Issues with weed treated lakes.

[keithdog]

How many of you have had to deal with this? I have a choice of several lakes within a 40 minute drive of my house. I've fished all of them this year, and the fishing for the most part has been less than steller. In fact, I can't remember having such a poor year fishing than this year. The one common thread is this. Each and every lake was treated to kill off weeds. These are all natural lakes, not man made. A couple of the lakes, I have been totally unable to find any live green weedbeds except for a few lilly pad fields which are smaller than before. What weedbeds I do find are brown and dying, full of decay. The water quality has gone downhill too from all the decay. Finding anything other than the occational stragler bass has proven to be rough this year. Having worked every area I can think of from shallow bays with some brush to deeper drop offs in the main lake body has not yet yielded much success. I had one day when I caught 20 bass over a period of 6 hours casting like a mad man, but they were all under two pounds. I'm finding myself searching for an answer as to how to approach this situation. Have any of you dealt with this situation?

[WTL]

Believe it or not, it was a big issue on Guntersville a few years back. I wasn't fishing it much at the time, but G'ville is a hydrilla lake and they were spraying it - the anglers were livid over the matter.

I have also seen it done in Kissimmee, and yes it impacted the fishing. The hurricanes also killed a lot of weeds and that has hurt as well. Don't know the answer to your problem, and though I like sharing info, if I did it would probably be worth keeping secret anyways.

[Jim80]

never had to deal with anything like that kieth , i do remember you moentioning that in a earlier post . I thought it would have picked up again by now , maybe the stuff they used on the weeds had an adverse affect on the bass or the bait fish who knows but anywho good luck man

[Lilmoosecountry]

It's just dumb. I beleive itz called aquacide. It's a weed killer for water plants. It's a stupid practice water heats up to fast & can kill fish off. Lakes thrived with weeds in them before man came along.

[Bender]

Up here in Michigan the $%#% DEQ hands out spray permits like candy to anybody who is willing to pay, regardless of the impact on the lake. Almost all of the inland lakes have ben hit this year and the fishing is crap. Our state is broke and they are taking any money they can get.
These herbicides kill the weeds by removing the oxygen from the water so a lot of times the fish will go up shallow where there are waves hitting the shore to stir up some oxygen. Also I am going to start trying much deeper than I have fished before. I am thinking of buying an oxygen meter to go around and test area of lakes and see if that helps to find the fish.

[Fishnngolfn]

What about those pellets that break down algae that grows from water runnoff from fertilized areas where they are developing and building houses? I heard there are pellets that help break down the algae to where the fish can eat it. We are having that problem with our retention ponds in our neighborhood because they started early this year to build out the last section of our neighborhood. Can someone help me figure out what these pellets are and where to get them? I am going to try to convince our HOA to make the builder and developer pay for it since they are the cause of this nasty algae growth.

[keithdog]

I think the biggest problem with my catching fish in my area lakes now that the weedkill has been done is that the weeds were "the" structure for the most part. Since these are natural lakes and not man made, there is not that much structure to isolate. No dams, no creek channels, no flooded timber or anything like that. Basically, you have the deeper water and shallow water, with a gradual rise in between. One could fish the deeper edges of the weedbeds, the weed beds on the points, things like that. The weeds were really the only structure you had to work with. But with the weeds now gone for the most part, the bass have less to relate too, and few areas to hide in. My guess is they have scattered around the lake and are in a bit of shock. I've even tried trolling different depths with cranks expecting to locate a school somewhere, but no luck with that either. Drives me nuts.

[pignjig]

I seriously feel for you guys who're having entire lakes treated. We had just a few of the best coves treated at Smith Mountain a few years ago and it was a real nightmare. Seems some homeowners got permission from the utility company that owns the lake to pull off that disaster. Real funny how a few landowners can decide how a multi-million dollar company like AEP manages its lake. Ain't much uglier than a smooth bottomed cove full of brown, stinking water.

[stevomac59]

Bummer...That is not fair to the the hard working bass fisherman that try to find a descent spot to fish. May I suggest one option if others are not able to be found...Bill dance's porcupine fish attractor.. This may not be any lillypads or cattails, but it's a solution of shelter in which can not be killed off with any treatment/POISON!!!
\
Here's the link below if interested...Just my 2 cents
http://www.porcupinefishattractor.com/

-stevo

[BigBassin144]

We have a reservoir near us thta they do this in, and after to do it, the water gets quite dirty and we hardly catch anything. But I can understand it since it is a reservoir for drinking water, but still it ruins the fishing.

BB

[Bender]

I went to a treated lake this morning and we found fish in the normal pattern (10-12') but they were not in the normal spots. They had moved to where there was a little moving water near a small dam and then to the few places where there were a few weeds left. I was throwing a trap and a spinnerbait to find the weeds for a while then when it dragged some in we would go that way. A lot of the lake was very clear and there were no fish there, when we found dirty water the fish were in it.

[3dkicker]

I've experienced it in the past, Gaston and Santee Cooper, and there isn't much you can do once they have sprayed. The fishing will decline, the bass will get skinny, and the population will decrease. The fish will move to hard cover and you need to find the structure that holds the fish.

Best thing to do now for a couple years is to fish in another lake that hasn't killed the grass.

[bamabassman]

in my opion here only now. i think that maybe you and a few others should start a pitetion. get information on how it is more harmful to the fish and all. if you can get that it may help you guys. i saw what happened to guntersville a long time ago. they still spray some, just not like they did years ago. hope you get it straightened out. good luck.

[keithdog]

Just might have to do that bama. The kicker is that they sprayed every damn lake with a 45 minute drive from here. And three of those lakes are less than two miles from my house.

[bamabassman]

give it a try keith. never know till you try. always remember, the squeeky wheel gets the greese. especialy in political things. go to the council meetings and make a fuss.

[BigBassin144]

Bama's got a great idea. I'd head ot a local tackle shop with some info and ask if you can leave something there for people to sign for the petition. Once you've got a bunchof signatures take it to the government. I think you could get a lot of people to sign at a tackle shop, or even stay at the boat ramp for a couple of hours one morning asking people. I'm sure they'll sign if they are facing the same problems as you. I wish I could to that for the reservoir I fish, but I can't cause they use the water for drinking and they can't have the weeds in there. Although I wouldn't think the chemicals would be too good in the drinking water either.

BB

[bamabassman]

yes you can bb!!! they don't have to spray the entire lake. and they don't HAVE to use super strength stuff to do it. they will usually have an employee do it and they never really know just how strong it is. dig and find out pal. it is all public access records ya know. they can't hide a thing from the public. if everyone thinks it is too much, then they will HAVE to reduce it. heck that stuff is PIOSON! and ya'll are drinking it too. check it out buddy.

[kennsandy]

hey bender, where did you go when you ran into the treatment, we went out sunday to lake ponemha in fenton, and squaw lake attached to it had just been treated recently. left a nasty film on top, and there wasnt anything to be found. it had made its way out to the main lake a bit also. ruined the entire day, had a buddy of mine who fishes tourneys take me and wagabons out. kind of show us what he does different, all i seen him do was not catch fish just like us, lol. was just wondering where you went out, still need to hook up and do some fishing one of these days.

ken

[Bender]

Went to Woodland where we did good, but it has been about a month since it was sprayed. They have recently sprayed Kent, Tipsico, Crooked, Chemung, Thompson, etc., etc.