I got 2 inches at my place. However, it came slowly over 2 days so not much runoff.

Still, it's gotta help.

I saw that on radar. Good now you need about 10 times that over the summer.

Yeah hard to believe I am right above you and we are swamped! Fricken raining again today!! Everyone here is tired of it!!!

RC

I wish you could send me some.

Just thinking. One inch of water over one acre is approx. 27,000 gallons. I have 133 acres. So, 2 inches of rain over the 133 acres is 7,182,000 gallons. And, the trees(LOTS of oak trees) will take it, some will evaporate and the rest will temporarily soak into the soil. Some will run into the ponds. In a very short time, it will again be very dry. That's discouraging in an area that is labeled exceptional drought. Over the last 3 or 4 years of very little rain, we need this much every week for quite a while.

Hoping for more rain for you Dave and all the TX boys. We're finally getting cooler temps and wet weather we had hoped would accompany the El Nino [?] pattern this year.

Yeah Dave I have noticed in my pond that it really takes about 4 to 6 inches of rain when it's been real dry to start to make a difference. A lot of it gets used up right away like you said!

Wish I could send some your way bud. Hang in there maybe you will get more shortly!!

RC

It looks like I got about 1 1/2 inches out in west Texas too! Won't know until I get there but it looks promising on the radar.

I know I'm jinxing myself, but here goes.

We hit full pool this morning. After the last couple of years, this was a pleasant surprise. I've got American Lotus that was all the way to the banks last year, and now there are areas that it's 50-60' out in the big puddle.

Normally our rains get killed by the DFW cap, but this last month or two we got tons of rain from the southwest. All that rain slid under Dallas-Ft Worth.

Great news AL! Fingers crossed for everyone else.

Tony, me too. DD1 was coming over to fish last weekend , and I sheepishly had to call and tell him it was storming here. There's just a tremendous rain difference 60 miles west of here. I still don't understand why.

We never had any huge rains, but we got the ground saturated early, and got almost constant runoff in May. 2", 3", 2", they all helped, but it was just luck they all hit us. I'm still making long term drought plans.

Congrats Al...that's welcome news. Wish I could have been on the phone when you told Dave...bet there were some choice words uttered.

Hey we got about 2 inch here as well, same as Dave no runoff and will be dry again soon. We have been in a drought such a long time, perennial plants/grasses and even trees are starting to die. I have a friend about 60 miles north of me that got 7 inches over a week and only filled some of his cattle ponds. But its a great start and we are not complaining! Hopefully another chance this week. If we could get another 2-3 inches over the next week we may get some pond water!

Jake, if you get pond water, Wichita Falls might get drinking water. Does Randlett also get it's water from Wichita Falls?

I'm still having a lot of cedar trees dying from the brutal 2011 summer. I heard that the post oaks will be dying for 10 years due to 2011. And, the last couple of years sure haven't helped.

2 1/2 inches took us to full pool and flushing fish poop.
More rain forecast for Thursday....



Just got to son Jeff's place and checked his rain gauge - 3 1/2 + inches - he left in the rain yesterday morning for trip so good news - haven't seen that much rain in years!
George

Dave if Wichita Falls got any water from this last rain it was not a significant amount. My pond caught about a foot, but it still probably 6-7 feet low. The red river is huge at the crossing, the most it has been here in several years. All that water was from up in Oklahoma but none will go into the Wichita Falls lakes. Randlett gets very little water from Wichita, but other small towns around do. I am on well water at my house thankfully it seems to be holding.

We apparently got 3 inches yesterday and are in the middle of 2+ more as I type this...

I say apparently because I'm currently in Seattle. Just going by talking to the neighbors via email and text. Sounds like it's coming down by the bucket full right now.

I left for Illinois today to meet with 2 clients, crossed the border and the rain started. It rained like a cow whizzing on a flat rock the whole time I was there, and when I get back here the rain gauge hasn't budged. I was gone for 9 hrs.............

And you didn't even stop by and say hi?!?!?

Btw, I am sick of rain... 3" Saturday night Sunday.. And pushing another 3" today!!!

I waved as I went past. Left at 11:30 a.m. for there, left there at 7:00 p.m. for here.

Flood advisories and warnings going on for tonight and later...

One of these day's, you'll get wet

At home we got about the same. I recently moved to Kansas, and within a week it has rained 4 inches and more expected tonight.

