Looks like America’s original Interstate Highway is on the rage again. Expecting the Bonnet Carre Spillway structure to begin opening this Friday to bleed off a few gallons of water to the Lake Ponchartrain watershed.

And there goes the soft shelled crabs industry again this year.

Why are soft shelled crabs going?

The infusion of fresh water alters the salinity that they thrive in.

Regular recent openings have decimated the Mississippi Sound oyster fishery. I was hoping we would be able to avoid opening it this year,

Damn, I love soft shell crabs!

I love oysters.

That’s fact, Paul but Dragos is closed anyhow.

Probably have to get them from the Chesapeake area.

Man, a fried soft shell crab Po- Boy is to kill for, I’ll tell ya.

What a bunch of babies.



A little fresh water kills them?


They should harden up a bit.

Heh.

You should see that from the air when taking off or landing in New Orleans when the spillway is fully open and how massive it is.

And Bonnet Carre ain’t that large of a diversion compared to The Old River Lock structure located northward that bleeds 30% of the Mississippi River’s flow to the Atchafalaya River and Basin. That, too, is quite an aerial view.

Louisiana State Motto:

We’re either underwater or under Indictment.

You know you live in Louisiana when, from time to time, you have waterfront property.

No scchitt !

Many do, in fact.

I’m blessed on high ground.

My great grandfather grew up on the banks of the Ohio.


He was quite a swimmer according to my father.


He said he saw the Mississippi once. It was a mile across.




It was unreal according to him.

I for one am tired of the Bonne Care being opened. It screws up all of my fishing areas to the south east. This would be the 3 consecutive year and 4 of the last five I believe. Unpresidented. The oyster fishery is never going to recover from this much fresh water. Blue crabs can live in fresh water, but need the salt to molt properly.Speckled trout don't spawn in insure waters with the salinity levels so low. Sucks ass..

They should open the Atchafalaya, but that would bring way to much political angst. All the cow ranchers and giant homes in the spillway never have to make concessions. The politically connected always come out ahead.


Clyde

That plus washing away Morgan City and massive backwaters to the west side, Krotz Springs, Butte LaRose, etc.

Actually you can hammer the specs and reds where they congregate outside of fresh water with the brackish/saltwater being heavier.

And NO, I ain’t telling you where !

And a lot of other commercial fishing as well!

Fugg!

There goes this years fishing again.

That’s true and the Mississippi Gulf Coast gets hit pretty hard, too.

Last year the state of Mississippi wanted a bigger say at the table before the Bonnet Carre and other east side diversions were opened. The Corps of Engineers pretty well told them to go piss up a rope and that the Corp would make the how, when, where and how much decisions. In a sugar coated way, of course.

That’s a lot better than having to dynamite the east levees to relieve the stresses on the whole system.

I’m thinking Paul Barnard would probably have more accurate and up to date data on this. He’s pretty much down by the tip of the spear.

Do you guys have any idea how much area the Mississippi drains? Every sewer plant in every town, big or small drains in that rivers tributaries. It is probably half sewer effluent. Have any of you ever considered that? The same goes for Galveston bay. The Trinity and San Jacinto rivers drain into that bay. Dallas Fort Worth and Houston, plus thousands of other sewer plants dump in that bay.

Opening the Atchafalya isn't gonna wash any cities away. The problem is trying to get all of the cattle out and the people out of the way. People live IN and graze their livestock IN the spillway. (supposedly at their own risk wink, wink)

It's easier and more politically expedient to open the Bonne Care. Don't need to ask permission to do that. Last year they came very close to opening the Atchafalya because the Bonne Carre just wasn't enough. The timing is better with the BC because the weir can be accessed longer in order to open the bays even after the weir is flooded.(the rail road tracks above the locks can still be accessed with the high water) With the Atchafalaya, that call to open needs to be made sooner because the structure itself will be under water and wont allow access to open the bays.

I bet if you asked any commercial or recreational fisherman on the east side of the river, they would tell you it's the west sides turn to take a hit.

JMO


Clyde

I know some folks that would argue the point about opening the Atchafalaya Basin.

Question:
Other than dynamiting the levees,,,,how would you divert to the west side?

The Corp opened the Bonnet Carre 3 times last year.

