Controlling the weeds.

[Fishing Rhino]

Not sure if this belongs here.

Today, while fishing a pond on Cape Cod, we saw a machine exactly like this in action.

[hogrustler]

Looks like an expensive weed eater. Isn't there a cheaper way?

[fmoore]

Looks like a great way to kill all of the young of the year seeking shelter in the weeds to me.

[FL_Sharpshooter]

I read in the paper about them trying new chemicals to kill off the weeds now.  The big concern now is the oxygen depletion from it.  There's really no good way to control the weeds.

[Fishing Rhino]

Looks like a great way to kill all of the young of the year seeking shelter in the weeds to me.

All that splashing is from the paddle wheels.  It has a cutting bar that reaches to the bottom.  Then the vegetation is lifted by some type of conveyor that allows any fish to fall through and back into the water.

On the pond I was fishing, they also use chemicals to kill off the plants, then remove them with the machine to at least reduce the oxygen depletion to acceptable levels.

At first, I thought it was some type of mechanism that thrashed the plants.

What I do know is that we were catching plenty of nice smallies and largemouths until they fired up the rig.

It was a small pond, and the bite stopped when they started.

[pudmunk]

I would have told them to go home  ;D

[BassThumb]

Thats's crazy! I'd be upset, too. They do small, isolated releases of chemicals around here, usually for Eurasian Milfoil and Curly Leaf Pondweed. The DNR simply releases pellets and leaves a floating milk jug with a orange sign banded to it, stating what's going on and directing people to stay away for a few days. The jugs are eventually blown away or picked up by residents.

Is the pond badly infested, and with what? As far as you know, has it ever had any fish kills from oxygen depletion due to weed die-off, like what can happen with Curly Leaf Pondweed?

[Fishing Rhino]

Thats's crazy! I'd be upset, too. They do small, isolated releases of chemicals around here, usually for Eurasian Milfoil and Curly Leaf Pondweed. The DNR simply releases pellets and leaves a floating milk jug with a orange sign banded to it, stating what's going on and directing people to stay away for a few days. The jugs are eventually blown away or picked up by residents.

Is the pond badly infested, and with what? As far as you know, has it ever had any fish kills from oxygen depletion due to weed die-off, like what can happen with Curly Leaf Pondweed?

It was the first time I've seen this pond, so I don't know how thick the vegetation was.   I do know all the fish we caught were fat and healthy, and of better than average size compared to the other Cape Cod area ponds we've fished.

Some of them are thick with weeds depending on depth and bottom composition.  I've seen the stuff grow in water as deep as ten to twelve feed, and the curly, single stem/stalk tendrils can be as long as ten feet.  The rest of the "plant" resembles miniature coontail and grows to a foot or so in height.

Wherever we find these patches, or bands, we find smallmouth, largemouth, and pickerel.

Depending on the slope of the bottom, this stuff grows in bands from a few feet wide to several feet wide.

Most of these ponds also hold trout and/or salmon, and the Dept. of Natural Resources does a lot of stocking of them.  These are mostly small ponds, of less than a hundred to four hundred acres.  Only a couple are larger than that.

Most have sections that are quite deep, up to a hundred feet or so.  Only a handful don't exceed thirty feet deep in places.

Most are also used for spawning by herring which provides excellent forage for the game fish.

I don't know if they treat and remove the plants for the sake of the trout and salmon.  They do very little if any stocking for bass, so my guess would be it's done for the benefit of the species they stock.

What is interesting is that of these ponds which I have fished, I have spoken with only one fisherman who targets the stocked fish, and he commented that he was going to start fishing for the bass.

He claimed the trout were too easy to catch.  Since some of the trout and salmon exceed the size of either smallies or largemouth, and do put up a better fight, pound for pound, I found his comment interesting.

One thing for sure, I never realized just how many ponds there were within an hours drive of my home.  Even when we lived on Cape Cod for a few years, I had no idea.

There are supposedly over two hundred ponds on Cape Cod with public access for fishing.  In the town of Plymouth, which is on the mainland side of the canal there are just over a hundred.  Most have spring runs of spawning herring.

[Lund Explorer]

One of our local lake associations purchased one of these machines.  It does a fairly good job of keeping weed growth down.  The biggest selling point was that it removes the weeds from the lake so that the dying weeds don't end up being just more fertilizer for the next crop.  This is something that chemical treatments can't do.

If there are any drawbacks it would be the slow speed of the harvester which would limit it's use to smaller lakes or ponds, and then you need a place to compost all of the weeds that are removed.

[Wayne P.]

I saw a version of that machine on Lake Guntersville last week.

[CWB]

We have 2 of those on my home lake.

They do an adequate job of cutting weeds down to about 8 feet. They mainly cut paths from your dock to the open water and then try to cut as much of the overgrown weeds down as possible. Only problem for me is the prevailing wind is from the west and my house is on the east shore. I get to rake up all the clippings that fall overboard, along with all my neighbors. We usually put a younger person aboard to throw back all the gamefish that get brought aboard during harvesting. You'd be surprised at the number of small bass and panfish that are buried in the thickest weeds. Local farmers take all we can give them as fertilizer.

Probably the best method for smaller waters.

Chemicals are not good, no matter what anyone says. We tried that some years ago, against many objections, in one portion of the lakes. Signs were posted "no swimming for 1 month and do not eat fish caught for 3 months". And this was a "safe chemical' if I recall. In larger bodies of water where the chemicals can disperse more, they might not be such an issue. If I recall, Aquacide and Sonar were tried. On a side note, a group of homeowners killed a huge expanse of bullrushes in front of their homes which have been there for years, eliminating one of my most productive spots. The lake specific rules clearly stated that emergent weeds such as bullrushes, lilypads, etc, are not to be removed. Not much you can do after the fact.

[fishfordollars]

They used those things down here years ago to cut boat lanes. Havn't seen or heard of ones use around here in a long time.

[Taylor Fishin 4 life]

Here what me and my neighbors did to some grass in the pond behind our houses. Im the guy with the white hat. We were wrapping a chain around clumps and pulling it out with truck.(OLD SCHOOL WEED REMOVING)

BUG EXTERMINATION

[Lund Explorer]

I'm happy I saw Taylor's post while watching a swamp people repeat!   ;D

[hogrustler]

Now that's dedication Taylor! 8-)