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Posts: 3775
| I recently spent a few days at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. We were in one of the thousands of condos in one of the hundreds of what looks to me like big 4-10 story apartment buildings that are built EVERYWHERE on the lake. Ok, check out these numbers....
* The lake is an impoundment/reservoir of a dammed river. It's 54,000 acres with 1,150 miles of shoreline. A main channel with hundreds of small bays off to one side or the other.
* 40% of the people who have a second home/condo in Missouri have it at Lake of O.
* There are 75,000 docks, all with multiple slips, some have as many as 50 slips. There are 900 campgrounds each with its own boat launch. There are hundreds of motels in the area, all with boat/trailer parking.
Ok, check this....
* Boats are big, as big as 60'. I would guess average length is around 30'. In the bay where I was I saw barge-like tritunes with dual 250hp motors. At least 70% of the bay surface was used up by the docks.
* There is no boat size limit and no speed limit during the day. Nighttime speeds are limited to 30mph.
* On any given summer Saturday or Sunday there are 165,000 boats on the water. At the same time. On the 4th of July weekend there are over 200,000 boats on the water. That comes out to 3-4 boats per acre. All at the same time. But since most of the bays are covered by docks the numbers are probably closer to 4-6 boats underway in every open acre of water.
Dunno about you but all that means hell on the water on earth to me.
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| Whoo! And I thought Minoqua was busy. Those statistics are hard to grasp. |
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Location: E. Tenn | ..and coming soon to a chain or flowage in the Northwoods, and Northlands, if it's not there already.. |
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Location: SE, WI. | No Thanks; And I thought the Fox Chain in IL. Was Hell! After this summer, seems like a bunch from the Ozarks, took their boats to LOTW’s! ;(
Edited by jdsplasher 3/16/2024 10:28 PM
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Location: Eastern Ontario | You would think with those numbers they would be killing each other off. Accidentally or otherwise. |
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Posts: 3775
| Lake of the O is considered one of the most dangerous lakes in the US. In 2021 there were 15 boating and drowning fatalities, most chalked up to impaired and inexperienced drivers. The most dangerous time by far is the 4th of July. A half dozen shorefront bars put on huge fireworks displays, tens of thousands of boats on the water. When the fireworks are over everybody rushes to get back to the slips. Many of the bigger boats can't get on plane under 30mph so they're plowing water and putting out massive wakes. It's so rough thousands of little boats are forced to take shelter in the bays till the big boats all get home.
No thanks. |
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| How anyone could possibly find any pleasure in that, is beyond me, regardless of your preferred activity. |
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Posts: 3775
| Most property owners are from the suburbs of Kansas City and St. Louis. You might think, "Well, the lake won't be so busy unless those folks show up." Not so fast. A multitude of the condos and homes are rented out for anywhere from 2 nights to a week, often with slip use. Owners contract with management companies that market and manage the rentals, we went thru Vrbo.
Here's an interesting factoid.... Lake of the O was created in 1931. A huge number of owners are from St. Louis, a 3-hour drive. In the 60's some astute St. Louis real estate developers began working to place a dam on the winding Merrimac River to create another big azz impoundment but located only 40 minutes outside of St. Louis. Millions were invested in surveys and legal work planning to compensate current landowners. Many more millions were ready to begin to buy up land. It got so far that "future lakefront lots" were surveyed and for sale. (My brother-in-law, now in his 70s, actually looked at a few of the lots.) The Merrimac guys were steamrolling ahead until there was a sudden dump of big money into the coffers (and pockets) of local elected officials who created zoning laws that killed the project. The money came from the Lake of the O real estate investors and developers.
