If they find a zebra on your boat or in your boat now you will get ticketed for transporting invasive species after September first the new regulations saying you must remove all water from livewells and bilge areas before leaving the lake will go into affect unless something changes and there is a chance it will happen sooner if the law is giving special consideration.

All the regs that may come into play for boats leaving Texoma...... how many gallons of water goes through the generating turbines every time they open the gates on the dam? How many feeder creeks come off of the river system that are supplied from Texoma water? What if Texoma fills up to 640 again and water goes over the spillway?

Putting regs on boaters is only a small item to the bigger picture and I don't think will have any positive effect on the spread of Zebra's. The Zebra's will eventually make their way into all lakes. It's not if, but when and only time will tell.

This is true

No doubt it will eventually spread throughout the state. But, one thing I do to slow it down is when I get home I put the hose in my livewells and circulate the water through the pipes and hoses. Chemicals in the tap water will kill any zebras.

I wonder how this will play out for the BLT championships. Perhaps an exemption so we can haul the fish to Gander Mountain would be in order.

I have made the BLT trail aware over a month ago so they can work with Bruce Hysmith up here to either keep the weigh-in at Gander or move it to the lake somewhere. Worst case is they have to switch lakes. I do not know if they have followed up with the State or not.

I hope they can still have it on Texoma. It's a heck of a fishery in the Fall.

I've seen mussels in Lake Worth. I don't know if they are the Zebra species or not.

Zebra mussels are the only species of freshwater mussel likely to be encountered that is attached to a substrate (stuck onto something, not buried in the mud). They are small, no bigger than a dime and striped, like a zebra.

Cleaning and sterilizing your live well is always a very good idea. It was through bass fishing out of boats with livewells that spread the Largemouth Bass Herbes Virus from the East to West coasts many years ago.

They get bigger than a dime and grow up to quater size when they are fully grown. Do not discount some that are larger than dimes as not being a zebra. Up here on Texoma there are a ton that are as big as quarters.

Does anyone know if there has been significant harm to the ecosystem/habitat in any part of Texoma> I know that the mussels have been present there for some time, but have not seen any studies concerning what effects thay are having on the lake and its fishery. Since the mussels filter nutrients from the water leaving less for the fish, just wondering if they have reached the point in Texoma where the fish are being affected.

I have fished the Highport and Big Mineral area a couple of times in the last 2 months and have noticed no effect on the lake. The most noticable thing I have seen in most of the coves is the dead trees on the banks. They were used to the stable water and after the drought last year they died off. Kind of strange looking.

Maybe the zebra mussels will filter all the blue-green algae out of Texoma

Agree Tim... That is how many stock tanks end up with fish that have never been stocked. Birds carry larvae/eggs in the webbs of their feet and land in another body of water.

Is there any reason why PK is not included on that list? It seems that it would fall into the same habitable range as Texoma. Also, do these thing survive in river systems? It would seem that a hot summer would raise the temps enough in a river to kill them off.