The boat dock at Bowman Springs on Lake Arlington is closed for safety reasons after the last Storm caused Damage to the ramp. Please launch at Richard Simpson.

thanks

Thanks for update

how can you damage a boat ramp?

how is the fishing ?

Looks like the ramp is OK but the courtesy dock is closed. That's OK because no body understands what a courtesy dock is for anyway. Even with it written on the dock nobody moves when a boat comes in to dock. I load and unload alone. I need to tie up to the dock. Can't get people to move to let you tie up.

I wish they'd police the Arkansas area more. kids running wild while trying to back trailers, parking wherever they want. for most kayakers they believe the firelane os their assigned parking place. If it is in the late afternoon or evening I won't even go there any mord and have to deal with the idiots around the ramps

Do you try to tie up on the ramp side of the dock or the lake side of the dock? I often fish from the bank at Arlington lake for catfish and I don't see the problem you are talking about. I don't fish the docks due to the large number of people trying to fish from them.

I do see boaters trying to tie up on the lake side when the launch side does not have any fishermen fishing the launch side. Which doesn't make sense since they can clearly see the people fishing the lake side and should be able to see nobody is fishing the launch side of the docks.

Another thing I often see are boaters coming in at full speed in the launch area, then powering down just before they reach the launch ramp, kicking up waves that make the docks bob up and down.

Consideration and manners go both ways. I see more ignorant boaters than I see ignorant bank fishermen.

Thank you for the heads up on the ramp status!

I've been fishing Arlington fairly often for the last 8 years from Bowman Springs and Richard Simpson - I've fished the bank, from docks, from small and large bass boats, fished tournaments and from kayaks. Unfortunately guys fishing the docks are a pain in the butt most of the time. (Simpson seems to be worse)

I always idle slowly before the buoys and I get the stare down like "don't you pass/tie up near my lines" (as if I have a choice) when I go to tie up my boat on the ramp side. I even go dead center between docks and then cut in sharp to a dock cleat because the dock fisherman won't reel in for 30 seconds. I'm not sure what you can do about it if you allow fishing from docks (I see the same behavior on many lakes).

River Banks the courtesy dock is not a fishing pier. They allow fishing from it if people are courteous enough to bring their lines in so they don't get tangled up in lower units. The courtesy dock has verbiage painted on it for fisher folk to yield to boaters. At the Bowman Springs ramp the dock isn't as large as the Simpson ramp. Depends on the wind as to which side I tie up to. I see twice as many inconsiderate Bowman Springs dock fishers as I do boaters.

How about the cars that park in boat trailer parking only at Bowman Springs. They need to do something about that. I guess they cant read.