I know this is always a heated topic where emotions tend to rule the day (and I am sure will be shown on this thread) but I thought this video from Billy Lawson was worth sharing as it's one of if not the best discussion around grass and when, why and how they spray it in our lakes. This entire video was filmed in the boat recently with TPWD during their recent aquatic vegetation survey. They even discuss some very specific things regarding past spraying on Fork itself. I don't know how to embed it so just added the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v92j-uT15H4

I really enjoyed this video... I watch everything Billy does and usually agree with all his points...

I thought he handled this topic very professionally and he even had to contain his emotions when talking about it.

I thought the Biologist that handles this process did a great job of explaining the what and why of spraying certain grass. It was also good to see they learned from the past mistakes as well.

This was actually a very good video. Very informative to people that don’t know much about them spraying. I’ve had a few conversations with Jake and I can tell you, these guys want grass back in these lakes and they are doing everything they can to get it back and keep it there.

Spraying grass in any lake always causes the fishing to get worse. Always.

So guess we can do our part by picking up any single water hycinths early on and throw them in trash, any thrown on banks rains will just wash the seeds back in the lake

So, hycinths choking out a cove and killing off the underwater grass and plants is a good thing? And taking out any way of bass to spawn due to the over growth of hycinths is a good thing? Having 0 oxygen levels due to overgrowth of hycinths is a good thing?

Ok, well I guess science really doesn't work. Thanks ezbassin.

If they didn't spray Toledo bend, there'd be 30-40 percent of the lake inaccessible up north the salvinia would be so thick

Ask them to introduce hydrilla back on Ray Roberts. Thank you.

Par for the course on this subject, people just make blatantly ignorant statements out of a pure emotional position. It's why I posted this video because it removed the emotions of it and discussed the topic from a scientific standpoint and took the angler's concerns into account. There was one thing I wish they would have discussed but it would have just been beating a dead horse in history.....their complete "miscalculation" on the effectiveness of triploid grass carp at eradicating vs controlling grass in smaller lakes like Cypress Springs and Lake Austin.

They do address Hydrilla... said they do not want to take this out of our lakes...it is habitat...so, that was good to hear.

It's really good to see TPWD being upfront about vegetation control. That's a big change from the 80's & 90's.

That's what I take away from TPWD lately. It seems they have heard the concerns of anglers and are trying to fix old habits. That's a huge step. It will take some time but hopefully they stay the course and dont let the politics and money influence their decisions like Florida has. Personally, I'm completely against spraying, completely. I dont think spraying all those chemicals in our water can ever be a good thing. BUT, I get that its probably the most cost effective way to control certain vegitations. I would much rather see a couple boats out there picking up salvania or hyacinth and taking it away rather than spraying it.

No, 95% of it would have died from the freeze and there would still be hydrilla and haygrass in the lake.

Yeah, but this freeze we had this year was a once in a lifetime type of freeze for Texas. Most years we dont get cold enough to kill it all.

It wasn't that long ago another freeze took out the salvinia at Caddo when spraying wasn't working.