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Is Kentucky Lake getting clearer every year? Are there weeds growing in the lake under the water. Submergent vegetation. If so what type of weeds and how deep are they found?
Also read that zebra mussles are taking over the lake and filtering the water thus making the lake clearer. hummm. Must be a lot of those little buggers to filter that much water. Can anyone confirm the zebra mussels being responsible for the improved water clarity?
your bud Richard W would be the guy to ask about that ;) ... but, for what it's worth, here's an article about the "return" of aquatic veggies to Ky Lake --- http://www.parislanding.com/aquatic_vegetation_2.htm
As for the Zebra's ... yes, they are there and well established. And since 1 sq meter can hold as many as 70,000 of them ... and they can run a litre of water thru their systems in 24hrs -- then, yes, I'd say they have had a big impact on the water clarity. They're plankton filterers ... so they do compete with fry and other plankton eaters (like Shad). And, the high rate of filtration they are capable of, means the water should get clearer - even if only from the fact of the removal of the plankton. KY & Barkley lakes are what they are, with regard to being such prolific producers of fish, simply because they don't hold their water very long. The constant influx of "new" water, bringing all the nutrients & such, is crucial to sustaining the vegetation growth - as well as the growth of the young fish & baitfish. I think the Zebra's have had some effect on the return of vegetation to these lakes -- but, maybe not nearly so much as the TVA decision to not eradicate the weeds. If the Zebra's didn't do the damage, that they are capable of, they might even be considered a "help". But, displacing the native mussels, clogging drains (on boats and dams), filtering out the foodsource that's vital to fry and baitfish, and the end result of collecting high concentrations of PCB's and passing them on to any fish/animal that consumes them ......... keeps them in the "invasive pest" catagory - and being virtually impossible to eradicate, makes them a problem that there doesn't seem to be a solution to. .................cp :cool:
Thanks Crappiepappy. I think it was Steve McAdams that was talking about the weeds on KY lake in the Crappie World Article that prompted my questions about this. I don't remember seeing any weeds in Sulfur Creek when I fished there the last two years. I bet that Steve fishes more toward the KY lake Damn area of KY lake.
I would think that the lake drawdowns and changing water levels would hold the weed growth down in KY lake but I could be very wrong on that.
Steve knows that lake much better than I do. I don't even know how much KY lake levels fluctuate over a year or two's time. I would guess by some 5ft or close to that but again I don't know and am purely guessing here. I didn't take the time to go to the corps web site simply because I lost my favorites folder during my reformat on my hard drive. I am still in the process of trying to reload all that stuff from my back up hard drive. I hope that I can still use that Windows98 Fat32 stuff with my drive now that it's formated for windows XP with NTFS. I may have trouble with the inputting of my saved emails, address book and favorites folders back into Windows XP.
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Originally Posted by crappiepappy
Well I just finished reading both parts of Steves Article. Seems that I missed the late 1980s and early 1990's on KY lake as I stopped fishing KY Lake in Oct 1983. That was my last trip there. I did fish Barkley Lake with my Dad for the very last time in 1990/91. Went on a camping trip with the wife and kid and we invited my parents to come along and visit the camp site. Dad and I went out of Prizer's Point and caught a lot of nice bass right at the mouth of that bay where the creek empties into the old TN river. I hooked on 4lb bass along the bank that got off. The rest were caught out in the middle of the mouth of the bay. Dad got seasick and I had to take him back in. That was my last fishing trip with him. He was not familiar with fishing plastic worms and that was what the bass were hitting that day. I caught maybe 15 bass and let them all go. I had fun that day. Just wish that dad had not got sick. He was going down hill by then and on June 2nd 1991 he had a big stroke that put him in the bed for the next 8 years before he died on Sept 4th 2001. One week before the 911 attacks on New York City.
I have fished Patoka Lake since it was opened. Dad and I fished Patoka Lake in the 1980's a lot. We fished Patoka lake and learned to fish the weed beds. We caught lots of Northern Pike in the weeds. I caught some smaller crappie in the weeds back in those early days. They were falling to small spinner baits pulled across the top of the weedbeds on ultra light spinning outfits. Patoka Lake on the main lake is pretty clear water so the weeds can grow down to about 12ft in depth during the hot summer months.
I heard Richard talk about last spring being a bad fishing year for spawing crappie. I got to wondering if the crappie are spawing deeper than they did in the past due to better or cleaner water. If the sunlight can reach further down into the water maybe the crappie are spawing out in a bit deeper water and not using the shallow steak beds like they did in past years. Or maybe the crappie are using the deeper edge of submergent weed lines to spawn now. Could that be why last year seemed to be slower than normal for shallow spawning crappie?
I was hoping that guys that fish KY lake all the time might think about this and tell us their thoughts.
I saw where it may cost a boat dock owner on KY lake 300 bucks to get an annual permit to spray the weeds. I didn't think about that until I read Steve McAdams Article where he talked with the TVA guy about controlling the weeds in shallow water near launch ramps, swimming beaches, and around home owners boat docks. Seems like you have to have a 300 dollar permit to spray 100 square feet around your boat docks.
Steve said that the skidoe crowds don't like the weeds clogging up thier water intakes but I say tough! LOL maybe they will get off the lake and give us crappie fishermen the lake back in the hot summer months.
I am familar with weeds getting in the trolling motor prop on my boat since I fish lots of stripper pit that are chock full of aquatic weeds. And Patoka Lake has plenty of weeds too.
I feel that it would be good for Kentucky Lake to have some more Aquatic Vegetation on the lake bottom as that will provide much better habitat for bass fry and crappie. We could use something to increase the fishing on KY lake.
We need to reduce the number of water skiers and jet skies on that lake LOL
Maybe the TVA needs to have fishermen put out more trout lines and less ski courses on the lake!
I hope you all know that I am joking about the trout lines and ski do's LOL
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Originally Posted by crappiepappy