Arkansas role call
 

My wife and I are new to the this and was wondering who all is out there in the natural state and what lake you prefer. We met a cool couple from Sherwood with a sweet Baja. by the way we're Greers Ferry fans, gets a little crowded but its clean and we only live about 45 mins. from Cove Creek

:cool:

Here.

We live on Lake Ouachita. I wouldn't trade it for anything. :D
Greers is nice. We had the OSS Ozark Roar there a couple months ago.

BTW, I met this guy named Luke that couldn't drive a Mustang for chit! lol

Good to see you here man!

Donnie

We are new here also. We live in El Dorado and still have the family owned cruiser - 37' Sea Ray Sundancer - on Grand in N.E. Oklahoma at Harbors View in Duck Creek. We used to live on Grand Lake before moving to ELDO two years ago. Considering about possibly moving the SR to Ouchita but no slips. We are looking at buying some type of go-fast to trailer to the different Ozark lakes. Hamilton reminds us more of Grand Lake but it's just so small. Where are the better performance boat scenes and party lakes here in Arkansas???

I think the river is bad now and have heard grady mountan near hot springs is the place for go fast boats -I am in Little rock

I'm the neighbor from the NW corner of the state. I consider Beaver Lake my home waters. (when I own a boat)

Hey all....

Buck

jbbeard - you mean Brady Mountain Marina on Ouchita right? Thanks for the info. That is one of the marinas we are looking to put the Sea Ray.

Brady is great and also Mountain Harbor. If you are considering a slip you will run into a waiting list, so get in touch. I'm in good with both resorts and might be able to find a deal. We had the Sea Ray regatta at Brady this past weekend. This is a beautiful lake, you won't regret a visit or moving the boat here.

Donnie

Donnie, any help would be great. I have driven around both marinas and I liked the updates of Mountin Harbor but Brady Mountain is quite a bit closer to the city and me. We couldn't tell from the road, are there any Sea Ray specific docks or at least cruiser docks? All we could really see were mainly houseboats. We would like to get the boat moved maybe anytime after Labor Day. How was the Sea Ray regatta, how big of a turn out?? I thought the Sea Ray dealer in Hot Springs had gone out of business. One last question before I wear you out, are there specific coves where people go to raft up or is it everybody for themselves. I saw some nice hardware (brand new Donzi) over at Mountain Harbor when we drove up for the fireworks on July 4th. Thanks for any help!

Brady and Harbor are about the same time distance considering the long drive into Brady. :D I imagine you would like St. Kitts, St. Martin, Grand Cayman and maybe Little Cayman. We don't have cruiser specific docks at either marina, but it all depends on what your needs are. I would recommend one of the newer docks with cement tile and metal roof. You will find that both marinas do have some older docks, but I'm not the biggest fan of them. The Sea Ray regatta was good and Powerboats is still in business.

Far as coves, Brent (1stfntn) and I will be working on that issue. We have decided that we need somewhat of a party cove, so we have been checking them out. The Donzi is probably Dolph's. Him and Brent have their hardware on J dock right beside the ramp parking lot.

Get in touch sometime when you guys are coming over.

Donnie

Thanks for all the info. I guess we will call the two marinas and get on the waiting list. It sure would be nice to drive 2.5 hours to the boat instead of 7 or 8.

Aug 11th we are doing the houseboat thing on DeGray, party for my cousin graduating college. His dad has a stick boat up there so I will get to check out that lake also (just very slowly!!!)

sounds like we need to all gather up one weekend in august and ride. I have heard billy gibbons from zz top runs his boat on ouchita :party-smiley-020:

Coolhand,

There is a site called www.crowniehq.com that I go to, that have a lot of people from AR. and live just down the road from Greers Ferry. They are a bunch of great people and a lot of fun to boat with. The site is mostly Crownlines but I have a Nordic and there are a lot of other boats on the forum. It's for anyone that wants to participate. We just got back from a 10 day trip to TableRock Lake that was put together from the Crowniehq site. We had around 20 boats. Give it a try. It's a great site.

Donnie,

We have been told to look at some other marinas on Ouchita but not given any specific names or places. Mainly looking for one we can :ernaehrung004: & :food-smiley-009: at and has a good group of people, like to cut loose at the lake. What other marinas might you recommend for us to look at? If we could find a slip this fall or winter, we might go ahead and move it, then get on the waiting list at one of the big ones.

We are talking about coming up sometime in September to rent a ski boat or something to get a feel for the lake and look at any places you give us as a reference.

We are heading to GLOC and E-Dock to party over Labor Day. My buddy owns the Jesse James Active Thunder and has it runnin' hot! Wish I could have gone with them to LOTO :angry-smiley-055:


Thanks again for the help.
Rob

PS: Anywhere to buy your stuff local before I head to the lake next Thursday, would like to try it on the Sea Ray, God knows it needs a good cleaning!!!

Hey Rob,

Crystal Springs, Shangri La and Ouachita Shores. All are a little bit smaller, but they do have a few big docks.

I think everyone is out of stock until September. I'm back in production to replenish. :D

Get in touch when you guys decide to head this way.

Donnie

Will do. Thanks for the info.

Rob,

Should have weighed in earlier, sorry. I'm sure Donnie thinks I fell off the face of the earth; he's a great guy. I've been in Japan for work for several weeks and don't usually look in this section of the board. Shame on me.