Edited by Ranger 3/17/2024 4:51 PM
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Posts: 1316
Location: Lebanon,Mo | I live 30 minutes from Lake O...you have no idea. Excellent crappie/bass lake, but can only be fished part of the year and I think that's why it's so good for those species of fish because there is 5 months of the year you can not go out on the lake unless you are tugging 30'. It's gotten so bad that parts of the lake are no wake due to boat traffic and tidal waves. Sadly, every year someone drowns or is killed on that lake. We have top celebrities, pro sport athletes, singers, etc that visit or own homes on the lake as well. Not my cup of tea |
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Posts: 3775
| Right on. The locals I spoke with said the best entertainment of the summer is on the 4th of July when after the fireworks are over and a big boat shows up to load onto its lift. The problem starts with, first, way too much alcohol and cocaine all around, and second, the bay is packed with little boats forced off the main channel by the big boats. The big boat gets no sympathy from the crowd. In fact, some of the little boats have fun preventing the big boat from lining up and loading. The delay means here come a couple more big boats waiting to access the bay. It's a total #*#* show with yelling, threats, horns, thrown bottles, loud music, twerking, titty shows and sometimes fistfights. |
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Posts: 8719
| Fox Chain Stats:
7,100 acres total
28,000 registered boats
Until you've seen it on a holiday weekend, you can't even imagine.
I don't see that happening on my lake, especially since you can only park a few trailers at the landing. That and the fact that all the local hotels and most of the restaurants have closed down. It was pretty desolate to begin with. Now it's a ghost town... |
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| OK, walked around my lot, which is just shy of an acre and tried to imagine four 30' boats in that space. They would certainly fit but if they were moving? Sheesh. |
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| Couldn't pay me to fish water like that. |
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Location: oswego, il | I was there for a weekend once. We went into this cove with an insane number of boats beached and tied to each other with a way to cruise through. It seemed like the only purpose for it all was to see from where infants feed.
Edited by ToddM 3/20/2024 4:06 PM
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| That's not a bad thing! |
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Posts: 36
Location: Kansas City MO | I fish there a fair amount. During the summer it's a morning and evening bite. The 40' powerboats and cabin cruisers run you off the water around mid morning. The only cover is thousands of docks and whatever brush people have sunk. It's a great producing lake despite the excessive traffic but caution is the best policy when the big boys turn it into a washing machine! |
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Posts: 1316
Location: Lebanon,Mo | ToddM - 3/20/2024 4:00 PM
I was there for a weekend once. We went into this cove with an insane number of boats beached and tied to each other with a way to cruise through. It seemed like the only purpose for it all was to see from where infants feed.
Party Cove------ Boobies an Beer. Sometimes more that that. A diver once told me the average amount of trash in the lake is about 1'. Some places none, but others could be 3' tall. Ranged from cans,food,car/boat parts,clothing,drugs,furniture....you name it,it's in there at some point. |
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Posts: 55
Location: Zimmerman | There are muskies in Lake O, I believe from a long ago stocking, one is caught every once in a while. If I remember right the state record might be out of there. My in-laws had a place on Lake 0 around mile marker 5. Crazy is the right term. During the summer starting about 9/10 am and going into the evening am there is a consistent 3 ft plus chop from all the boat traffic. Think of Tonka but worse. When they first got the place, I had a 16 ft Lund and thought I’m going fishing how bad can it be, I fish ML. Wrong…I cut across the channel to a cove on the other side and said never again. You do see bass boats fishing early in the morning but that’s about it. |
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Posts: 103
| Those are some pretty ridiculous stats. Can't say I've ever been there, and after hearing this, I don't intend to.
Tonka can be a washing machine in the summer time on a nice day. At least there is some seclusion in the wake-restricted bays though. Or go when its raining/cloudy. Then there's only fishing boats out there. The worst part about Tonka are the accesses. They are a complete clown show because most recreational boaters are clueless on etiquette.
