in the creeks. Throw a spinnerbait up in the brush for some bass. At night,  throw a rouge close to the brush and reel it back really slow.

Steve Olomon / Steve’s Guide Service    steve@fishingwithsteve.com  870-421-5142

 Norfork Dam will be closed to traffic thru Friday, March 30, 2012, 5:00 PM for maintenance and minimum water flow work

The crews from Mobley Contractors will usae a crane atop the dam to install a MONORAIL BULKHEAD and portions of a siphon pipe through the dam.  The MONORAIL BULKHEAD is being installed to enable workers to remove the water from each gate one at a time to perform routine maintenance.

The siphon pipe is part of the White River Minimum Flow Project which will allow a steady release of cold water flowing from Norfork Dam for downstream trout when hydropower is not being generated.

Information about the project can be obtained from the US Army Corps of Engineers Mountain Home Project Office at (870) 425-2700.

The water temp is in the mid to upper 40′s and the lake level is 552.2. The stripers are still scattered and down with the baitfish around 60ft. You can usually see just a couple fish down around the balls of baitfish.

Some walleye are moving up the river and the major creeks. Look for bass close to bluff ends and in pockets. If we get some warm rains the fish will head to the backs of the creeks. The whites will be stacked up in the creeks. Heard reports of crappie being caught in brush piles.

Lake Norfork. These fish are feeding on real small shad about 1 inch long, so

what I’ve been doing is match the hatch.

This morning I went to a 1/4 oz spoon and started to catch fish after fish.

When you’re working the spoon, jig it real slow and only about 8 inches at

a time. If there is no bite when you come up, try to feel the weight and

set the hook.

Fishing Report by Darrel Binkley / Bink’s Guide Service

Written by

FRANK WALLIS  (Baxter Bulletin)  January 5, 2012

NORFORK — Travel plans are under way for a  130,000-pound bulkhead specially built for maintenance work on Norfork Dam.

Ted Koomen, engineer with Russellville-based Mobley  Contractors Inc., said Thursday the bulkhead will be moved by truck to the dam  at an undetermined date later this month.

It will be lifted by two 250,000-pound cranes to hang  on a giant monorail now built into the dam.

Arkansas Highway 177 will be closed for a time during  the bulkhead’s placement.

Boilermaker Doug Simpson of Norfork and assistant  Larry Mahan were installing heavy polyvinyl planks on the face of the bulkhead  on Thursday.

The planks form casings around large rubber seals on  the face of the bulkhead that is expected to fit flush against the lake-side  face of the dam, creating a dry environment for work on floodgates and the gears  that control them.

The pressure of water displaced by the bulkhead will  hold it in place over the work areas, Koomen said.

“We have a number of tests to complete for the (U.S.  Army Corps of Engineers) before we stand it up,” Koomen said. A tilt test is  expected to show exactly 3-inches of vertical tilt in the structure.

Minimum flow

Two construction projects were under way  simultaneously Thursday on Norfork Dam.

Builders in scuba gear with hydraulic drills were  setting a series of anchor bolts into a 3-foot thickness of concrete to hold  42-inch pipe and intake valves for the White River Minimum Flow System.

When completed, the siphon may draw from Norfork Lake  to supplement tailwaters from the dam during times of drought. The siphon is a  part of the White River Minimum Flow Project that has been the subject of study  by the Corps for decades.

Norfork Dam is a peak-power production facility,  using large quantities of water to rush through turbines to create electricity  when it’s most needed, such as on hot summer days. At other times only seepage  flows through the dam.

That creates an unstable environment for trout, a  popular game fish than can flourish in a consistently cold stream but can  flounder when water slows, pools and warms.

The minimum flow project, initially authorized under  a 1999 federal law, would release flows of water from the dams during times of  excessive heat and drought to improve trout habitat.

Both projects are scheduled for completion sometime  in March or April this year, barring weather or other natural forces that could  delay the $6.6 million project.

