They were found on the bottom of a boat brought down from Lake Texoma that sat in a slip at Chandler's for a week and a half. Another mussel was found 100 yards away at the boat ramp. This is not good. Does this mean that they have now spread to Ray Hubbard? And if so, what will this mean for the white bass and hybrid fishery there? Maybe we can hope for a miracle and they are able to catch it in time and prevent them from getting a toehold in the Lake.

http://www.fishgame.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1451 Zebra Mussels Found In Lake Ray Hubbard

I believe now that they are established in Texoma it is only a mater of time before all north texas lakes are affected. How bad they will get and how they affect each lake will differ.

No big surprise there, they were found in Lavon a couple years ago...

Dave

Someone need to invent an automatic bottom boat scrubber at ramps. Pay 3 bucks and your boat is scrubbed.....Maybe Obama will pay for it..lol

I saw that on the news the other night.

Zebra mussels go great with beer!

I'm sure all the pollution will kill them.

So what will this do to the white pass population? Anything? I read somewhere else that zebra mussel invasion has been good for catfish but bad for predator fish, and that it alters the aquatic vegetation. I wasn't able to find much else though, in particular what effects there might be on white bass or hybrids.

Im certainly no expert on zebra mussels. The things I have read on them basically say this: They feed on basically the same things that shad do. Therefore they have the potential to disrupt the food chain in a given lake. Less for the shad to eat could result in less shad, which could result in less for the predator fish to eat. With that said you will get a variety of opinions on how much damage they actually cause. Im sure the texoma guys will chime in on this. That lake is full of them.

Shad population is pretty strong on Texoma. But each lake is different Texoma may have enough nutrients in its watershed to maintain the biodiversity that other waterbodies may not have.

Makes me wonder after seeing what they have done for the great lakes, maybe thats what we need to react the golden algea in the brazos river system?

They filter the water. The clearer the water becomes, the deeper the fish go. Lake Erie walleyes use to be easy catches in 20-30 foot of water. Now boats have to go to 80-feet of water to catch them.

One thing not mentioned is the effect on lake water and vegetation. Many of our lakes have muddy water which blocks sunlight much of the time and kills vegetation. Depending on your view, it appears that more vegetation may improve fishing on most lakes.

The main problem with them is that they love flowing water like the water that flows into our water purification plants. They clog the pipes as they build on top of each other. The larva are microscopic in size and pretty much impossible to filter out. This is why they have stopped pumping water from texoma into Lavon. Zebra muscles would clog the water intake systems and short of going into the pipe and physically removing them no one has found a way to prevent this.

Since zebra muscles have invaded texoma I have noticed the water clarity is better. It used to always be murky but now its not unusual to have 10 foot visibility. Fish are still out there they find a way to adapt.

lavon and ray hubbard are two main water supplies for Dallas so people worry about them entering the lake. Its only a matter of time though and it probably wont be because of us. One microscopic larva hitching a ride on a ducks foot and its all over.

The Zebra's already made it thru the pipe to Lavon they did a kill in Sister Grove creek below the discharge to try and killout the adult population that was living there. The larvae can hitch a ride on a turtle, bird, boats and even the larger zebra's to a degree can live thru being eating. So if a bird such as a crane eats a fish that has Zebra's in its gut and then that birds goes to a new body of water and takes a poop there is a chance that a living zebra gets pooped out. I am not sure just how much stronger a birds stomach acid is than a fishes but the chance still remains.