Hey everyone! I wanted to bring this one back up instead of starting a new one but My house got about 4 inches last night and possibly that much more to come today! It is too early to tell if the large town of Wichita Falls will catch water in their lakes but the outlook is as good as has been in the last 5 years. My bass pond should catch significant water and perhaps even fill up! It is 8 acres full but about 2 now. That would be an astounding amount of water and in July to boot! I'm in Colorado right now and not even able to see the running water and rain, so I will give a better report in a few days when I get home.

jakeb, I was watching water cascade off the hangar I work in on base (Sheppard)...haven't seen it like that in years! Officially (per the weatherman on KFDX), they're saying 2.12 inches in Wichita Falls. Bowie got 3"...congrats, Dave!

Hopefully more rain tonight! Rain!

I'm glad to hear that you guys are finally starting to get some rain. I just can't imagine living in that heat, plus not getting any significant precipitation for several years.

We are a little dry here. I've not checked the history, but I'd say it is about normal. We usually quit getting rain sometime in June, except for thunderstorms and the occasional tropical storm or hurricane.

My main pond is down about 5 inches from full pool. That is the first time in a couple of years that any of the ponds have gone below full pool. My put-and-take-pond, which is HBG and CC is down 2-3 inches, as are my smaller grow-out ponds. The most I've seen my main pond drop is about 18 inches, and that was several years ago. My main pond is 9 foot deep. My put-and-take pond is about 7 foot deep. If I lost 9 feet feet of water, like a lot of our Texas friends, I'd be in a dessert.

I'm sure the hay farmers around here would crucify me if they heard that I'm hoping it stays dry for a few more weeks -- as it usually does. It means they don't get a 2nd or 3rd hay cutting. But, it gives me a chance to do a lot of pond and general road/property maintenance.

I just finished extending my last driveway culvert by about 9-feet. That is the fourth new culvert or culvert re-build this season. I was tired of getting a washed out driveway, a slipping dam face, and getting stuck when we got near the ditch edge last winter in 4WD vehicles, when the ditches weren't frozen, but the driveway was. It takes a lot more than 10 bad words to get the tractor out of those situations when it sinks to the axles. The front end loader bucket and the backhoe bucket just make a sucking sound when trying to "crab" my way out.

Yesterday, on the main pond, I was able to take out a lot of trees that were within 15 to 20 feet of the north pond edge, using my backhoe. (The west pond edge is the dam -- I slowly got all the trees off the dam over the the last 5-10 years. Mostly pines, they were put in by the previous owner as "erosion control"!) If the water hadn't been down, I wouldn't have been able to get the backhoe in position without danger of sinking at least part of it. It is a pretty steep bank. I could have brought in a dozer or track loader, but ...

The gardens are doing great. I've got my 2-inch semi-trash pump hooked up on a trailer to move from pond to pond so I can water the baby grass on the newest pond's dam, and still do the gardens. I can water the main garden and kitchen garden a few times a week. The few hundred gallons of water for the gardens don't really have much impact on the levels of the ponds.. I figure the ponds probably have 1 to 1-1/2 million gallons of water. Plus, we still do get thunderstorms a few times a week that drop a lot of rain pretty fast.

I'll be doing a rain dance and anti-tornado dance for y'all. (No tornadoes have ever been recorded in the the mountain county I live in.)

Good luck. Stay safe.

Ken

I can't get there until Sunday to check my rain gauge. I'm going nuts. The weather guys have been all over the place from 4.25 to 7 to 10 inches.

Dave, every time I check weather conditions I check Bowie radar FIRST! Had radar on most of day yesterday and it looks like you should have some full ponds!

Jeff says we got 4 inches at our ponds - already full pool so should really flush the toilet!
Best rainy in season in many years!
I'll be checking them this afternoon.

Dave, I'd rather have a full pond and erosion ruts to fill than a dry pond and no ruts.

You sure you can wait until Sunday to find out??

I stocked fish in central Illinois Wednesday....Left home in and drove in some spotty, but heavy rain while heading south Tuesday evening to get the fish. When I arrived at the pond in Illinois(only about 70 miles due east of my home), barely a drop of rain had fallen.

Happy for my TX brethren...congrats. You have suffered for so long. I hope it keeps coming amigos!

Scott, I have to wait. I have a urinary tract infection that is confining me to home. But, by tomorrow, I expect to feel better due to antibiotics. This is one miserable deal.

Get better soon Dave!

I'm already better. The antibiotics are finally working. I'm going tomorrow to look.

Report with pics!

I heard that George was supposed to be fishing at Al's today.

Hope for much water at the pond, Guv...

Randy, I'm waiting and hoping too.

DD1 better hit the road to Bowie soon, or I'm gonna die here. I think a big muddy pond would be a blessing for him right now.

Scott, George and Jeff(IIRC, George's middle son) did come. CNBG were nonexistent, but the LMB were active. Apparently, my CNBG have no clue how to handle a 60 degree night in July.

No reason to believe that they've ever seen one. These were new record low temps.

Leaving shortly.

