Zebra Mussels Discovered in Lake Ashtabula

[NDSportsman]

I just called Steinwands office. I left a lengthy message with his secretary. The game and fish just pays for billboards and basically is doing nothing to prevent the spread. Good luck moving fish and stocking lakes without spreading this across every lake in the state. Every test net and piece of equipment the game and fish uses will help spread zebra mussels. Zebra mussels are a worst case scenario for a lake.

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I want to see the NDGF SOP for drying tests nets, boats, tanks, and equipment. I hope I’m wrong and they have a detailed process for cleaning up their equipment because they literally go from lake to lake stocking and test netting.

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And I told you so!!!!!!!

Oh FFS these damn things are going to spread no matter what humans do, there aint no putting those worms back in the can my man. These damn things are small, their larvae are microscopic and I'm guessing more get transported by birds and other animals then any humans. Once they made it across the ocean it was only a matter of time before they are in every body of water. They were supposed to be a complete ecological disaster for the Great Lakes fisheries but guess what the fishing is better now then it was before, the netting results of yellow perch on St. Claire have nearly doubled since zebra mussels were found there. My advice is learn to live with it cause there aint nothing you, GNF or any body else is going to do about it.

 

[Migrator Man]

Coming to Sak and Devils in no time thanks to the G & F doing absolutely nothing to prevent them at the border ;:;banghead

Zebra mussels will reach Sak eventually as they were found in a Missouri River system lake in MT. Canyon Ferry I believe.

 

[Captain Ahab]

Sounds like they’ve been there for a while. I wouldn’t have guessed Ash would be the first confirmed lake in ND.

 

[Migrator Man]

Make it mandatory that all boats coming into the state be inspected. But the game and fish is to f#*$ing dumb to realize this might help.

WY bans all wild caught minnows from being used state wide so the minnows are farmed in Arkansas instead, $5 a DOZEN, drainage minnows are still $3-4 a dozen

Also all boats are inspected at the border in WY before being allowed to enter a lake, all boats passing an inspection station also have to stop. If WY is doing it ND should too. They have found many boats and crafts with mussels. ND should be more proactive especially because of the importance of fishing industry commerce

 

[You]

The writing is on the wall. How much should ND spend to merely delay the inevitable? My vote is "not much".

Go ahead, keep using Wyoming as an example, whatever, but zebras will be there too within our lifetimes.

 

[MSA]

Wildlife spreads them around naturally, at best ANS laws might be able to delay the inevitable.

 

[emerald]

wow! whats nxt ,still allowed to fish there?just from shore?

 

[Captain Ahab]

Maybe it rained zebs:

https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/rain-frog2.htm

 

[emerald]

cormorant shit ,is the cause,crap gooses need to be controlled, statewide eradication needs to be implemented

 

[dean nelson]

Oh FFS these damn things are going to spread no matter what humans do, there aint no putting those worms back in the can my man. These damn things are small, their larvae are microscopic and I'm guessing more get transported by birds and other animals then any humans. Once they made it across the ocean it was only a matter of time before they are in every body of water. They were supposed to be a complete ecological disaster for the Great Lakes fisheries but guess what the fishing is better now then it was before, the netting results of yellow perch on St. Claire have nearly doubled since zebra mussels were found there. My advice is learn to live with it cause there aint nothing you, GNF or any body else is going to do about it.

Having just spent the last couple hours reading any research paper I could find trying to get a handle on what sort of affect zebra muscles can have on a fluid system like a high nutrient load Reservoir like we have out here. The one thing I keep coming across over and over again is roughly what you just posted that they have a huge effect on a lot of things but the Fisheries tend not to be one of them. For instance Lake Erie 10 of the 11 species studied in the lake before and after the arrival of the muscles had no change whatsoever in the number of their age 0 class fish at the end of the year with the 11'th one having an increase and this would be of course as you mentioned yellow perch. So needless to say this may not be good for people's knees and feet while they're swimming boat docks water intakes and such the end of the world for fishing it is not except for its hell on fishing line.

Oh and for those asking about the bullheads they apparently do better with zebra mussels because they actually feed on them.

