The
two RV Gypsies
Arkabutla Lake & Dam and Sardis Lake & Dam
in Mississippi
October 18, 2022
|
  |
Below: Arkabutla Lake is located
at 3905 Arkabutla Dam Road, Coldwater, MS 38618. It is a reservoir on
the Coldwater River in the U.S. state of Mississippi and was created
following the construction of the Arkabutla Dam in 1940 on the Coldwater
River. |
 |
Below: The Arkabutla Lake
project includes 57,250 acres of land and water. The Lake accommodates
a wide variety of recreational interest and activities throughout the
entire year, but is renowned for some of the best fishing in the southeast—boasting
an abundance of largemouth and white bass, and ranked as one of the
Top 5 Crappie Fishing Lakes in America. Since the two RV Gypsies are
not fishermen but love scenery, they stopped at a picnic area along
the waterfront of Lake Arkabutla. |
 |
 |
Below: The dam is located
on Arkabutla Dam Rd (Mississippi Highway 301/Mississippi Highway 304
Scenic) approximately 4 miles north of the small community of Arkabutla.
It is one of four Flood Damage Reduction reservoirs in northern Mississippi,
with the others being Sardis, Enid and Grenada lakes. |
|
|
The Arkabutla Dam is 11,500 feet long
with an average height of 67 feet. |
 |
 |
The two RV Gypsies drove
over the dam, then went to the parking area shown below. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
SARDIS LAKE |
Leaving Coldwater, the two
RV Gypsies drove about 41 miles to Sardis Lake, a 98,520-acre reservoir
on the Tallahatchie River in Lafayette, Panola, and Marshall counties,
Mississippi. Sardis Lake is impounded by Sardis Dam, located nine miles
southeast of the town of Sardis. |
|
|
|
Below: A view of Sardis
Lake from the top of Sardis Dam. The lake has a maximum storage capacity
of 1,512,000 acre-feet of water. The lake is gradually drawn down during
the fall and winter months to a "conservation pool" of 9,800
acres. This permits spring rains across the lake's 1,545 square mile
watershed to fill the reservoir without flooding downstream. Since the
dam became operational, the dam's emergency spillway has been overtopped
only three times by high water - in 1973, 1983 and 1991. The lake's
typical "recreation pool" is 32,500 acres. The main fish that
live in the lake are Largemouth bass, Spotted bass, Blue catfish, Channel
catfish, Flathead catfish, Black crappie, White crappie, Bluegill, Redear
sunfish and White bass.
|
| Note: Some quotes and the photo
shown below on this page are from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardis_Lake_(Mississippi)
|
 |
Below: Sardis Dam is 15,300 feet long,
has an average height of 97 feet and a maximum height of 117 feet. |
 |
Continue on to 