Does it always snow in Tennessee?

There's a lot of nice boats under these covered slips, or should I say under water

Looks like great fun...

I'm assuming whoever they rent the slips from is responsible. I hope they are insured.

Doubt it. Most marinas have that little "not responsible for damages" clause in their rental contracts. Hope those owners have really good insurance.

What lake is this?

Yeah where in TN is this?

I believe East Tennessee. I was thinking Norris

Its up to the individuals insurance to cover. Marinas are not responsible. This happened at our Marina in Mo a few years ago(it didn't hit the actual dock our boat was on). Now they have a much bigger, nicer marina with brand new docks

Norris Lake , TN
This must be a freak of nature or people would have taken their boat out before winter hit. Do they normally winterize their boat s there?

There were at least 6 marinas with collapsed docks. This will be an nightmare to resolve as I'm sure the marina owners will try to get the boat owners insurance to cover each boat. We get snow pretty regularly in the winter, but not like this. We had a bad ice storm followed by snow and very low temps. The kids haven't been to school since the Friday before Presidents Day and they probably won't go the rest of this week. We got 3-6 inches yesterday and the forecast is for 3-6 more tonight.

Edit: Yes we winterize our boats.

It will typically snow in TN a few times each Winter. For the most part it never amounts to more than a dusting or light coverage, but last week they did get some freezing rain that then was covered with 1-2" of snow. I wonder if those pics are taken form that event. Either way it doesn't look like there is more than a few inches... Certainly not enough that I would have expected the docks to collapse under the weight, but guess that is the case. Most of the SE is expecting a few inches of snow today into tonight, but so far in North Alabama nothing has happened... Keep in mind that city was basically shutdown for the "event" that hasn't happened yet. All school systems closed, lots of businesses, etc. We haven't even seen a drop of rain yet. I looked at my weather rock and went to work even though I was told my office was closed. I don't have time for stupidity and I live 10 minutes from work.

The weight of the ice plus the weight of the snow caused the collapse. My gutters at home are filled to the top with solid ice right now.

Just because a boat is on a lift in a marina does not mean it isn't winterized.

Mean while in the great white north the whole west coast of Canada is homeless because of all the sunny warm weather we are having all of our igloo's have thawed. We can't even go skiing as the local mountains have no snow. The bears are coming out of hibernation early and with no where to hide (again lack of igloo's) it's complete anarchy!

Ouch. At my marina, most of the really high-end boats remain there all winter. They are winterized, shrink wrapped, and left.

Is a boat sunk like that going to totaled or salvaged?

Depends on how fast that they pull it out along with how many electronics are in the boat. Im assuming those boats are not going to be the number one priority with the state shut down... would not want to be a boat owner at that marina!

Wow. I've never heard of leaving small boats in the water over the winter. It does look like most are on lifts though. I assume this is typical in TN? Why would trailer boats not be pulled and stored on the trailer over winter either outside covered/shrinked or inside? I'd wager it doesn't get below freezing long enough in TN for lakes to normally freeze over? Been a heck of a cold snap here farther north.

This makes me soooo glad I don't live in an area you can't go boating whenever you want...
We sure could use some of that participation out west though.

"Wow. I've never heard of leaving small boats in the water over the winter. It does look like most are on lifts though. I assume this is typical in TN? Why would trailer boats not be pulled and stored on the trailer over winter either outside covered/shrinked or inside?"

being on a lift is really no different than being on a trailer. Granted there is obviously more risk(lift fails, or marina burns,sinks, gets taken out by a tornado, etc...) but that's what insurance is for. In the eight years our boat has been at the marina, we have seen dock failure like above, and a tornado took out half the docks a year ago. Luckily both times our boat has escaped damage(opposite side of the complex).

"Wow. I've never heard of leaving small boats in the water over the winter."

That's a naive statement. Bass boats are perhaps more useful in the winter than anytime else. There's a lot of boating being done over the winter. It's the height of the spooning season (vertical jigging). I went fishing with a friend in mid-January. Morning temp was 25 F. Only picture I snapped was of his Westie. That dog couldn't wait until we sat in our bucket seats. Because then my hat and sunglasses were mouth high, and he'd play fight with one of the other the whole ... day.

Yeah, but did you catch anything?

1 white bass (big female). Measured in fish, it was the worst trip between us for the 17 years we've fished together. But as always in winter, it was a good to excellent bird-watching trip, with bald eagles, loons and unusual duck varieties being the highlight.

yeah. I am one lake over at Table Rock. I have never had much luck winter fishing. Still fun though!

That is Table Rock. That's Cow Creek in the picture and, the ironic part is, in the summer that's a popular wakeboard cove. But we had a tough day. So we pulled the boat out and back on the trailer, drove over to Viola to fish the King's River. We graphed big balls of shad, but just couldn't coax strikes. Normally the fishing is best in the Winter, and best in the middle of the day. Last year, we caught over 50 largemouth and Kentucky Bass, probably a dozen or more white bass. Some years a walleye is a bycatch ... oh and gar too. My buddy lives in Cassville. We do over 90% of our fishing on Table Rock. By late summer, it's night fishing only.

Lol. You can tell I am not much of a fisherman! What works best and how deep do you go? The only time I hit big cow is to tie up and party(the few times I don't have the kiddos). We have a house in Shell Knob just back from Pla Port Resort but keep the boat at Campbell Point.