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WY bans all wild caught minnows from being used state wide so the minnows are farmed in Arkansas instead, $5 a DOZEN, drainage minnows are still $3-4 a dozen

Also all boats are inspected at the border in WY before being allowed to enter a lake, all boats passing an inspection station also have to stop. If WY is doing it ND should too. They have found many boats and crafts with mussels. ND should be more proactive especially because of the importance of fishing industry commerce

Yeah well they also don't have a resident population of a couple million Ducks God knows how many cormorants literally the largest breeding population of pelicans in North America which number well into the tens of thousands herons egrets and God knows how many shore birds. All living in the giant Prairie pothole region that are constantly moving anything and everything around. You think a few small boats are the biggest problem tell me how all the aquatic weeds and organisms got into all of these cutoff potholes that are not connected to anything and no one has ever looked at them with a boat. Give you a hint how they got there and they didn't have propellers they had wings!

 

[Esterlino]

In other states to the west many have mandatory boat checking stations.What about North Dakota setting up checking stations? I was checked several times by the game warden a few years ago. Has North Dakota given up?

 

[eyexer]

Zebra Mussels made Erie the fishery it is today

 

[Traxion]

WY bans all wild caught minnows from being used state wide so the minnows are farmed in Arkansas instead, $5 a DOZEN, drainage minnows are still $3-4 a dozen

Also all boats are inspected at the border in WY before being allowed to enter a lake, all boats passing an inspection station also have to stop. If WY is doing it ND should too. They have found many boats and crafts with mussels. ND should be more proactive especially because of the importance of fishing industry commerce

I was certified a while back (let it lapse now) so I could take my boat into WY without being inspected. The training was an eye opener.....yeah, wildlife can transport it. But boats are the most likely carriers of the junk. All it takes is water to transport them as the velligers are microscopic. Ballast tanks are big culprits, but even just a little water in the bilge can carry it.

Now, is it inevitable? Probably. But why let it spread if you can slow it? I mean in the winter when half the damn county has a cold, do you not wash your hands because getting a cold is inevitable? I don't think so. Getting crazy and spending millions is a little much. Wyoming inspects boats coming in for a pretty small price. ND could do the same. If anything, every boat coming out of there needs to be decontamined on a mandatory basis. Similar to boats coming out of Horsetooth in Colorado. You come out, get decontamed, and then go home. Slow it down at least.

I don't think it is the end of the world but it isn't great. Let's do what we can to slow it down, at least reasonably!

 

[shorthairsrus]

i want zander stocked in devils and i want it now!!!!!

 

[Downrigger]

gin clear water = shit fishing

Nope, Pelican, Big Cormerant, Otter Tail....clear gin water from zebra mussles and have gotten better. Have to fish them different than grandpa did, but better bites.

 

[riverview]

Nope, Pelican, Big Cormerant, Otter Tail....clear gin water from zebra mussles and have gotten better. Have to fish them different than grandpa did, but better bites.

heard stories of those same lakes you mentioned being a night bite. boats all over after dark catching fish

 

[GSM]

son ofa bitch

 

[Allen]

Zebra mussels will reach Sak eventually as they were found in a Missouri River system lake in MT. Canyon Ferry I believe.

Not quite. Rather, someone (this was about 12 years ago) placed a mason jar of water on the steps of some MT DNR or USFWS office step with a cryptic note. In testing the jar it was found to have zebra mussel veligers in it. Nobody then knew if it was intended to be some kind of eco terrorism threat, an actual sample from some body of water, or ???. To date I am not aware of any body of water on the upstream end of the Missouri having documented zebra mussels.


One thing is for sure, this will really put a corkscrew into the plans for the fish hatchery at Ashtabula. Where are they going to take fish that were raised in contaminated waters? The answer is...nowhere.

 

[shorthairsrus]

heard stories of those same lakes you mentioned being a night bite. boats all over after dark catching fish

It has been a night bite forever. One thing these lakes have in common moomba jet skis and used lifts and docks

 

[Wags2.0]

Nope, Pelican, Big Cormerant, Otter Tail....clear gin water from zebra mussles and have gotten better. Have to fish them different than grandpa did, but better bites.

I really enjoy being able to sleep til 9, have breakfast and then go catch a limit. MN fishing by comparison sucks balls