The minimum flow system also entails a bore through  the dam at the 557.5-foot mean sea level mark.

An expanse of large pipe coming from the port now can  be seen descending from the river-side face of the dam.

The project is funded in part by the American  Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in the amount of $3.867 million.

The balance of the funding — $2.790 million — comes  from normal federal appropriations to the USACE construction line-item.

The Associated Press contributed to this  report.

Bass are hitting topwater baits early and then again late in the day.  Watch for surface activity on points.  A lot of fish are roaming the outside of the flooded brush which is the normal bank.  A lot of fish are being caught in the Big Creek area of Lake Norfork.

Some of the baits that are working well right now are pop-R’s, clear or white spooks, and bass assassins in white with a blue or black back with a silver flake.

Norfork Lake level is 572.35 and the water temp is in the mid 80s.

Brigadier General John McMahon answered questions in front of an audience of about 40 people at Jefferson City’s city hall Monday for about 20 minutes, before meeting with business owners at a private lunch and finally touring the city’s northern river front.

For weeks, the corps has been saying its management plan for releasing water from the upper Missouri River basin through it’s series of reservoirs and dams was on schedule until heavy rains struck Montana in May.

Farmer Terry Hilgedick from nearby Hartsburg, an area prone to flooding, questioned McMahon about the corps’ policy of releasing water at a relatively slow rate, despite record snowfall and snow-pack in Montana and the Dakotas.

“You knew that you had a larger snow -pack and even larger projections than even last year, which was the second highest (snow fall and snow-pack) in a year,” said Hilgedick.

“We had everything in place to accommodate the snow-pack,” said McMahon. “What we didn’t have in place was this unprecedented amount of rain in the upper basin states that took away our flexibility.”

The general’s comments echo the corps’ position on the reasoning behind its record releases of water over the last month or so. As of Monday, the dams along the upper Missouri, including the final dam, Gavins Point near Yankton South Dakota, continue to pump out a record volume of 150,000 cubic feet per second.

The Gavins Point Dam began pumping that full volume of water on June 14. The first of that surge is just now reaching Kansas City. McMahon said it would be at least another week before river levels came up in Jefferson City, and another three days or so beyond that before the surge reaches St. Charles and the confluence with the Mississippi River.

Already, levees are being overtopped and breached in northwest Missouri where residents of the town of Big Lake have evacuated. The river reached an all time record level at Rulo Nebraska earlier Monday, and officials in southwest Iowa continue to eye flood waters that are lapping at a new flood wall built to protect the south end of the community of Hamburg. McMahon said the corps will continue running water at Gavins Point and its other dams at their current volume until at least the middle of July, and could go longer if rain continues over the northern basin. And McMahon said the reservoirs continue to take in more water than they are pumping out.

McMahon and Kansas City corps commander, Col. Anthony Hoffmann came to Jefferson City at the request of Ninth District Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer and Fourth District congresswoman Vicky Hartzler.

“There’s a lot of questions out there about how the corps arrived at the decisions they have,” said Rep. Hartzler. “This is a precarious situation.”

The 10,000 pound gorilla in the room was the corps’ master manual for the operation of the Missouri River, the 14-year long study that concluded in 2004. It spells out the purposes and uses of the river, and is viewed with a jaundiced eye by downstream lawmakers who believe that too much emphasis is given to withholding river water in the upper basin to keep reservoirs full for summer recreation. The result in years with normal or dry summers is a shortened river barge season downstream, if one exists at all.

‘I dare say we probably should re-look the master manual at this point,” said McMahon. “There’s a greater appreciation for flood control in the upper basin now.”

Congressman Luetkemeyer prefers another method.

“In my discussions with the General, we were trying to figure out if there is a way that we can help him manage things better without going through a whole new study,” said Luetkemeyer who said downstream states were hurt by the 2004 master manual, and there’s no guarantee a new manual would treat downstream states any better.

“Do you want to open that can of worms up? I think not.”