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Why are they allowed to do this? They deem the river unsafe. When is the River every safe???????? They never locked or even had gates before and didn't do it in the spring or summer when it was high??? HMMMMMMMMM, Its a crock of shiz.

I agree. Some may say that it's due to not wanting to have search and rescue operations, but I think is over reach. River gets high and they shut down a lot of public ground. I understand for deer and such, but not waterfowl. It's just an excuse. When did high water ever affect waterfowl hunting. Not that big of a deal this season speaking in terms of bird numbers, but this water situation is what we dream of, when certain blocks of woods go under and now they tell us we can't even hunt ducks in high water situations? Look at Arkansas, same deal. Did they shut access down to their woods and rivers? Not once I'm pretty sure. You know when they shut season down west of hwy 61 for everything except waterfowl, I called and inquired about late season dove. Was told "it's not in the statute so no you can't". When did high water ever affect doves? If you're on the river in these conditions, you most likely know what you're doing. Plus the river has created and is falling. If you don't know how to navigate safely the mine field of trash about to get sucked out, that's your own fault and called natural selection.

Well hell. My phone is still logged in so I can post.
Where did you hear or see this and who is it locking the gates?? We need to call them

They say you can waterfowl hunt but close all access to the damn water. If it's for my safety I call horse crap. I didn't ask anybody to look after my safety

Parking is hard to come by in Arkansas, everybody is on the river.

Too deep to wade, boat blind and long decoy strings = hot barrel.

What launches were gated/locked?

river ground cost big money

big money can get you what you want........

Bingo buckshot!!!
Why were there a few GW sitting up on Gilliam Chute and Rodney Lake giving trespassing tickets a while Back to anybody that came through there in a boat? Claiming it is private. Look it up on google and see if Gilliam Chute and Rodney Lake is private or not in your opinion. The problem is that a certain man owns a ton of land down there and has a lot of money. Money buys "things" and those things were tickets written to folks. They went from protecting the wildlife and rights of hunters and sportsmen to enforcing the will of the rich man against said hunters and sportsmen. It pisses me a ff they close the river down as well. You can still waterfowl hunt they say but take away most all your access to the water. Look at DNF you can't even use the boat ramp there. It's freakin closed!! For my safety. Well piss on them and them looking out for me. $#!+!! Just flexing the muscle of the man do as I say minions!! I'm sick of it

420 and buckshot hit it on the head. Having similar trouble in North MS. I have a BADDDD taste in my mouth at the way some of these access issues were/are being handled. The money got to lock their levee gates but us poor folks were not allowed to. And if you question the powers at be, YOU are giving them a hard time. How DARE you question their authority!! I'm not gonna name names but I will say the game wardens didn't have anything to do with it...very unprofessional......

It is unprofessional! GW works for all of us not Mr @@@@ or &&&& island or *&^%*. Its pure crap!!! Corruption even.

420 racing see if you can pm me. Got a question.

Y'all quit talking about Uncle Gerald.

If I am correctly interpreting Wingmans sticky, you have to leave natural banks of said lake to enter said chute. Not sure where the GW was citing folks for trespassing, but it doesn't appear you can go from south end of the lake and into the river w/o trespassing.

Can't PM delta. Something still wrong with log in stuff. I can only post from my phone but PM tells me a database error occurred.

You can access the lake and the chute without leaving the old natural channel of the lake/river very easily. Same way you get in every other oxbow along the river. No questions that is public water. I can 100% tell you that the Corps regulates that as a navigable water under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. That's a congressional delegation that that is a navigable water under the law since 1899. Of course in 1899 that lake and chute weren't there or were part of the river then. But the rule says the ordinary high water marks lateral extent. I don't know yet exactly what the OHWM is at that spot but at Natchez is about 35 on the gage

I understood from the sticky that USGS topos were the most reliable reference for "natural bank." I'm no expert, but topo map indicates that the chute and lake do not connect, though they do now. ??

Look at Google or bing or any other aerial photo and tell me if they connect. I can't say (I wish I could) what's public and private but I can unequivocally say that that area is regulated as section 10 navigable. Whatever implementations that may or may not have as to assigning public/private designation, I can't say