I feel your pain. I was in your exact situation last year and had a hard time finding info here on the board for us AR boaters. I moved from D Dock at Cherokee to Mountain Harbour last winter. Had been doing the drive back to Cherokee from Little Rock every weekend for the summer prior. Even in the 'vette and leaving at lunch on Friday, the drive got OLD real, real quick. Love the lake, the marina, the bars, the restaurants and the crowd (including the crazy E Dock guys), but just too damn far.

I wound up buying a mobile home (let the AR jokes begin) in the Mountain Harbour trailer park as I've got a 38' Fountain and from what I could determine NONE of the marinas on Ouachita have any kind of reasonable bathroom (especially shower) facilities for slip renters that would allow me to continue to stay on my boat. Nothing like Grand, we were all definitely spoiled up there.

My observations on Ouachita marinas were that Brady has the nicest and newest docks and is probably located on the most "open" but crowded water on the lake. Mountain Harbor is a nice place to be and I love it, but I will tell you that the docks are old and all wood (even the underwater bracing is wood!!) and dock maintenance/improvement isn't exactly the primary focus of the management team IMHO. I'd compare it to Port Carlos on Grand from that perspective if that means anything to you.

Ouachita is a beautiful lake. Really clean water, almost never crowded and tons of nice people. There's really no social cove (YET!) and it's mostly houseboats and runabouts with some cruisers and go fasts. The reality is most people go to Ouachita to get away; if you want to party, bring it with you and you'll have a great time. I do. Lake patrol is easy going, which is a nice change. However, if you want a social scene like Cherokee/Grand, you're probably better off at Hamilton (assuming you are OK w/ the size of the lake, personally it was way too small for me). I checked out Greers Ferry heavily as well, but after a lot of visits and consideration I decided it also seemed on the small side and facilities there aren't really any better (except for maybe Lacy's, but even their facilities are limited).

I'm on J dock at Mountain Harbor and Dolf has his 38' Donzi there when he's at Ouachita (which seems to be about once a month based on the times we were both there this summer). I'd be happy to talk more if you're still interested. Just let me know. 501-358-8847.

Brad

Brad,

Sorry for the month and a half late response in saying thanks. For now we have decided to leave the boat at Harbors View on Grand. Just a hard lake to leave for many of the reasons you stated. Not interested in a port carlos type of Marina - I know exactly what you mean. The drive is old, but we just got a new Megacab that makes the trip somewhat more tolerable with the kids. If we decide to sell it and buy a go-fast I think we will just do the trailer thing for several years. Just hard getting used to southern Ark where their are limited lakes when your used to Grand and all the other big lakes in NE OK. If Greers Ferry has the offshore race again in '08, I bet we will make it.

Rob,

No problem, I completely understand. And I hear where you're coming from. Tough decision. If you ever want to come check Ouachita out, just shoot me a PM. I'd be happy to show you the lake. It really is fun when you get used to what it is (and isn't).

Brad

Cool - we may just have to do that!!

hey everyone, we boat in Arkansas, and live in Texarkana, TX, just not too many lakes around here. our home lake is Greeson, about 70 miles, and also hit Lake Hamilton few times and also Greers Ferry, got some good friend there, just wish it as closer.

Does anyone know anything if the OffShore race will happen again in Greers Ferry for 08?

The race is not happening for 08'

Lake Ouachita is being looked at for 09', but it's still up in the air.

Welcome to the board.

Donnie

Are ya'll going to do another poker run at Lake Quichita? If so, then when? I'd like to go this year, but I need to plan far in advance because I'm also getting married around the same time.

WHATS UP PEPS . THERE WILL BE NO POKER RUN HERE THIS YEAR I HAVE BEEN ON DONNIE ABOUT THAT AND HE SAID MAYBE IN 09 OR POS. LATE IN 08 . BUT WE STILL ARE HANGING OUT HERE AND I AM TRYING TO RUN THERE AS MUCH AS I CAN . WE WAS OUT THIS PAST WEEKEND AND IT LOOKED LIKE A GHOST TOWN OUT THERE :eek:

ANYBODY up for a run on Ouachita soon? Like next weekend or labor day? I wanna meet you guys- Brent is puttin my boat together for me and ready next week I hope- See you!

DANG IT :Whatever: we were on ouachita saturday was pretty empty but had a blast as always:ernaehrung004:

HEY LUKE I TOLD YOU THAT IT WAS BAD OUT THERE:party-smiley-004: IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN DID YOU GET YOUR ROOM YET FOR THE RIVER TRIP . WE NEED TO GET JAMES TO GO ON THAT RUN WITH US IT WILL BE A BLAST. THE LOTO SHOOT OUT IS NEXT WEEKEND. I GOT A BUDDY THAT IS WANTING ME TO GO BUT NOT SHURE IF I WANT TO MAKE THAT TRIP ALONE :mad: MIGHT JUST SAVE MY BEER AND MONEY FOR THE TABLES ON THE RIVER TRIP:ernaehrung004::ernaehrung004:

north arkansas
 

I live up in harrison and i,m not far from bull shoals ,norfork beaver lake and table rock we have a good variety up here welcome to ark

WHAT ARE U RUNNING SON:cool:

My Boat Is Down Right Now Installing A Pro Chager But The Wait Will Be Well Worth It