Fairfield Bay Marina — Attraction in Damascus

The raft city of Fairfield Bay Marina lies at the end of road that must usually be traversed by sturdy mountain goat but has been made to suit these goat impoverished times with asphalt. The parking slant is a short walk away from the beautiful water and rental facilities. We inquired about shore fishing and we're directed to the marina. The fellows of the marina gestured vaguely in some direction away from themselves and mentioned some local landmarks we were unfamiliar with to guide us. We rented a pontoon and it ran perfectly for us! My wife is more of a mariner than myself and seemed well content with the craft. The fuel gauge was stuck at 3/4 tank though and the marinas gas pumps were not functioning. "This one is always stuck at 3/4. Been that way since got it." We were assured by the marina man. The headboy informed us that we would be charged the fuel fee once the gas pumps were operational again.

There was a frothing pool of carp and turtles near the door awaiting the discards of sometimes anglers. Horrifying mouths, all agape, sucking and suckling at the surface of the waters. Pouring over one another in a frenzied dance of gluttony, the fish bring ones mind to black Friday in America and how advanced we have become. 3 cheers and 3 stars. The floaters floated, the sinkers sinked, the carp carped. It...

I only gave 4 stars because we weren't able to experience everything the marina had to offer, due to age restrictions. That's not their fault (it's AR law, and I'll explain a little below), but it caused us to have to leave without achieving our goal of renting a boat. Since we weren't able to do that, I can't write a comprehensive review. Word to the wise, at the time of writing this post, you have to be born BEFORE 1-1-1986 to be able to rent a boat without taking a course online that is a few hours long. You read that right. 1986. I understand that a boat is a lot like a car in the level of responsibility you must assume when renting one, and a lot NOT like a car in the way it drives. I respect all that. But I thought I was done with being "carded" and not being "old enough" to do things when I hit my 30s. Guess I was wrong. Anyway, I will say that I was pleased to see some nice amenities such as life jackets and large floats to rent, and little 50-cent bags of fish food for sale that we could purchase to feed the little fish outside the store. My son and sister-in-law had fun feeding the fish, and that's about all we wanted to do their after being disappointed by the fact that we couldn't...

We were in the area visiting on March 25th and wanted to do some hiking. I called ahead of time to get more information on the boat to the island to hike and also inquired about the kayaks. My boyfriend and I are in great shape. We have kayaked many times before. We were told the island was 3 miles. Umm no! Well the island itself might’ve been but the trailhead was another 1.5 miles on the other side. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was the piece of crap tandem kayak they rented us. His seat was messed up so he was sitting lopsided which we didn’t realize until in open waters that it made paddling TRIPLE difficult: the kayak kept wanting to go in circles. The seat was held on by string. Oh and let’s add on the cracked paddle. That was the hardest kayak experience and should NOT have been. We had to get a boat to get back bc we refused to ride that “crap” back. One attitude lady was going to charge us for the ride back but I insisted on talking to the manager. He was nice but I doubt they fixed anything. No offer to refund us the “kayak from...