How deep is dependent on the shad ball. You jig right on top, on the edge, maybe below, perhaps in the thick of things. Once you find a ball which has active fish on it, finding exactly which edge and how deep is matter of experimenting, but easy experimenting. Last year on that real good day we had, we started on Mill Creek by Shell Knob (not the one by Kimberling City) ... shad were too thick ... fish were spread too thin. Moved to Big Bay ... shad were spread too thin ... nothing but 12 inch Kentucky Bass. Then we moved to Big Indian (which by the way ... IMO ... is the most scenic place on Table Rock), and all the factors were just right.

What you use is not difficult in winter. White or Chartreuse jigging spoons, 2 to 3 ounces is normal (I have everything from 3/4ths to 4 ounces). I prefer zinc over lead, but I'll never use one to the exclusion to the other on any trip. Sometimes I bend the spoons to give them a rocker (for a better flutter action on the fall). Hold your rod lightly on the fall. You set the hook on the absence of weight. The old joke doesn't apply, the one that says "If you feel a tug, set the hook!" That's because, 90% of the time it's the absence of weight that tells you a fish is striking it fast from vertically below.

I've hijacked this thread plenty by this point but if your still interested in good arsenal of baits for WINTER fishing ... which is why keeping a small boat in a marina is perfectly sensible after all ... I'll make a picture for next week.

Meantime, here is what a big female ... WINTER caught ... white bass looks like.

Originally Posted by john211

"Wow. I've never heard of leaving small boats in the water over the winter."

That's a naive statement. Bass boats are perhaps more useful in the winter than anytime else. There's a lot of boating being done over the winter..

I was referring to inboard and I/O runabouts. I'm used to water freezing pretty solid on top which would damage boats and docks. I know people with cruisers and some haul out for winter others leave them in but it's with bubblers, the hassle or clearing snow and ice after every storm, and you may still be iced in the marina if you wanted to go out. Small trailer boats with outboards are a bit easier to just go out whenever. Not sure how far south you gotta go before year round boating is feasible. I guess most of my travels have been north.

Thanks Jon! That is great info!

So this thread had me wondering, what does it look like at my marina right now? Our winters nowadays are far colder and snowier than just a few years ago. In the middle of the Bush administration, there were 3 straight years I did not shovel any snow. Some years we had a fall- and winter-long leaf-burning ban in the countryside. Bush spent one Christmas at his Crawford, Texas, ranch while there was a wildfire so close the media could pictures of the ranch with the smoke plume in the background.

So I went down yesterday and here’s what I saw.

1 thru 4

second attempt at 5 thru 8

9 thru 12

13 thru 16 (end)

I numbered the pictures, so I can describe them and refer to them by number.

1 - this is Table Rock Dam and the Chateau lodge from the overlook on Hwy 165.

2 - Hwy 165, a typical winding road down there which in places was iced over.

3 - Table Rock Dam and the Chateau again, from the intersection of Hwy’s 265 and 165.

4 - A flock of geese over Table Rock. I didn’t see any boats out. That’s it for Table Rock, and I’m now headed to Bull Shoals.

5 - On Bull Shoals, this the back end of the cover for Sugarloaf Harbor Marina (Diamond City, AR). The closest marina from my house on Table Rock is 35 miles. I have to drive by 3 Corps of Engineer ramps and the Missouri State Park Marina at Table Rock Dam ... just to get to my marina on Bull Shoals at 70 miles away. You only have to be on Bull Shoals once to know its an incredibly different scene. If party coves, dense boat traffic, shore-side restaurants, amusement parks, live entertainment shows, a paddle-wheel dinner cruise and the like are your thing ... knock yourself out on Table Rock. If you like water sports, crystal-clear water, and a laid-back environment ... you want nothing to do with the lower 2/3rds of Table Rock for sure.

There’s only a light dusting of snow (in contrast to Springfield, which I’ll show in later pics), and now ices.

6 - shrink wrapped Cobalt (I think, or else it’s a Wellcraft).

7 - a pretty Cobalt (most or they all are, but I especially like that color).

8 - ditto.

9 - MasterCraft DD. In 3 seasons, I’ve never seen it off the lift.

10 - Ranger Bass Boat, left uncovered, ready to fire up and cruise away.

11 - flock of coots, which at first I admired as, how picturesque.

12 - snow on a shrink-wrapped rental pontoon (with one of the many corny signs around the marina which typify this marina owner’s good-natured but corny sense of humor).

13 - coot poop (I think) on the carpet pads covering the brackets on my lift. It’s somebody’s poop, and whoever’s it is, they’re partial to where and what they poop on.

14 - to show the contrast in how much deeper in snow and colder Springfield is, this is my driveway this morning. For next year, I am going to do something unheard of ... buy a snow blower. The modern world is mind-blowing in a way ... Oklahoma is becoming the earthquake state and Springfield is becoming a marketplace for snow blowers. (I know about these things because my neighbor has one ... and I’ve evolved from being slightly embarrassed for him ... to jealous).

15 - my neighbor hood lake this morning ... frozen over.

16 - Lake Springfield this morning ... partly frozen over. I’m now only 40 miles north of the Surgarloaf Harbor marina, and 700 feet higher in elevation, but there has always been a good bit of difference in climate.

I keep my boat in a storage locker for a variety of reasons, it never occurring to me that avoiding a dock collapse could be among those reasons. No, mostly it’s to avoid a ‘biologic’ attack ... mostly to stem the tide of mildew in my upholstery ... but certainly also to avoid bird or mammal nastiness or damage too.

But it’s a fact of life marina’s live precarious lives. There a big fire in Table Rock marina a few years ago during the winter that damaged/ruined dozens of good-sized yachts. My own marina was wrecked by a tornado about 6 years ago, which is why it looks kind of brand new these days. In fact, locally, tornados or high wind wreak havoc on marinas. Tornados seem to seek out marinas like mobile home parks.