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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | PSA
I just wanted to give everyone a heads up. With zeb's being more and more prevalent in our lakes we have to be more careful when we are hauling our boats from lake to lake. I know that I had heard that zeb's could attach themselves to aquatic vegetation, but I never thought it would be as prevalent as what I've been seeing. While bass fishing on tonka, pretty much every strand of milfoil has had them attached. Also, I found several on the veg on Mille Lac last weekend as well. BE SURE TO CLEAN YOUR TRAILER! If you get caught with milfoil AND zeb's together you're going to be in for one heck of a fine.
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | Always a good reminder Treats, though many don't take the time to look over their boat or equipment. The zebra mussels and their close relative (quagga) can attach to ANYTHING. Literally. Out west these pose a huge threat to our waterways. With many of our waters being used as some sort of irrigation or power generation, infestation could lead to severe economic impacts. The impacts will affect boaters, fisherman, jet skiers, and even people who have never even been on the water. These things affect everyone.
Out here we like to have our boaters have a 7, 18 or 30 day dry time in the summer, spring/fall and winter, respectively. This dry time will kill any attached mussels or their microscopic offspring, veligers. Some people do not realize that transferring water from one infected water body to a non infected waterbody, could infest the non infected waterbody. By taking the time to properly clean off the boat and trailer, drain out all the water including bilge, livewell, ballast, or standing water in the bottom of the boat, and dry out the boat for the appropriate times given the season boaters can help do their part in preventing the spread of these invasive species. It should also be noted that once these guys are in, they are in for good. They do not come out. In theory you could treat them with chemicals but this would cost multiple millions of dollars, kill all the fish, and still may not be 100% effective.
Throughout the US 621 lakes and the 5 Great Lakes are infested with zebra mussels. Minnesota has 17 lakes infested:
Gull Lake - Cass Co.
Ossawinnamakee Lake - Crow Wing Co.
Rice Lake - Crow Wing Co.
Rebecca Lake - Dakota Co.
Lake Le Homme Dieu - Douglas Co.
Lake Minnetonka - Hennepin Co.
Mille Lacs Lake - Mille Lacs Co.
Lake Lizzie - Otter Tail Co.
Pelican Lake - Otter Tail Co.
Charley Lake - Ramsey Co.
Pleasant Lake Ramsey Co.
Sucker Lake - Ramsey Co.
Vadnais Lake - Ramsey Co.
Pike Lake - St. Louis Co.
Lower Prior Lake - Scott Co.
Upper Prior Lake - Scott Co.
Zumbro Lake - Wabasha Co.
Wisconsin has 99 infested lakes:
Camelot Lake - Adams Co.
Lake Arrowhead - Adams Co.
Lake Wisconsin - Columbia Co.
Koshkonong Lake - Dane, Jefferson, Rock Co.s
Lake Monona - Dane Co.
Clark Lake - Door Co.
Kangaroo Lake - Door Co.
Mud Lake - Douglas Co.
Keyes Lake - Florence Co.
Auburn Lake - Fond du Lac Co.
Long Lake - Fond du Lac Co.
Mauthe Lake - Fond du Lac Co.
Lake Metonga - Forest Co.
Big Green Lake - Green Lake Co.
Golden Lake - Jefferson Co.
Ripley Lake - Jefferson Co.
Rock Lake - Jefferson Co.
Castle Rock Lake - Juneau Co.
Petenwell Lake - Juneau Co.
Benedict Lake - Kenosha Co.
Elizabeth Lake - Kenosha Co.
Lake Andrea - Kensoha Co.
Lake Mary - Kenosha Co.
Powers Lake - Kenosha Co.
Silver Lake - Kenosha Co.
Cedar Lake - Manitowoc Co.
Pigeon Lake - Manitowoc Co.
Lake Noquebay - Marinette Co.
Moshawquit Lake - Menominee Co.
Pywaosit Lake - Menoninee Co.
Sapokesick Lake - Menominee Co.
Oconto Falls Pond - Oconto Co.
Racine Quarry - Racine Co.
Tichigan Lake - Racine Co.
Waubeesee Lake - Racine Co.
Wind Lake - Racine Co.
Grass Lake - Shawano Co.
Pine Lake - Shawano Co.
Shawano Lake - Shawano Co.
Crystal Lake - Sheboygan Co.
Lake Elkhart - Sheboygan Co.
Lake Ellen - Sheboygan Co.
Sheboygan Lake - Sheboygan Co.
Sheboygan Marsh - Sheboygan Co.
Benedict Lake - Walworth Co.
