Those who have been before probably understand, but for those who haven't, we are going to be in a very small, relatively quiet town. There are houses all along the river and main channel. We are going to be there in HUGE numbers, our boats are loud and obnoxious, and we would like it to be almost as if we are not there. Please do your part to be courteous to other boaters and do what you can to stay out of the highly traveled areas (main channel and river), get a map, go play in the woods if you want to ride around. If you pass fisherman in the channels, please slow to no wake, especially if there is a group of you. It's a large lake and it's not too hard to get away from the crowds, but please do what you can to be courteous should you encounter other boats, and try to stay away from heavily populated areas as much as possible. We go to great lengths to plan the route for our main ride so that we have the least amount of interaction as possible, both so we can keep it moving and also to be courteous.

For the morning ride on Saturday, a good portion of the ride will be in tighter areas, and safety is of the utmost importance to us. In order to keep everyone safe and make sure everyone makes it back ok, we ask that there is ZERO passing. We will single file out of crips, throughout the ride, and on the way back. Please stay out of the spray of the boat in front of you, and immediately get off the gas if you do not see a rooster tail in front of you. We do not want anyone to get hurt. We aren't in any hurry.

In the afternoon, we'll be running across open water to Louisiana. You can open it up a little if you know where you're going, but please continue to be safe. If you pass, please do so at a safe distance, watch the cross chop, and keep a good eye out for fisherman parked out there. They will sometimes sit in an area with a few stumps and/or lilly's and can be hard to see until you're close. PAY ATTENTION.

I'm sure the GW's are fully aware of this event, and there is a good chance they will be out in numbers to make sure we stay under control. There is no open container law, but I assure you they will not tolerate drunken drivers. Please have someone capable of safely getting you back to shore in your boat with you.

The water is extremely high right now so there is likely to be more boat traffic in areas where it's usually only mudboats. There is also the possibility of wakes going up in people's yards and/or houses. Please pay attention when you are around houses. If there is even a remote chance of throwing a wake up rolling through someones yard toward their house, please slow to "no wake". Likewise, when passing fishermen or other boaters, slow down, and/or kick way out off the boat lane to go around. Weather has been pretty bad here for the last month or so, people are going to be out an about, and likely in areas they usually aren't. Just be safe.

Other than that, have a great time. Sorry for all the "rules", but we would like to be able to continue doing this ride for years to come. The only way that is going to be possible is if everyone is respectful to the folks who are there year round. We are trying to do a good thing for the lake, and want to be viewed in a positive light. Anything we can do to prevent negativity is a good thing.


Thanks

I should be more available earlier in the week this year to show some of you guys around. I know 3ck and his crew will be in on Thursday and we will be doing some riding with them. If you want to check out some areas off the beaten path, just try to get up with some of us and we'll show you around!

The northern end of the lake is going to be the more "swampy" area, more fun to "mudboat" IMO, and you'll be less likely to cross paths with tons of other boats once you get way up there, especially if you get off the boat roads.

Heading south/southeast will take you more out into the open water. Once you get away from the main channels, it should be pretty easy to keep to yourself. The ride over to the spill way is a nice long trip and you get to see the neat old bridge in Mooringsport. It's mostly open water, but it's a nice long ride. Something to do to kill some time. You'll see all the big old open water duck blinds and ride across the old pipeline out that way. If you go up in the coves more due east (towards onion island), it's mostly open water with a few scattered islands. Up in the back there's some old oil rigs that are kinda neat if you like to take pictures of stuff like that.

I ran caddo this weekend and water is down to acceptable levels and out of folks yards etc. lots of debris floating. There are alot of blind corners on caddo so run defensivley always leave youself an out. We had a bass boat run my buddy into some trees right after i was telling him about blind corners. That bass boat was on step and rolling and did not give a shit. We are looking foward to this ride!

Good advice Clay!

We plan to be there around noon on Thursday!

Getting pumped!

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Good advice.

We should be there noonish on Thursday as well. Damn sure looking forward to it. Getting the boat and a few other things in order this week!!!

Sorry I can't make it but have some business to take care of. Will update more upon my return.

I will be leaving Lafayette early thur morn and be there i hope by 1, looking fwd to meeting the guys I dont already know from previous trips. glad to see that safety is foremost, ive been to a lot of mudfests and the places we run can be dangerous. cant wait to be there says Ronbow

Safety!

Since we are talking courtesy and safety I'll bring this to attention. There's at least one tournament going on that Saturday probably will be a couple small tourneys as there's several bass clubs in the area.

Yes I'd assume that. I saw this on Facebook and wanted to pass it along. I'm not real familiar with this tournament group.

I'm not really too worried about tourney fisherman. For one, we go pretty far out of our way to stay off the beaten path in the morning, and we'll be in areas they likely won't. There's really only a couple bottle neck areas where we're really likely to cross paths with other boaters, and if we need to slow to idle a couple times, it's no big deal. When we cross over to LA in the afternoon, it's all open water so you should easily be able to stay wide of any bass boats. On Saturday, it's not really like we just aimlessly ride around all day. We make a big loop in the morning and a straight shot to onion island in the afternoon. Later in the afternoon some folks may do a little running around after leaving onion island, but the tourney is over at 230, and again, most of us go ride places you aren't really gonna be running a glitter boat.

If they're out scouting on Thursday and Friday, we may come across them some as people will likely be out exploring. That's ok, just be courteous. If you pass in a narrow channel, slow to no wake, if you are in open water, just try to stay way wide of em. It's a big lake, we should all be able to share.