Where will all the deadly Zebra mussels go????!!!!

Texoma over the spillway. Ray Bob, Worth and Lavon seeding the flow below their dams!!!! Waco filling the Brazos with the mobile veligers!!!!!!!!! Zebra mussels are on the move!!! I believe they are hear to stay!!! Are they a REAL threat to the fish??? Aquatics?? Water way structures?? Water crafts??? Maybe time to look for solutions or ways to manager WITH them! Doing the "Chicken Little scream" isn't going to cut it. They have been in Lake Erie for 20yrs. Dead lake???? NOT EVEN CLOSE!!!! AND Lake Erie has an intense ship traffic. I've fished for smallmouth and walleye there.....never heard the subject of the mussels come up once!!! Are they good....I don't believe ANY evasive species is good. BUT....short of a nuclear attack....they are here to stay!!!
Here is a map of the infected water areas in the US.






So far I have heard stories of how they caused folks to lose fish because they frayed line. I've heard guys tell me that the fish can't pass them through the digestive tract. The gaspergoo and catfish I have handled looked bloated with them, but they appeared digested and flowing like prunes in granny!!! Once again.....been in the north for at least 20yrs.




Interesting conversation and food for thought..........hey, not many lakes to fish right now!!!!!

Any opinions??? You got mine....Banger!!!

Biggest problem I have with them right now is cutting my line. I do know catfish will pass them and assume other species will as well. I just hope they don't get so bad that they shred my cast nets when catching bait. Another problem I see with them is additional snags when drift fishing if they start to cover the bottom of the lake.

You make a heck of a lot more sense than wiping down your boat and emptying your live well. In my opinion any Tickets issued for this amounts to one more way to tax and harass boaters and fisherman. Wipe down your boat, empty your live well, and there is still water inside your trailer. So what good have you really done?

Who gets the fines for opening the gates and letting them flow from downstream from lake to lake?

Hey Banger, so what did happen to that fishes vent?

The zebras will be carried by the floodwater into the Trinity River.
Nothing could survive that!

That gaspergoo was soooo bloated up it was hard to carve the body. It weighed 10lbs. I had to do a little magic to make that vent look natural!!






Researching them I found that they don't provide the same nutritional value of natural food.....so fish have to eat more of them. I guess that would stretch anybody's vent!!!!!

Talk about 'the poor poodle pooping a peach pit'.



Note the purple dots which indicate that they were eradicated. Someone must have figured out how to do it.

....that is what I was thinking! Of course........that may be the nuclear option!!!!

The idea of me having to fish gin clear water scares me...

I just hope they stop bugging us about wiping down the boat, draining the live well and where I bought my minnows.....

The time has come where those that made the laws have no choice but to let the invasive creatures travel downstream. Hope they ease up a bit now.

I couldnt agree more. The powers that be need some common sense. Washing and drying a boat after every launch is ridiculous.

Common sense and government don't go together. It's like

If you think the laws are about mussels your not paying attention to what's happening in this new police state. These laws are to allow an inspection of your property anytime a person with a badge feels so inclined. What about the water on a trailer or water birds that fly from lake to lake. How do new not stocked ponds get fish in them.

Apparently they dont even need a badge. Kid I know got a job with the city in which he is supposed to do checks at boat ramps for the critters.

Haaaa!!! I'm always interested in the "political theories". BUT we have all had bosses(or most have had) at one point. That boss has a boss. He in turn has a boss. Some power to be say we have a problem.......somebody below him has the job of proposing something to fix it. No time for research.....we have to do something so everyone knows we are doing SOMETHING.......right or wrong. Anybody that has been in a management position knows the situation. Guess who messed up when it doesn't work...you got it!!!! Evaluate that later!!!

BUT the problem is still here. Where are the mussels going to go from here and what effect will they have one everyone/everything? I'm still interested in the areas on the map that say eradicated!!!!!

The purple square in the Omaha, Nebraska area was eradicated by draining the lake. Bone dry is very effective. If I recall, the lake was small.

Here is an interesting read on eradicating the elusive zebra mussels in Texas

http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2014/03/19/invasive-zebra-mussels-may-have-finally-met-their-match/