Not much of a report, but thought I'd give a conditions update.
Water was low to mid 70's everywhere I went.
Clarity was good, until….
Weeds, got nuked again [smilie=brickwall.gif] [smilie=brickwall.gif] [smilie=brickwall.gif] (6-mile)
Fish were scattered everywhere, and burried in deep water. All of them except the gar.
I got up late on Saturday just in time for a fireworks party on st clair and sixmile. Sucked for fishing, but best small town display I have ever seen!
Fished about 2 hours Sunday evening after the scorching heat started cooling, caught a couple walleye, no contacts.
Same Monday.
Then the atomic chemical explosion came on Tuesday
Clarity went from 10+' with good weeds, to about 2' and a nasty brownish-yellow particulate that flowed down into St Clair by evening and into Ellsworth by Wednesday morning.
Two days of strong winds and family obligations kept us off the water pretty much till friday. Had a few rips trolling but nothing in the net, and no contact casting Friday afternoon. Great family trip, disappointing fishing.
I gotta rant about the weed thing tho. I read the report that was posted, and contemplated what has happened. Basically they are resorting to killing natural "nuisance" weeds, and about 50 acres of invasive… unfortunately the "invasive" is actually the native milfoil and only spot left of weeds on the lake anyhow. There was very little actual growth from 7-14' before they sprayed. The result has been dismal water quality, excessive algae blooms, and signs of an unhealthy fishery. I saw two coves that were FULL of Gar. At first I saw 1 fish, then 4-5, then we got to the weeds and saw dozens more. The second cove I saw literally hundreds of gar up near the surface. I have never seen anything like it, and its honestly a bit concerning. I hope they are monitoring this situation, and the effects its having down stream, and on the fishery before they approve many more permits for this. Killing natural weeds on a naturally weedy lake is absurd, and is honestly what got them into this mess in the first place, opening more places for invasives in the future.
JP was there a newsletter or something that was sent out? I'd like to take a look at it.
There is pretty much is no such thing as native milfoil at this point since the plants are hybridizing and native milfoil has been dominated by Eurasian. I should take a closer look at the plant communities before I say anything too confidently though.
Weed killing is a pretty well established racket at this point, as someone who participates in surveys it really is funny to watch the same lakes get hit year after year with little to no results and/or just a rotating line of invasives taking turns dominating the lake. There are instances where it gets knocked back but really it's just a never ending money dump.
For anyone curious how the system works, PLM is the private contractor hired by the lake association. The treatment process is pretty well established and the DEQ gives out permits pretty liberally, it just takes filling out the right paper work. As someone who has worked for a private environmental contractor for 5 years now I can tell you that the contractor will rarely recommend AGAINST treatment because they are interested in making money over anything else. I don't have a PHD so it's really just my average educated opinion, but yeah it gets out of hand.
Sounds like this is exactly what's happening if they've decided to continue treatment even though the milfoil population is under control in Sixmile. They will continue to treat this lake for as long as the homeowners decide to keep a Special Assessment District on the lake which hopefully they fail to do in 2018 but theres little chance of that. That's CRAZY that they have decided to treat the Native Species. That is exactly what happens when the homeowners decide that they just want no weeds period. It's the absolute worst idea from an ecological standpoint, and like you said it will open the door for invasives to just right in. Damnit.
The good news is that the Chara in Sixmile that provides fish spawning habitat is pretty abundant and found in many of the shallow areas where the majority of the weed kill doesn't take place.
Chris, I am not sure if they sent out a notice or not. The info I got was a two page posting at the launch on Miles Rd. I didn't read it till on the way out of town, or I may have pulled my boat and fished lower in the chain the last couple days. The first page was a description of chemicals used and what they were for, and the second was a map, marked with locations of each treatment. The "native nuisance" weeds were killed off by a myriad of different common treatments (4-6 different types) with an algecide to boot, since algae is a common negative result of the weed destruction I can see why they are easily convinced to go that route… The map had the entire perimeter of the lake marked in the 6-12' range (ish) for this treatment. Then a separate treatment for "invasive milfoil" was labeled as a 55 acre area in the southern most portion of the lake. This was from the southernmost launch toward the end of the lake, and was the whole width of the lake… basically the only place there were weeds last year, and this year. There is info about the permits on their association website, and hopefully someone is smart enough to not renew their permit for 2018! (if there is someone we can contact please let me know!) Also thanks for the heads up that milfoil is intermixing with the native types, there is a possibility that is what they have discovered or are trying to treat/prevent.
My concerns are probably the same common concerns, combined with extreme annoyance about vigilante lake owners, and my $1000+ vacation getting affected again. Again, it starts with a few vigilante weed nazis killing and raking weeds themselves to "improve" their own waterfront, leading to gaps in natural weed growth for invasives to take hold. Then, they chop up milfoil with rakes and other contraptions, making it spread at an even more rapid pace. This makes their permit a no-brainer (in so many ways) for the DEQ. Again, like Chris mentioned, the weed killing co's are in it for profit, and their plans just perpetuate the issue even more. At this point they have effectively opened the entire lake to invasive weed growth. And instead of allowing the native weeds (which they don't want because they feel yucky) steadily and in a controlled manner re-establish themselves, they will just continue to have a negative effect on the lakes ecosystem until someone stops them.
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