A.I.S.

I'm curious about other parts of the country having problems with aquatic invasive species. In northern Wisconsin where I do most of my boating, it (milfoil) is showing up but in small patches that with early detection seems to be under control with treatment. So far it is only on the lower side of the Dam from our chain of lakes. We also have volunteers as well as some paid people manning the boat landings (and the boat lift over the dam) checking for weeds on trailers and boats both going in the water and coming out.

dip your hand in lake Erie, your bound to come up with a mussle on it, one advantage is they are small filters and have really cleaned the lake up, but those are the nutrients the other fish feed off of, you can actually see 20 or 30 feet down now.
These are the end result of being attached to frieghters and cargo ships from Europe,

Pete, I 've been to a few lakes that are so full of weeds I would literally need a pressure washer to get them all off the trailer. It's just about impossible. I usually drag em home and blast them off in the driveway.

How about invasive species of fish. On the Illinois south of where I boat they catch 1000's of lbs of Asian big Head Carp everyday. They've actually found some commercial use for these things. They escaped from a Mississippi fish farm during a flood and found their way into the Miss. and eventually up to the Illinois. Electric Fish nets have been installed to try to stop them before they get into Lake Michigan but it only a matter of time.

There are so many of these things that they get scared by prop noise and jump right into boats. You've probably seen this on America Funniest Home Videos, most of those happen on the Illinois near Peoria but we'll be swimming with them soon in our area and they'll destroy everything in their path

All the water from the North ends up here,along with all the other "STUFF" that you guy's are willing to share .
Your freezing winters have slowed down the process somewhat but "change is a comin'" Our lakes have drasticly changed also, the carp, mussels and severals types of grasses and weeds not native to Louisiana have taken a toll on the native fish and other wildlife.
The Asian carp population now about match the number of Vietnamese fishermen we have in the south. Go figure that one..........
I will take the Zebra Mussels over the Gooks any day....But that is my own opinion, and need not be spread about here........

BD, just remember s--t rolls down hills too.
gooks? lets be a little more politically correct...

Pete- Most of the lakes around us in NE battle Milfoil.
We've tried everything, including drying and smoking the weed
If you're lucky you'll get permission to use herbacide to knock out any invasive non native weeds before they become a major issue.
The State of Maine is very strict about clean trailers- a very good practice.

There's an organization called NALMS- that you may want to check out.

-Brad

Milfoil is also a problem on our lake (220 acres), it has been there as long as I have, about 10yrs, generally I believe the milfoil is a greater threat in clear water, our lake association has a treatment program to control the weeds, treatments around 3-4 times a season. The milfoil is a strange weed, the intensity can vary quite a bit from year to year without any real pattern, longer freezes seem to have no effect. Neighboring lake assoc. tried using what I believe were called "weevils", a bug that consumes or controls the weed, they cost around $1 each, will reproduce and grow or also may be consumed by the fish and not take, in their case it was about a $20k failure.

Regarding the Asian Carp Alan mentioned, read an article earlier this year about guides or services who take you out to bow hunt the carp as they jump.

The Zebra muscles are all over around here as well, do not believe they are in our lake yet.

Yeah we have zebra mussels too, but they stay on the bottom of the lake. As we have had no problems footing. I make sure I pull the drain plug at the lake. No sea weed to speak of though.

I thought that's what you ment Tull, but I wasn't sure. No, no weed problem on ford lake. I am sure there are weeds at the bottom, but most of the lake is 20-30 feet deep with a clay bottom.

Aquatic invasives are very interesting. We have them in our lake (~375 acres), both milfoil and zebra mussels. Like Quinner said our milfoil seems to change from year to year, and the lake associate devotes almost their entire annual budget to treating it during the summer. The mussels were really bad when my parents bought their place six years ago, covering anything that was hard and big enough for them to hold on to. Today they are still around, but not nearly as big a problem.

This past summer I worked as a field tech in N.WI for a group of Ph.D. students studying AIS; rusty crayfish and mystery snails. The crayfish are particularly nasty up there. We also had to survey a bunch of lakes and there were more than a few that the weeds made it almost impossible to get our outboard-powered jonboat around the lake. WI is also suffering from a VHS (Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia), a fish disease and we not only had to make sure no invasive specise clung to our boats and trailers but by the end of the summer we had to wash the boats and all of our gear in bleach too.

What seems most interesting to me is that some of invaders are simply non-native to that part of the country. I have read about northern pike, which we love around here (SW MI), being just hated where they have been introduced in CA. Similarly all of the invasive crayfish in the country are from this country, they just invade areas the haven't been before i.e. rusty crayfish from Ohio river basin to WI/MN, virile crayfish from midwest to west, etc.

Sorry for the long post, and BTW have any of your WI guys seen the Plum Lake Skiters before?

I agree with M3 that this forum is not an appropriate place for racism. BKH

Jamin, Tell me more about the snails. In recent years I've noticed more of them on one of the lakes I'm on (northern Wisconsin). they are anywhere from a nickle to a silver dollar is size.

We did have a issue with the rusty crayfish but that was maybe 20 years ago and they have pretty much gone away. They were even trapping them at one time and shipping them south for cajun cooking.

No zebras yet but they seem to come in from larger lakes in the bilges of larger boats. It's unusual to see a boat longer than 24' on our chain.

To whom it may concern;
Seems I have stuck my foot in my mouth again,and to those I offended , I sincerely apologize.I first stated this was a touchy subject with me, and should have kept my Red Neck opinion close by............
This forum should not be used by me nor anyone else for the spread of anything but Positive info and the love of these boats and motors.Again please accept my apologies.

Jamin, I'm on the Three Lakes or upper side (southern 20 lakes) of the 28 lake Eagle River / Three Lakes chain. I have lake front footage on two of the lakes and only one has the snails so it was interesting to hear your comment. They really aren't what I would call a problem but have just noticed more shells in recent years. Who were the PH.D students doing the study for? Next summer, bring your ski!!

taking out my dock last week and noticed several zebra mussels in our lake