Lewis Smith Lake is a man-created lake with 500 shoreline miles, this lake's level can fluctuate in a year's time.....16+ feet below lake level (which is 510 feet normal pool) and 12 feet over normal pool during flooding season....for a total potential of 28 feet plus. After the 4th of July the lake is normally lowered in anticipation of the Fall's rainy season and the later Winter's water run-off. (A bit of history.....it took less than one year to fill the lake when the dam was closed).

As such, numerous "sandbars" and shallows are exposed during August, September, and in the Fall/Winter..........in this photo two young lads with very little nautical experience or the aid of Labor Day celebration did not watch where they were piloting their ski boat....and rammed the boat onto a sandbar sticking out of the water. Because basic water-reading is not taught much anymore to those operating powerboats, it is very important that all power boats have electronic depthfinders and.....more important...the boat's pilot has to keep a sharp eye well-in-front of the bow to avoid such a needless incident. Luckily for these "rich kids" {the ski boat is rather expensive}, a fellow who was a member of the US Coast Guard Auxilary came by to pull the boat and the lads off the beach.

This photo and the next shows the effort to make the boat floatable again. While I would have not dragged the boat across the sand bar.....it appears the prop and rudder had only minimum damage caused by the more powerful boat pulling the boat off the bar.

In many ways this body of water does not react to flooding and drainage as a "farm pond" but rather as a "mini-gulf" since it is over 400 feet deep at the lowest point and is located in three counties. Now if the citizens could have over one Alabama Water Patrol boat stationed on this lake, these instances might just become a rare occassion.