Seem to be helping Belton as a fishery so far but the number of fish you brake off negates it a lot of the time. Fishing trees and brush can be painful limber/finesse lines don't stand a chance plus they'll shred it way above the knot so lots of re-spooling. Topwater bite on that clear water can be amazing though!

The first couple years that Roberts had them, brushpiles were almost impossible to fish. Lately though I haven't been having as tough of a time. I still have to check my line often, but I haven't broken a dink off on a hookset fishing the brushpiles or flipping timber in a while

Not sure if this is a sign that after the initial infestation, their numbers may drop slightly as natural factors limit their populations?

From what I read they tend to have a huge boom then kinda level off as time passes so hopefully soon the boom phase will pass down here too.

Being filter feeders, ZM have helped clear pollutions out of the Great Lakes. They also concentrate the toxins like PCB's. Said fish eats too many ZM with elevated toxin levels and either dies or retains that toxin and passes along to the person who catches and eats the fish.

They could cause more DSHS to place more fish consumption bans.

Just a thought...

I wonder if the initial bloom a d then thee doing off effect has to do with natural predators in the ecosystem learning they can eat them. Ie crawfish,drum, shell crackers etc?

I read a study that said crawfish eat a great deal of them as larvae and juveniles. The report said that they were the #1 predator and to me that means we should be stocking the [censored] out of them instead of invasive species. The report said smallmouth, birds, diving ducks, catfish etc all eat them but the mudbugs are the real deal and it would be a win -win. The crawfish eat the mussels, the fish eat them.