Edited by gimruis 3/21/2024 9:11 AM
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Posts: 1184
| Years ago fishing in Canada we went in for dinner on the 4th of July and we had the TV on and they had Twin Cities news on one of the channels the news crew was showing a story from Minnetonka where and couple of people were rumbling over a boat spot to watch the fireworks show. One of the people involved ended up dead in the water. No one would let the cops thru to rescue/ investigate. Over Fireworks? If you like fire works come to my neighborhood, Wyoming is only 100 miles away all kinds of Fireworks are legal and folks make the trip it's WWIII in my neighborhood I can watch 6 or seven groups of people blow off stuff from my front yard. No reason to get in the car to see a professional show the ones in a neighborhood are better and longer. And by the grace of God it started to rain hard about 11:00 PM and shut it down early. |
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Location: NW WI | Welp, if this drout pattern continues, none of us in the Northeoods are gunna be chasing muskies in July.
I motion to the table that in said event we all bring Chuck some of our local brew and turn his property into the biggest 4th of July party in his county.
All in favor? |
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Posts: 103
| Drunk boating is a problem on Lake Minnetonka. The Hennepin County Water Patrol has a large station on the lake and they patrol it regularly. They pay no attention to fishing boats. |
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Posts: 2228
Location: SE, WI. | QUOTE]gimruis - 3/22/2024 10:50 AM Drunk boating is a problem on Lake Minnetonka. The Hennepin County Water Patrol has a large station on the lake and they patrol it regularly. They pay no attention to fishing boats. Kinda the opposite here in SE Wi. They let the Wake boarder continue to wake board after the Sun goes down. And pull over the 14’ aluminum ma and pa fishermen for lack of boat lights. ;( Guess $$$$$ talks;( Also, the lake patrol seems to put their boat on the trailer as night falls, instead of staying out till midnight to bust the violator/ drunks! JD |
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| jdsplasher - 3/22/2024 11:01 AM
QUOTE]gimruis - 3/22/2024 10:50 AM Drunk boating is a problem on Lake Minnetonka. The Hennepin County Water Patrol has a large station on the lake and they patrol it regularly. They pay no attention to fishing boats. Kinda the opposite here in SE Wi. They let the Wake boarder continue to wake board after the Sun goes down. And pull over the 14’ aluminum ma and pa fishermen for lack of boat lights. ;( Guess $$$$$ talks;( Also, the lake patrol seems to put their boat on the trailer as night falls, instead of staying out till midnight to bust the violator/ drunks! JD
Need to remember that the Walker administration gutted the WI DNR. We have far fewer wardens than we used to. Up here in the north country, most counties have only one, sometimes two wardens with hundreds of lakes in a single county. For almost a year, two of the northern counties near me did not have a warden. Townships around here are passing ordinances designed to curb wake boats but they lack any enforcement personnel. Wardens can only enforce state laws and county sheriffs can only enforce state or countywide laws. Towns would have to hire their own constables.
And yes $$$$ talks. Wake surfing boats start at over $150,000. Those kind of buyers can afford lawyers. |
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Posts: 103
| Not to sidetrack this thread, but a new world record Paddlefish was caught in March on Lake of the Ozarks weighing 164 pounds. What are the odds of snagging a new record out of a 14,000 square mile body of reservoir? Calculating those odds seems impossible. |
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Posts: 1316
Location: Lebanon,Mo | Ram - 3/21/2024 8:13 AM
There are muskies in Lake O, I believe from a long ago stocking, one is caught every once in a while. If I remember right the state record might be out of there. My in-laws had a place on Lake 0 around mile marker 5. Crazy is the right term. During the summer starting about 9/10 am and going into the evening am there is a consistent 3 ft plus chop from all the boat traffic. Think of Tonka but worse. When they first got the place, I had a 16 ft Lund and thought I’m going fishing how bad can it be, I fish ML. Wrong…I cut across the channel to a cove on the other side and said never again. You do see bass boats fishing early in the morning but that’s about it.
Back in the 70's while stocking Pomme De Terre with muskies ,a fish truck from Wisconsin aerator system broke down and had to make a decision to dump the fish for them to survive. Lake O was the closest at the time. In the mid 80's a gentleman caught one of those fish and still holds the state record to date. From time to time,fish make their way through the Pomme dam,travel through Truman Lake and show up caught in Lake Ozark. Crazy amount of travel |
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