Note to self.....it's the Morganza. Spillway.

Sorry for the mind fart.


Clyde

This is what it looks like at Morganza with the floodgates open. I don’t remember how many were open and how many were closed. I filmed this in May of 2012.

You can put any cleaned blue crab in the deep frier and it becomes a soft shell.

The morganza which leads into the Atchafalaya is on the west side of the river. There would be no need to blow up levees. Bonne Carre is on the east side of the river. I live 12 miles from the BC in Kenner.


Clyde

Morganza is only opened when the Mississippi river flow volume reaches a specific number of mm scfm flow rate, generally taken at The Red River gauge. The Morganza Spillway is the diversion of last resort and has been from the day that it was completed .

You might enjoy a few things related.
1. Go to a Corp public meeting. Very informative, no bullscchitt.
2. If you haven’t already done so, pick up a copy of “Rising Tide” by John Barry who won a Well deserved Pulitzer Prise for it. Any one who has ever so much as crossed the Mississippi River on an Interstate bridge should read it. DONT start reading it on a evening that you have something important to do the next day.
3. C.C. Lockwood’s “Around The Bend” is a good read too that begins up where you can walk across the river.
4. Being told that Morganza use is a real possibility for this year as it was last year and came near being as you may recall.

IIRC, they opened about 1/2 of the Morganza in 2012. The engineers were real careful in determining how much water to let loose and who was gonna flood, of course they didnt have a clue and were made to look like the fools they are. Water didnt get nearly as high as they had predicted and a lot of people moved that didnt have to. Very few, if any, got flooded and that made the people mad. Not that they didn't flood, but that the corps made them move/abandon the area and none, not much, of it flooded.

Toot, thanks for the reference. Added Rising Tide to my next Amazon order.

I promise you’ll enjoy it and pass it on to friends.

Get “Around The Bend”, too. Ole Cactus Clyde Lockwood does a great job and his award winning photography is second to none. C.C. Has his studio close to where I live and I’ve visited several times.

They erred to the safe side.

The main thing that prevented the downstream flooding was the amount of trees that slowed the flow and caused it to disperse in a wider fashion.

Once the water gets south of St. Louis, I don't care what happens to it...

rofl, good one ! I lived in Avoyelles for a few years, and then Ouachita for a few more, seen some water at times!

Called “The Free State of Avoyelles “

Their motto:

We’re AHelluva Lot More Than Just Drunk Crazy Coonasses

My house in 2005. Luckily I have never had water in the house, close a couple of times, but no water.This is taken from the road.

What hurricane?

Delcambre?, Abbeville?

Yes, I had some bon temps there; every other person was named either Bordelon or Dauzat!!!

I got to know the Tunica-Biloxi Tribal Chairman at the time, very interesting guy.. this was years before the casino went in

Rita, not far from Delcambre

Check your pm’s, Mike.

i pissed in the crick behind the house this morning. it'll be down that way in a day or two. just doing my part for the soft shelled crabs.

This is a pic I just took riding along the shoreline of Lake Pontchartrain. It's about 5 miles from where the Bonnet Carre Spillway will dump A Super Dome full of water into the Lake every minute. I am guessing next week this time those rocks along the shoreline will be underwater. It's always interesting to me to see the critters the rising waters bring with them. I'll try to remember to post an update.

I was fishing Lake Michigan this morning. It's higher than I've ever seen it. Not surprised that the big river is getting its fill.

That beautiful lake is one of the best kept fishing secrets in the south including tarpon. It’s quite a ecological estuary.

Shutting down the shell dredging was a good move that was long overdue.

LOL...seems so.

Oldman, think back and you may recall that when the Corp fully opened the Morganza Spillway in 1973, they were trying to save the upper sill structure at the Old River locks on the West wing wall. That structure had to be moderated for flow cause they were about to lose the whole structure which would have been catastrophic to all points downstream.

When they went wide open at Morganza, the backwaters stopped the Red River from flowing causing flooding all the way back into Texas and Oklahoma. The hydrostatic head was too great and things flowed back north.

This is only one of the reasons for judicious use of the Morganza Spillway. There’s politics involved too as with most major activities but at the end of the discussions and politics, if the river flow volume exceeds the preset limit those gates are coming open ready or not.