Joe271828
05-03-2009, 09:52 PM
Litte story about invasive species
I used to live on this lake in southern michigan, it was a little less than 300 acres in size but houses packed around it tight. I wasn't a fisherman, enjoyed skiing and really anything being dragged behind a boat. Then I started fishing and that's when I found out what a treasure that lake was. 16 inch bass and 30+ pike were common. Despite all the houses, there were only about a dozen people that fished; and only about 3 (including me) that fished regularly. I had this method of getting a 24-26inch pike (with the occasional larger one) that was fantastic. I'd rather eat Pike than Filet mignon, lobster or even walleye. Although trolling was legal, I prefered casting because it felt like fishing.
Well anyways, this lake had both eurasian millfoil and zebra muscles. Now if you raked your shore ALOT, you'd eventually be able to walk in the water barefoot with only rarely cutting your feet. Raking becomes more important if you have kids or dogs. Now when I say alot, I'd rake probably 30-40 hours per year and that's only about a 20 foot piece of shore to the depth of 5 feet.
As for the millfoil, fishing for the most part wasn't that bad. It was a deep lake and for the most part the millfoil only crowded a 10 foot ring of the lake. Though some of the back bays were literally choked with the stuff. I'll tell that swimming over it and it being so thick, it was actually quite freaky. I used to lifeguard and it was still freaky. Fishing along the edge on either the deep or shallow side was quite productive for both bass and pike. Seems as if the millfoil only grew from like 6 foot to 14 foot or so...
Now there are three ways to deal with millfoil. 1. You can somehow rake it. Seemed kinda deep for raking to me, and I have alot of experience. 2. You can use chemicals to detroy it. We're talking a total kill chemical. 3. There's little bugs that like to lay there eggs in the stems of millfoil and actually prefer to lay them in eurasian millfoil. For me, this was a no brainer, go with the bugs !!!! Bugs will kill the plants, and then the fish will eat the extra bugs and we'll have bigger fishes :) NOPE, that's not what happened. That small percentage of fisherman don't have a chance against those who want a swimming pool big enough to drive floating snowmobiles around in circles. The lake association went with chemicals. The lake went from being crystal clear (it was actually clear before the zebra muscles because of healthy weeds) to having a greenish haze to it. It you looked close enough it looked like little green flakes and if you swam enough, expect your eyes to burn. It was the most atrocious thing that i've ever seen done to a lake. You really find out how much you loved something when you don't have it anymore.
So the next time you walk out of the water after swimming, imagine having a bunch of small cuts on the bottom of your foot that you have no idea where the came from. That's what would it would be like with Zebra muscles. Or the next time your driving the boat over 6-14 feet of water (which is alot of the flowage), imagine it being choked with Millfoil to where it just looks like a giant bog.
This message really isn't because I think everyone doesn't love the flowage as much as I do; it's that I would have doubted that it could happen unless I saw it for myself.
It's a little thing to check your boat. (this is also on those signs that I just started reading.)
I used to live on this lake in southern michigan, it was a little less than 300 acres in size but houses packed around it tight. I wasn't a fisherman, enjoyed skiing and really anything being dragged behind a boat. Then I started fishing and that's when I found out what a treasure that lake was. 16 inch bass and 30+ pike were common. Despite all the houses, there were only about a dozen people that fished; and only about 3 (including me) that fished regularly. I had this method of getting a 24-26inch pike (with the occasional larger one) that was fantastic. I'd rather eat Pike than Filet mignon, lobster or even walleye. Although trolling was legal, I prefered casting because it felt like fishing.
Well anyways, this lake had both eurasian millfoil and zebra muscles. Now if you raked your shore ALOT, you'd eventually be able to walk in the water barefoot with only rarely cutting your feet. Raking becomes more important if you have kids or dogs. Now when I say alot, I'd rake probably 30-40 hours per year and that's only about a 20 foot piece of shore to the depth of 5 feet.
As for the millfoil, fishing for the most part wasn't that bad. It was a deep lake and for the most part the millfoil only crowded a 10 foot ring of the lake. Though some of the back bays were literally choked with the stuff. I'll tell that swimming over it and it being so thick, it was actually quite freaky. I used to lifeguard and it was still freaky. Fishing along the edge on either the deep or shallow side was quite productive for both bass and pike. Seems as if the millfoil only grew from like 6 foot to 14 foot or so...
Now there are three ways to deal with millfoil. 1. You can somehow rake it. Seemed kinda deep for raking to me, and I have alot of experience. 2. You can use chemicals to detroy it. We're talking a total kill chemical. 3. There's little bugs that like to lay there eggs in the stems of millfoil and actually prefer to lay them in eurasian millfoil. For me, this was a no brainer, go with the bugs !!!! Bugs will kill the plants, and then the fish will eat the extra bugs and we'll have bigger fishes :) NOPE, that's not what happened. That small percentage of fisherman don't have a chance against those who want a swimming pool big enough to drive floating snowmobiles around in circles. The lake association went with chemicals. The lake went from being crystal clear (it was actually clear before the zebra muscles because of healthy weeds) to having a greenish haze to it. It you looked close enough it looked like little green flakes and if you swam enough, expect your eyes to burn. It was the most atrocious thing that i've ever seen done to a lake. You really find out how much you loved something when you don't have it anymore.
So the next time you walk out of the water after swimming, imagine having a bunch of small cuts on the bottom of your foot that you have no idea where the came from. That's what would it would be like with Zebra muscles. Or the next time your driving the boat over 6-14 feet of water (which is alot of the flowage), imagine it being choked with Millfoil to where it just looks like a giant bog.
This message really isn't because I think everyone doesn't love the flowage as much as I do; it's that I would have doubted that it could happen unless I saw it for myself.
It's a little thing to check your boat. (this is also on those signs that I just started reading.)