Beulah Lake - Walworth Co.
Delavan Lake - Walworth Co.
Geneva Lake - Walworth Co.
Green Lake - Walworth Co.
Lauderdale Lakes - Walworth Co.
Middle Lake - Walworth Co.
Mill Lake - Walworth Co.
Pleasant Lake - Walworth Co.
Potter Lake - Walworth Co.
Powers Lake - Walworth Co.
Tombeau Lake - Walworth Co.
Big Cedar Lake - Washington Co.
Little Cedar Lake - Washington Co.
Pike Lake - Washington Co.
Applebecker Millpond - Waukesha Co.
Ashippun Lake - Waukesha Co.
Beaver Lake - Waukesha Co.
Crooked Lake - Waukesha Co.
Eagle Spring Lake - Waukesha Co.
Fowler Lake - Waukesha Co.
Golden Lake - Waukesha Co.
Hunters Lake - Waukesha Co.
Lac La Belle - Waukesha Co.
Lake Denoon - Waukesha Co.
Lake Keesus - Waukesha Co.
Lake Okauchee - Waukesha Co.
Little Muskego Lake - Waukesha Co.
Lower Nashotah Lake - Waukesha Co.
Lower Nemahbin Lake - Waukesha Co.
Lower Phantom Lake - Waukesha Co.
Middle Genesee Lake - Waukesha Co.
Nagawicka Lake - Waukesha Co.
North Lake - Waukesha Co.
Oconomowoc Lake - Waukesha Co.
Okauchee Lake - Waukesha Co.
Pewaukee Lake - Waukesha Co.
Pine Lake - Waukesha Co.
Silver Lake - Waukesha Co.
Spring Lake - Waukesha Co.
Upper Nashotah Lake - Waukesha Co.
Upper Nemahbin Lake - Waukesha Co.
Upper Oconomowoc Lake - Waukesha Co.
Upper Phantom Lake - Waukesha Co.
Partridge Lake - Waupaca Co.
Gilbert Lake - Waushara Co.
Long Lake - Waushara Co.
Silver Lake - Waushara Co.
Lake Butte des Morts - Winnebago Co.
Lake Poygan - Winnebago Co.
Lake Winnebago - Winnebago Co.
Lake Winneconne - Winnebago Co.
Little Lake Butte des Morts - Winnebago Co.
Lake Wazeecha - Wood Co.
Nepco Lake - Wood Co.
Zebra mussels don't know state lines, so a Wisconsin boater with a contaminated boat could infect a clean Minnesota water, or vise versa. Inspecting your boat and trailer doesn't take a lot of time. I'm not sure what types of professional decontamination Minnesota offers, but if available it is a great service to use. We decontaminate hundreds of boats every year. It doesn't take long and is a great way to ensure that you aren't spreading invasive species. |
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| We have had zebs in Webster for years until this year. Our homeowners asso. used a weedkiller called sonar the summer of 2010. Now we have no zebs and weeds are just now returning. Our water clarity is still bad, but better than in 2010. In my opinion, the zebs kept the water clear. Fishing was good up until last Fall. I think the loss of zebs has had a negative effect on Webster. In my opinion zebs may be good, they filter the water.
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Posts: 1086
| Webster Lake, IN:
Last Fall, Fall of 2010, when we were pulling our boat lifts and pier equipment out of the water for the Winter season...everything we pulled from the water was impeccably clean! Not a single Zebra Mussel to be found. I was SHOCKED to say the least. When normally, in all previous years to 2010, all boat lifts and pier stantion posts were totally covered with Zebra Mussels and we had to wear gloves to handle the equipment coming out of the water. I instantly made a mental note of this last Fall. This year, again, our piers and boat lifts are all clean, so far, no Zebras.
Webster's water clarity has suffered greatly from the Zebra Mussels being wiped out. I realize that there's Pros and Cons to Zebra Mussels. This year, Webster's water clarity is less than a foot. It's very brown. I realize with the massive Spring rains and floods with run-off from surrounding farmers fields and run-off from lake owners yards and flooded barns and storage sheds have contributed to this as well. I remember back in May for the Classic, just after all those Spring rains and floods, pulling up to spot on the Barbee Chain that looked as if it looked like the Exon Valdez had just ship wrecked and lost it's oil. There was a massssssive oil slick on the water over a 100 yards large in that one spot. Obviously...I'm guessing those flood waters on that lake rose to such levels that it got into homeowners storage sheds and barns where oil and gas was stored.
