Outdoors lovers are saying: Rain, rain, go away!

When Shelley Hodgson peered out from the trailer she and her husband stay in at Pomona Lake, she got a good view of the Floods of 2015.

That trailer, which serves as temporary living quarters for the Hodgsons when they operate the nearby Lighthouse Bay Marina, normally is about 50 yards from the edge of the water. But last week, the water was creeping up to their doorstep.

“I walked out to my deck and I saw this huge fish swimming around right under where our trailer sits,” Hodgson said as she stood outside the marina she runs with her husband. “At first, I thought it was a carp. But when I turned, I saw that it was a bass — the biggest bass I have ever seen.

“I wanted to grab my fishing rod to try to catch it, but then I remembered that my tackle was out in the marina.”

And that was now a ways away.

With the water almost 18 feet above normal at Pomona, Shelley’s husband, Bill, has had to continually extend the walkway to their marina. Today, there is a rickety path made of plywood and boards that give customers a way to reach the docks.

But that’s only one reminder of a spring when the rain wouldn’t stop. The spot where the parking lot for the marina once stood is under water. Trees with green growth now are surrounded by murky floodwater. And some campsites at Pomona, a 4,000-acre reservoir about 80 miles southwest of Kansas City, are inaccessible and out of use.

The Hodgsons consider themselves lucky. The boat ramp at the side of their marina is still usable and the campground up the hill is still open. And business still trickles in, especially on the weekends.

But the Hodgsons wear the same look of weariness that many others at reservoirs in Kansas and Missouri do.

“We just want the rain to stop,” Shelley said.

Enough already

The Hodgsons certainly aren’t in a boat — make that an ark — by themselves.

After a May in which it rained all but a few days, Missouri and Kansas are waterlogged. It’s hard to find a reservoir where the water isn’t high.

The impoundments are doing what they’re supposed to do, preventing downstream flooding, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. But the rain has come so hard, so fast, that it has filled area reservoirs to the brim.

The Corps is making heavy water releases when it can, sending torrents downstream from the reservoirs. But every time some headway is made, another heavy rain comes and stalls those efforts.

Contrary to some reports, the reservoirs are still open, and fishermen, boaters and campers are still showing up on the weekends. But it hasn’t been an easy spring.

“We haven’t had high water in five years, but we’re making up for it,” said Scott Rice, operations manager for the Corps at Pomona. “We’re not at a record high elevation. That came in 1995 when we were at 998 (24 feet above normal). But this isn’t over yet.”

Those involved with recreational interests at other reservoirs in the region fear much the same thing.

▪ After receiving 15 inches of rain in a five-day period in May, Smithville Lake shot to a record high level (874.77 feet) on June 8, when the water was 10 1/2 feet above normal. After heavy releases, the level has dropped about a foot. But many boat ramps are still difficult to use, parking lots are flooded, and the water is so high that it’s difficult for big boats to fit under the Highway W bridge. One bright spot: Most of the campsites are still in use.

“This has been one of those perfect storms,” said Lora Vacca, operations manager for the Corps at Smithville, which is located about 25 miles north of Kansas City. “We’ve had a unbelievable amount of rain in a short time and it’s really affected things.

“We’re making record releases right now. But if we keep getting rain like the forecasts are calling for, it will delay things.”

▪ High water also has caused headaches at Perry Lake in northeast Kansas. With the water almost 16 feet above normal, all federal and state-park boat ramps are closed. However, some ramps, including the one at Rock Creek Marina, are still in use. The Old Town Campground has been closed and only 47 percent of the sites at the Slough Creek Campground and 50 percent of the sites in the Longview Campground are in use.

▪ At Tuttle Creek Lake near Manhattan, Kan., the water is 30 feet high and the flooding is having an impact on recreation. The Corps of Engineers on Friday closed the boat ramp, swim beach and non-utility campsites at Tuttle Creek Cove Park. The boat ramps and campground at Stockdale Park are also closed.

▪ Reservoirs in southeast Kansas also have taken a major hit. Fall River Reservoir is 28 feet high, Toronto is 22 feet above normal, and Elk City is 21 feet high. All have some boat ramp and campground closures.

▪ At Council Grove Reservoir near Emporia, Kan., the water is 10 feet above normal and the Corps of Engineers has closed all of its boat ramps and some of its campgrounds.

“This is exactly what these reservoirs were built for — flood control,” said Rice, the Corps manager at Pomona. “You can imagine the damage we would have seen downstream if these dams and reservoirs weren’t there.

“But it definitely affects recreation at the reservoirs in the short-term.”

High water no obstacle for some

Despite the high water, Rock Creek Marina on Perry Lake was bustling with activity Thursday morning.

As crews worked in the heat to extend the walkway to the marina, boaters pulled onto the expanded lake and fishermen dipped their lures into the murky water in hopes of catching crappies and catfish.

Business as normal? Hardly. But it hasn’t been a disaster either.

“It’s unbelievable, but the people are still showing up,” said Tuila Rumold, one of the owners of the marina. “It’s more work to get out on the water now, but people are putting up with it.

“They know that’s spring in our part of the country.”

The same is true at other reservoirs with high water. At Smithville, for example, the fishing still has been surprisingly good, especially for catfish and bass. And the water is still dotted with pleasure boats.

Visitation at Kansas state parks is undoubtedly down, though there are no official figures yet. And that is a concern, especially to a state park system that is primarily funded by user fees.

But there is still optimism that once the rain stops, things will slowly return to normal.

“A few weeks ago, we were praying for rain. Our lake was down a couple feet and we wanted to see come up,” Rumold said. “Now we’re praying for it to stop.”

This story was originally published June 13, 2015 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Outdoors lovers are saying: Rain, rain, go away!."