Hope you caught some serious water Dave! Be sure and take pics!

Scott, they left me sitting on the bank while they boat fished and claimed to be catching LMB - But - no pictures no fish...
Did manage to sneak one in tho..
G/

George, I can't believe that the CNBG were that uncooperative!

In the past week or so we've had nighttime lows in the 40's and 50's. Water temps have dropped too. But, the rain hasn't come this way and evaporation is outpacing the rainfall, by a good amount. Plastic tanks I have by the house are 5"-6" low from evaporation vs. rain.

Scott, the CNBG were in as much a shock as we were getting that much rain! Al has some BG brutes in his lake pushing 2 lbs!

The two guys in the boat are a couple of hard core bass fisherman - both having double digit LMB to their credit.
I would have been skunked - that's why they left me on the bank....
G/

George,

You have much more experience with HSB than me. My Pond filled up 6 weeks ago, and they still have not been seen back to feeders, nor have i caught one.

I have also noted a very small fish kill with some 2 inch bass washing up on shore. maybe 20-30 of them.

During the rain I saw some very small bass and small CNBG going over spillway, but i never witnessed my 14-16 inch HSB.

Any thoughts?

I'm thinking about getting another water chemistry soon.

Just back and no idea really how much rain we got. The rain gauge was stuck in the ground and the storm blew it over. But I did notice a mop bucket under a tree with 5 inches. Realistically I probably got around 6 inches during the storm. I've never seen that happen before. I caught a lot of rain and my front pond probably came up 5 ft. That will get me through the year. I tossed out pellets and nothing showed up but I went from about 1/4 acre(or less) and 2 ft deep to over an acre and 12 or so ft deep during the various rains this month. What fish survived are probably scattered and lost. That's OK. I'm only about 3 ft from full pool and that includes a long gully.

Then we went back to my 1/20 acre forage pond that had been about 2 ft deep. It is now over 1/3 acre and probably 8 ft deep. My Wife said it hadn't been that size since we first got married 20 something years ago. BG did come to feed here so I will export a bunch of them to the bigger pond in the Fall. Temps are getting seriously warm here so I'll delay stocking.

I went swimming twice. The first time was to retrieve the jon boat that my Grandson had left about 4 ft up on the bank. It was floating upside down about 15 ft out. The second time was when I was walking along the water line of the dam. I bailed in and went about 25 ft and came back. My wife is pretty well used to this kind of stuff.

Trying to post pics but Photobucket is not trying to make friends. Since I never carry a camera and almost never take pics with my phone, this is new to me.

Dang Dave, that's great news!

It's been dry here, so dry that the grass/clover is curling up, the corn on the higher ground is turning blue and curling. My pond dropped 13" in the past month. Farmers around here are running the center pivot irrigation systems.

Dustin, I recall the picture of water going over your emergency spillway - I have never experienced anything like that so maybe others will chime in about possible fish loss.
Also, do I recall you had some visitors to your pond that “harvested” too many of your HSB?
How many HSB did you stock originally and how many have you harvested? Maybe it’s time to do some “ladder stocking”?

I didn't fish our ponds this week due to not wanting to stress them - I don’t fish for HSB when near surface water temps over 80+F.
Did toss out some feed but they weren’t very hungry - think this crazy weather has them confused - our ponds are very turbid presently.

Hope you had minimal or no fish loss.
George

Great news, Dave!

Dave, I'm really happy for you. I bet your 2 catfish are even happier. We'll remember this little weather event for a while. But, back over a 100 by the end of the week.

Awesome news! I hope the trend continues!

My next step was to RoundUp years of plant growth that had grown in the 75 yards of neck. That stuff is now under water and rotting. It ought to clear up before I restock in October.

In the back of my mind, I'm still remember the 70 to 80% chance of an El Nino this Fall.

Dave,

It is such a good feeling to see our beloved ponds full!

I am happy that a storm cell went over your neck of the woods!

Dustin

Dave, that great news! I saw a forecast this morning that calls for higher than normal rainfall for this fall/winter. You may yet fill that pond.

I got 3" of rain according to the rain guage at the small pond. It's nearly full. The big pond came up 3' and is now at 8' in the deepest part. Needs a lot more water, a lot more, but it was enough to make a big difference. The grandkids weren't even bothered by the muddy water!



I'm proud to hear that everyone else saw some gain in their ponds as well. Now if we can make this a trend!

Dave, don't know what kind of phone you have but if it's a smartphone there is a photobucket app that makes getting pics from phone to photobucket to forum pretty easy.

And...congrats on the big rain event!!!

Ross, getting them to Photobucket isn't the problem. It's getting them out.

I need to try another software site. However, I rarely take pics of anything. I'm just not a camera or pic type.