I think the DNR has gone waaaay overboard on the killing off of the weeds in Webster. Granted, I realize that was most likely intentional on their behalf with the idea in mind to get rid of the Zebra Mussels...but man, oh man. Fishing for all species, not just Muskies, has been greatly affected on Webster being there are no more weeds in the shallows to provide cover and oxygen for the fish. What weeds you do find...are brown and gray and are dead and decaying. Which...with the absence of weeds...obviously less oxygen going into the water. Decaying weeds, I understand, use up oxygen. Couple all of that with this years heat wave that's parked over us...Webster's water temps are a solid 88 to 91 degrees! Yes. You read that right. Not a typo. I was up there this past weekend with the family and during the pleasure boating, on Saturday, prior to the storms that came through...water temps as high as 91...post storms...dipped it down to the cool 88. And that water is HOT quite a ways down into the water column. I did the poor-man's temp test by just simply going out to a 35 hole to go swimming and dove down as deep as I could possibly stand it before the pressure on my ears was far too great to go any deeper and let me tell you...there was very, very little temp difference. I'd bet I dove at least 18 feet down.
With the very brown/stained water, obviously the darker water absorbing a lot more of the heat from the suns rays....Webster is in pretty bad shape right now. One good thing though...I didn't see any dead or floating fish...well...except one high 30s/low 40 inch Muskie. But I don't believe it to have died from an angler upon a release due to poor handling or due to delayed mortality. This dead muskie looked to have been deliberate and intentional. It's gills were slit out of it and the gills were hanging from it as if they were ribbons flowing in the water next to it's body with the entire bottom gill/throat area slit open. There was a bass tourney this past Sat. I found this fish on Sunday. The fish looked to have been dead for at least 24 hrs. Coincidence? I dunno. Looked to be wanton waste to me.
I'm really surprised that there's not a large die-off of Shad right now due to the high water temps.
Zebra Mussels...again...big list of Pros and Cons with them in the lakes. They can definitely do some damage to boats and motors and equipment. But they do clean up the water and make it clear for sunlight to get to depths to provide weed growth. I'll be really curious as to what happens this coming Fall once the water temps start to cool off and I'll be curious to see what shape Webster will be in next year in 2012 and I'll be curious to see what the DNR's stance will be next year in regards to killing off more weeds. AND...on top of all of that...I'll be curious to see how long it'll be, before the Zebra Mussels make their return either by the small remaining population that might still be in the lake, starting to reproduce again...or...before transient boats moving in and out of Webster reintroduce the Zebra Mussels back into the lake.
Oh...and even Webster's Backwaters area...is wide open. Normally this time of the year, it'd be choked closed due to the weeds back there. Not the case this year. Wide open and no weeds back there. Very odd to see that...
Edited by MACK 7/28/2011 12:50 PM
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| Honest question - won't zebra mussles and milfoil eventually be everywhere no matter what we do? Birds, etc. will transport them. I do clean my boat trailers, but is there any real reason to take a hard line approach to slowing the spread? Is it that big of a deal? |
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| Guest - 7/28/2011 3:17 PM
Honest question - won't zebra mussles and milfoil eventually be everywhere no matter what we do? Birds, etc. will transport them. I do clean my boat trailers, but is there any real reason to take a hard line approach to slowing the spread? Is it that big of a deal?
No, birds are a very minor vector and unlikely to spread mussels. Out west this is a huge issue. Millions of dollars are spent each year trying to clean these things off of power plant intakes areas. They clog irrigation lines and on and on. These things can destroy fisheries as well. As filter feeders they filter out plankton which is food for smaller fish. No food for smaller fish results in minimal forage base for larger fish, and so on. |
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Posts: 692
Location: Pelican Rapids, MN | It is unreal how these things spread. The lake I live on was listed last year, and we found them here and there. This summer with all the heat, they are all over everything. I went to one of my favorite break lines and went swimming, only to find what was once a lush cabbage and coontail drop off has turned into a flat mass of dying weeds absolutely covered in Zebra's. I brought handfuls to the surface to show some people what they exactly look like. They are covering everything. One better note is, some biologists at University of North Dakota have learned that distilled white vinegar will kill them and their eggs. Now of course you can't dump it in a lake, but it's great to spray your hull / livewells etc. with after you have visited infested waters.
It is also scary to think of the lakes that have them that aren't yet on the list!
