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Posts: 43
Location: Chicago | Well, I'm sure most of you are subscribers so I will direct you to page 6 on the new Musky Hunter magazine regarding the use of heavy chemical weed kills on our precious musky lakes. I'm not a fan of it. It does damage and it seems the folks behind it are more concerned about the pleasure boaters than the fish and the fisherman. They would prefer a sterile bowl of water so the water skiers won't have to deal with a piece of weed on their legs. The particular lake mentioned in the article was spraying yet again yesterday and today?!!!
Any thoughts or comments? |
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Posts: 358
| Here in Pennsylvania its all about saving the Chesapeake Bay and now a Bass in the Susquehanna River had a Canerous Tumor on it jaw and they keep dumping sewage and chemical run off into the Susquehanna River and then it flows into the Chesapeake Bay..Its the same old tune. a lot of talk, little action. I don't agree with chemical weed clearing on our waterways. |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI | The article doesn't mention whether or not the Indiana DNR gave permission for the chemical applications or not.
Chemical weed kills have their time and place, e.g. to kill invasives, but it should never be at the discretion of a lake association and rather be controlled by the appropriate state agency. |
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Posts: 1080
| A very tough situation for the DNR to be in, for any lake within any state. I can see both side of the fence...I can understand the lake homeowners stance trying to "minimize" the weed growth for the areas out front of their houses/cabins and their pleasure boating luxuries and their kids wanting to be able to jump off the piers and swim off the ends of the piers...yet...I can see the point from the side of the fish and the fishermen. It's all about finding a balance. To try and appease the masses. Tough to do.
Having a place on the East side of a lake, I see...and smell...the affects of little to no weed control in the Summer months. With most wind/weather moving from the West to the East....all of the floating weeds chopped up by boat props, floats to the East ends of the lakes and collects along the seawalls so thick that at times, you could nearly walk on water on top of all that dead collected weed masses. Then it sits there and rots in the hot summer sun and the stagnant water due to lack of flow due to all those dead weeds piled up there. Then comes the bugs and the mosquitos. And then the stench of the decaying weeds. To the point where then the home owners at that end of the lake are forced to have to take it upon themselves to hire a crew with bobcats and dump trucks to get that weed mass cleared out of there and trucked out. Expensive, time consuming, back breaking work.
I'm not defending the homeowners stance moreso over the fish and the fisherman's stance. All I'm saying is I see both sides of the fence here. If weed controls can be done correctly, by the correct people, with the correct biological information on how much to use, when and were....to help find a balance, to not kill off every weed in the lake for years, that's the way it should be done.
Lakes like the Indiana lakes, where their average depths are 4 to 5 feet with the amount of shallow flats they have within them, do need some sort of weed control. Again...have to find the balance...
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Posts: 20219
Location: oswego, il | They have been doing it in Indiana forever. Some years the balance is right some years they get every last strand. Way back in the day, these lakes and the fox chain, you would have rafts of floating weeds the size of a bus and have a hard.time finding a clean place to cast. Mad chain too. I have seen Webster and the barber chain weed free to weed choked but when a good balance is achieved, it is a good deal. The lake associations typically handle it. They have meetings that are open to the public. I have been to a few barbee meetings. I suggest going to them if you wish to make an impact. |
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Posts: 397
Location: Wisconsin | I too am torn on the subject. I fish lakes that have so many weeds that you have to quite fishing them certain times of the year. But if they kill off the weeds, the fishing isn't any better because it screws up to ecosystem. There has to be a better solution to chemicals though
Edited by WiscoMusky 5/26/2015 6:15 PM
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Posts: 1220
| Folks who visit my beloved Pewaukee Lake during weekdays will notice at least 6 paddle-boat weed cutters on the lake every day cutting weeds, storing the cut weeds aboard the vessels, (look like big pontoon boats) and then off-loading the piles to waiting trucks that haul them away. I heard it goes to fertilizer, not sure, but it's a really big and expensive operation, and I have seen nothing like it anywhere else. My guess is that they have gone a long, long, way and effort not to simply kill the weeds. Somebody here must know the answer....what is it? (It's not like I catch a whole lot of muskies there....but the other guys do so, I guess they are not dead?) |
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Posts: 574
Location: Elk Grove Village, IL & Phillips, WI | Our lake association has used chemicals in the past to control the curly leaf pond weed that has invaded our flowage. It is pretty effective but the dead and decaying weeds do smell horrible. I am also on the east end of the lake so we do get the brunt of the dying floaters. The only fish that seem to die because of this are the crappies. From what I am told it isn't the aquathol that kills them, but the oxygen depletion from the dying weeds. They have tried hand harvesting, but can't get enough volunteers to help out most of the time. By far the best control that they have used has been a drawdown of the lake. It has really put a dent in the curly leaf! |
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| I think on some lakes, they don't have much choice. A number of years ago, lake in N. Wisconsin had such heavy growth of Eurasian milfoil that folks could not slowly motor to and from their docks, the weeds wrapped the props so badly that the motors killed. Ducks were walking on the weed beds. The home owners hired a mechanical harvester, but it could not keep up. They eventually ponied up over a grand a piece to have it chemically killed. From what I understand, it was difficult decision, no one was happy but saw no other choice.
I volunteer at the landing on the lake where I live, because I hope we never have anything like that. And I have to say, the musky fishermen we talk to today are much more receptive than say ten years ago. Most are very aware of invasive species, and understand why we are there. |
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Posts: 265
Location: Manitowish Waters WI | I to am torn. Our Manitowish Chain of lakes in Vilas has had a recent outbreak of curly leaf pond weed. They treated in high density areas for the last three years. Unfortunately those areas were mixed in with some of my favorite cabbage beds. The pond weed is coming back annually but I have not seen the cabbage showing signs of recovery. I would hate to see pond weed take over native plants on the chain but if they are treating in native habitats and killing them off as well it seems pointless. |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | Marty, my brother Tom Koepp runs the PLSD. Pewaukee Lake Sanitary District. He took over that job years ago and is setting record tonage of weeds cut and removed each year. No chemicals are used. Keeping up with fast growing milfoil is an unending task. Making every fisherman and lake home owner happy is impossible. Trust me I hear about all the issues and feel his pain. Tax payers don't want to pay more and his budget only lets him do so much. But I have to say his crew has Pewaukee Lake doing very well with what he has to work with.
Milfoil can grow faster than anyone can imagine. So cutting whole bays will only result in starting over as you finish. Travel routes and shoreline clean up takes most of the time alowed. I see them out working every day and working hard to keep the blowing weeds picked up. Pewaukee Lake is a huge Milfoil factory but we do what we can without chemicals. I believe there is 7 harvesters and a few transporters working to keep pewaukee lake clean as possible. Boat traffic will chop up lots of weeds every day and only adds to all the floaters. West winds keep the lake the cleanest. Multiple east wind days just spreads the weeds all over the lake. It takes a week or better to clean up that mess.
All in all it just takes time and lots of money to keep a lake somewhat clean.
Chemicals are a cheap fix and you see results quickly. I believe they damage the lake in ways we still do not understand.
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| Just a follow up to Captain Mike's post. Our lake association had a presentation by a DNR specialist in invasive plants and he stated that Eurasian milfoil will expand by an acre or more per day in a fertile lake. And that does not factor in boats chopping it up and the wave action helping it spread. |
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Posts: 43
Location: Chicago | I can see both sides of it all. I think getting the right balance is a very tricky thing and probably always will. |
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