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TRIP-AT-A-GLANCE: DeGray Lake (Arlie Moore Islands)
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DATE / TIME
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2/28/2026
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PUT-IN
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Arlie Moore Boat Launch
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TAKE-OUT
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Arlie Moore Boat Launch
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GAGE
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403.05' (lake pool level) NOTE: same day last year was 407.49'
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FLOW / DISCHARGE
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0 CFS (lake)
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AIR TEMPERATURE
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59°F-75°F
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PRECIPITATION
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None
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WIND
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mostly calm with a light breeze at the end of the paddle
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PARTICIPANTS
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Sam Reyna and Kent Walters
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VESSLE TYPES
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Liquid Logic Remix XP9 and Pyranha Fusion
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CLOUDS
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Sunny
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Paddling MILES
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4.6 (GPS Tracks)
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We carpooled to the lake and were on the water by 9:30 am. It was a bright, clear day, and when we arrived at the lake, we noticed full parking lots at the ramp where we usually see no one. It looks like all of the fishermen decided this day was just too good to ignore.
We had a few things going on this trip. I had just completed a replacement of all of the components of my skeg system on my Pyranha (cleat, line, skeg blade and pivot assembly, and tensioning bungee), so it was a shakedown cruise for that retrofit. We were interested to see what kinds of animals and driftwood formations would be around the shores of the islands and nab a few pictures of same. We were also both tired of the various projects we had going on at home and needed the break.
We launched and decided to go around the near islands. We passed a few ducks and arrived at the first large island, 36 (the Army Corps of Engineers has very romantic island naming conventions), after paddling ¾ of a mile across the channel.
Orientation: The green outline around the chunks between the numbered islands represents the area that was exposed – it was all one island.
Island 36
We saw geese as we continued past the next, unmarked/unnamed island to 35, and commenced our circumnavigations there.
Island 35
An interesting stump on 35
We paddled over to Island 35.5 (our name for the island between 35 and 36), and spent some time trying to get photos of LBJs (birds – little brown jobs), which did not work out, but we captured images of some more driftwood (much easier).
Spinosaur
While I was trying to capture the essence of a drift root that looked like the spinosaur in Jurassic World (see above), Sam yelled that he was watching a deer swim across the channel from 35.5 to 36. Of course, I was too far away for a shot, and Sam was trying to get close enough to make it count when the deer clambered out of the water and became a normal small-to-medium doe running through the brush on the shore.
Wet Doe
Oh, well . . .
We turned back to finish up our tour of 35.5 and then moved over to 36, where we got some good snapshots of a couple of geese taking flight:
We finished with some additional driftwood photos on 36 and paddled across the channel to the penninsula. We poked around in the two coves in the open section and happened on this large hawk or juvenile bald eagle:
We were off the water just after noon. Throughout our adventure, we were reminded often about how many other people were enjoying the day in our area. Fishing boats were racing back and forth in the channels, presumably not finding the images they wanted in their fish finders and dashing off to other locations for better hunting.
My skeg worked pretty well, but the bungee block (not a part of the factory refurb kit) needs to be a little bigger to keep it from slipping forward and losing the pivot tension. That will make for a more positive skeg deployment. I’ll cut and drill some PVC to the right length to accomplish that before the Buffalo River trip.
It was a fun day, even with all of the traffic and wakes. The maps of the lake are not very accurate when the water is this low. The hilltops (islands) are much bigger as the shallow places join to form dry land. For example, what looks like a big deviation to the right of 36 was a chain of rocks and small hillocks.
I have no idea what the red lines are all about on our return to the takeout. We paddled straight across. Maybe we were just about to connect with a parallel universe???
Kent Walters – author and paddler
DeGray Lake - AM Islands Photo Album