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| Mack, the DNR is not who is responsible for weed control on Webster. It's the homeowners asso. In response to what took place with last years weed control, Nikki and I decided not to contribute this year. Fishermen were not welcomed very well at the asso meetings either. |
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| I volunteer to check boats at the landing on the lake where we have a cottage. When we started, some of the fisherman were not happy being asked a few simple questions and some were down right rude. But over the years that has changed, now the fisherman are the best ones. They know the rules and the risks to the lakes. Plus in Oneida county you can get fined for transporting any aquatic plants, even native, non-invasive. If the folks get weeds from our lake on their trailer taking their boat out, I always help take them off. Couple of the guys have even told me where to check for weeds, knowing where they get caught on their trailers.
Don't know if any of you have put in on the Moen chain, but if you did, thank you for your cooperation and courtesy.
As to birds transporting them, the DNR field rep that talked to our association said that is a very small risk, if any. |
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Posts: 1086
| R Swain - 7/28/2011 7:28 PM
Mack, the DNR is not who is responsible for weed control on Webster. It's the homeowners asso. In response to what took place with last years weed control, Nikki and I decided not to contribute this year. Fishermen were not welcomed very well at the asso meetings either.
Ahh. Got it. Thanks for the clarification. Yeah...I'd understand the differences of opinions from the two groups of people. Tough spot to be in as I do see both sides of the fence from both groups of people. |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | North of 8 - 7/28/2011 8:37 PM
I volunteer to check boats at the landing on the lake where we have a cottage. When we started, some of the fisherman were not happy being asked a few simple questions and some were down right rude. But over the years that has changed, now the fisherman are the best ones. They know the rules and the risks to the lakes. Plus in Oneida county you can get fined for transporting any aquatic plants, even native, non-invasive. If the folks get weeds from our lake on their trailer taking their boat out, I always help take them off. Couple of the guys have even told me where to check for weeds, knowing where they get caught on their trailers.
Don't know if any of you have put in on the Moen chain, but if you did, thank you for your cooperation and courtesy.
As to birds transporting them, the DNR field rep that talked to our association said that is a very small risk, if any.
Good to hear. One question, if you guys get a boat that has weeds and/or mussels on it do you have some sort of protocol on decontamination? Or do you just do a visual inspection?
Utah's aquatic invasive species was modeled after Minnesota's program, sure wish Wisconsin would get on board and fund a program, though it is tougher to do with so many bodies of water. |
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Posts: 3913
| All bodies of water that can support Zebes will become infected. Those critters will clear the water allowing weeds, including Milfoil, another invasive, to grow at unprecedented depths. Pretty interesting accelerated change going on, especially if lakefront owners continue to leak sewage and fertilizer into the waters.
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| Pointer, if we find a boat with either invasive mussels or weeds, we are supposed to point them out to the owner, explain the problem and preserve them in a baggy for the DNR to look at. We can also tell the owner about the fines the county can levy. We can ask the owner to consider not putting their boat in any lake for five to seven days and to clean it with a bleach solution. However, if they remove all visible weeds/mussels, that is it. The volunteers all know they are there to ask for cooperation but have no authority.
Fortunately, I have not had to deal with that yet. The only boat I am aware of that had both on it was owned by someone with property on the chain and the volunteer said they seemed to be oblivious. Just blew off the volunteer. They had inherited their property and maybe for that reason didn't really care about taking care of the lake. The volunteer promptly pulled out a digital camera, starting taking shots of it and told the owner they would be passing them along to the appropriate authorities. At that point the owner decided not to put their boat in until the next time they came up, two weeks later.
The volunteer involved just shook his head when telling the story. He said, here we have fisherman that may never come back and they are so careful to make sure they are not transporting anything and then you have a property owner that hauls a boat from the Madison area, with both zebra and milfoil and they don't give a rip until told they might take a hit to the pocket book. |
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| North of 8 - 7/28/2011 8:37 PM
I volunteer to check boats at the landing on the lake where we have a cottage. When we started, some of the fisherman were not happy being asked a few simple questions and some were down right rude. But over the years that has changed, now the fisherman are the best ones. They know the rules and the risks to the lakes. Plus in Oneida county you can get fined for transporting any aquatic plants, even native, non-invasive. If the folks get weeds from our lake on their trailer taking their boat out, I always help take them off. Couple of the guys have even told me where to check for weeds, knowing where they get caught on their trailers.
Don't know if any of you have put in on the Moen chain, but if you did, thank you for your cooperation and courtesy.
As to birds transporting them, the DNR field rep that talked to our association said that is a very small risk, if any.
First, thanks for volunteering! Many times it's a thankless job that needs to get done, your work is very much apprecieated. Next, the rule for transporting aquatic plants/animals attached to your trailer, native or not is statewide (new in 2010).
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