we hate zebra mussels but alas just like fire ants they are here!

I am finding them in catfish bellys

Look at the bright side, water will be clearer, But once you got the zebra mussels, there is not getting rid of them. Mylili farm pond has them and never a boat been launched on it, but plently of birds and Isuspect the Heron that visits daily is the bringer of the mussels.

Why wouldn't someone drain their boat after every use anyway? What good is going to come by leaving bilge water in the boat or leaving your live well full of water that is going to turn putrid and stink up your boat?

With all the water being released at Lake Texoma, Kinda seems silly to drain your boat now........

In the olden days I used to fish party boats out of Presque Isle on Lake Erie. The prize fish was the blue pike. Then the fishing got worse and worse and the conventional wisdom I heard was that the problem was too many Alewives in the lake. Word was that the Alewives had proliferated to tha point that there was no food left for the pike.
Well, wonder of wonders, someone came up with the idea that Salmon could live in fresh water and they love to eat Alwives! Problem solved. Too bad for the blue pike as I appears they remain extinct but there is a thriving Salmon and Walleye fishery in Lake Erie.
Maybe we can find something that likes to eat Zebra mussels? Could it be tbat they could be a food source also?

Your bottom dwellers are going to eat them. Catfish eat mussels, so they will eat zebra mussels. Crayfish are going to eat them as well. The problem is that predators can not keep these things in check. They are too prolific.

In the Great Lakes, Whitefish have taken a liking to the zebra mussels. It is now part of their daily intake, and the average size of whitefish has decreased at the same time the zebra mussels population has accelerated out of control. It has affected the commercial fishery in a negative way.

Also, these guys are filter feeders meaning they have the ability to highly concentrate any chemical in the water within their tissue. Any pollution in the water can be biomagnified by these little guys, and if they become part of the food chain, this is not good for catfish nuggets.

We have some lakes in Texas with PCB's that have benefited from sedimentation. Some of those chemicals are out of harms way so to speak, but a zebra mussel infestation could bring something like this back in a really bad way.

Unfortunately, I don't see a lot of positives with the introduction to these things in our waterways. While I agree that our waters are all endanger of infestation, I do believe there is a benefit to slowing the spread. I will do my part. I will drain my boat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Y5ILzKgHg&feature=youtu.be

With all this high water and dams releasing hundreds of thousands of gallons of water I suspect more of these critters are being transported downstream due to mother nature than due to careless boaters. This is not to say ignore anything you can do to help prevent the spread of the zebra mussels, but if a few gallons of bilge water or water drained from a live well can spread them, certainly massive releases of water at the dam will be pushing them downstream as well.

WHERE ARE ZEBRA MUSSELS?

Zebra mussels are currently in the following lakes: Texoma, Ray Roberts, Lewisville, Bridgeport, Lavon, Waco and Belton. They have also been found on isolated occasions in the Red River below Texoma, the Elm Fork of the Trinity River below Ray Roberts, and Sister Grove Creek, and a boat with zebra mussels attached was found in Ray Hubbard.

Even before this flood, the waterways below infected resevoirs were already compromised. Anything below an infected waterway is endanger, flood or not.

I am not saying they are Great, but I have fished Texoma for many years and before this last Flood, the lake was very very clear, just after a few years of Zebra's. Now, there was a year (3 years ago) where every rock you turned over had them on it, and if you Noodled, you were bound to get cuts, but then the Lake dropped, and they were gone from many of the shores and holes. I have seen some devastating from them around some boats, etc... but I personally fell, that nature has a Way and a Means for all of this... Do I wash my boat out, well it never really leaves Texoma, and I use a Jon boat elsewhere.. but agree that a good washing is good for everything, but they will get to where nature, wants them to go... Birds alone, can put fish in a Bare pond, so I am not sure of a real cure. But they will make a lake cleaner, and I am sure something will find an appetite for them..

Zebra mussels are a blessing and a curse. They are food for a few species of fish, most notable SMB and Pumpkin Seeds as wella a few diving ducks and crawfish will eat small ones and the larvae. Zebra mussels will clear the water but do so by depleting the micro organisms that most fish fry need to survive.

The clear water is a challenge to fish but we can all learn new techniques. Clear water does not mean clean water and pollution is still there.

There are 5 small ponds within 1/2 mile of my house, and all have zebra mussels. Yes water is clear except they do not eat duckweed. None of these ponds have ever had a boat near them so I think the birds and the Great Herons that are frequent visitors are mostly responsible.

Mechanical removal is viable just not practical. Best way is to not introduce them. Which IMO is not always possible. They may slow down once the food is removed but then, the lake will be dead. I often wonder what impact lowering our lakes for winter pools an extra 8-10 would have. A lot of my local lakes are lowered ~8-10 feet for winter and the rocky banks are completely covered with mussels. The die but are replenished the following year. Maybe we just dont kill enough.

Our Native mussels are gone, zebra mussels cover them just like any other rock.

Do your part to prevention but cure needs our support as well. A lot of research mostly in and around the great lakes is being done. I am not a fan of donating money just to donate. I had offered my time and services to several research groups and usually was told we take donations. I finally found one that said, if you wanna help be here Saturday, we are going collecting. Waders and a life preserver are mandatory.

They had dozens of test plots all over the lake and I was witha group that collected every rock and stick in a 20x20 area in 2-3 FOW. Loaded onto a skiff and taken back to the lab where every mussels was picked off, counted and the mass weighed. turns out, that was the control plot, no treatment... just whatever nature provides. After cleaning, we got to return the rocks (4 rock piles) the director laughed and said next year, the piles will be gone and rocks will be all over the bottom.

I learned a lot but mostly just make a donation now, my back did not enjoy picking up all those rocks. There are areas in the body of water that never have a mussel and others where reproduction is unfathomable. Those questions are the ones for which the answers need to be found. The historical data is interesting and from what I saw, annual conditions do not have a big effect. The control plots allways seem to be same density and they have 20+ years of data. Several treatment methods are very effective but result in depletion of game fish and native invertibrates. Thus the battle continues.

Hey Buckeye. Is it common for small ponds and lakes in that area to have zebras in them?

Our ecosystem in the south is vastly different than up north. Warmer water, and lots of predators that eat mussels.

Our Drum will eat them, our catfish will eat them, our crawfish will eat them(and we have a much larger population of crawfish here). Our Bream will eat them(they don't call them shellcrackers for nothin').

I can remember as a child the great Lakes were known(down here to me anyway) as polluted industrial waterways. This has changed dramatically.

The whitefish population has declined, is that from zebras, or the massive commercial fishing hurting the populations? Any studies on that??


There are ways around the clogging of water lines, in Europe alot of places have copper water pipes, they cannot attach to them. Expensive to replace all of ours with copper, but it is one solution. Also wrapping the legs of docks with copper in the underwater portion. Expensive but effective.

But, like noted, we still do not know how our ecosystem will react.

They bread quickly, ok, how will our natural predators react? Will that casue an explosion in crawfish populations with the increased food supply? Giant bream like in havasu?

Would stocking gobies help?

I think we need more natural answers(like stocking predetors maybe), before we start dumping more chemicals in our waters without knowing the other affects this may have.

The Great lakes are great fisheries now, they used to be the dead sea of polution, how much of this can be attributed to the positives of zebras?

Just a few things to ponder.

This is ridiculous. After the floods this year every waterway below Texoma will have mussels. Every waterway below Ray Roberts will have them. Every lake that they move water to for water supply will have them. Look at the map of how they got here. They traveled the waterways, not by boat but by flowing rivers. I will tell you up front I will never worry about mussels. They will be in all lakes if they don't find a way to kill them and draining my boat won't make one bit of difference.

I agree and disagree. Waters below infected resevoirs are always endanger of being contaminated. You have to figure the flooding hasn't helped matters. I agree.

But I disagree with the notion that nobody should drain their boats since we are already doomed. We know boats are a transmission source. Having boats create zebra colonies adjacent to boat ramps is not a good idea. Then to have boats use those boat ramps in concentrated areas without draining is even a worse idea. It is like picking up litter. It is not a big deal, and it can make a difference. Just drain your boat. Everybody needs to do their part so we can slow the spread. If we can slow them down, time can be our friend as research continues.

Once all of our lakes are choked with zebra mussels, then I can see peoples point on 'whats the point' But we are in the early stages in Texas, so draining boats can do a lot to slow the spread and buy time. I just don't see it as a big deal. I have always done it anyway, even before the mandate.