MOPanfisher

The second zebra mussel treatment will be done on the 26th, weather permitting. After that the lake will be allowed to rise back to it normal level.

First treatment should happen in the next day or so, lake level will be held at 836 until after the second treatment if possible. After second treatment has had timr (not sure how many days) to work the lake will be alowed to refill to normal spring level. All of this assumes that mother nature had read and approved the plan also. I do not know if the closure of the state park marina ramp is due to the lake level or not.

I fully realize that it is highway right of way, however in many places the actual right of way is not a very useable place to launch, either a small boat or even canoe. The adjacent owner may well have a better place close by. Besides even grumpy landowners appreciate being asked by a polite individual, never know you might make a friend with good creek access and even good places to turkey/mushroom hunt. Park at the bridge, take along a trash bag or two, and pick up the trash etc. if the adjacent landowners come out to talk to you, well you are already in good standing. If not put the trash bags in the back of your truck when you go talk to him, explain that you like to fish and didn't like seeing all the trash there, amazing sometimes what that little bit of positive energy will do.

You could also go knock on the landowners door, explain what you want to do, not parking etc., just a drop off and slide in. Many landowners are much more amenable to being asked than just doing it. Might even find out he has a better place to launch and make a friend.

The plans to hold the lake at 836 until the water warms to the mid 40s and allows for treatment of the area that was exposed to zebra mussels. A second treatment will occur 10 to 14 days later. Mother nature is working against us right now with cold weather and snow melt running in, however the in-flows are easily manageable, just need warmer weather without a major precipitation event.

KnotSure, pseudomonas flourescens CLl145A, ( i.e. Zequanox) was considered for use, there were some issues with its use though in addition to the cost. The Missouri Department of Conservation took the technical lead on the chemical application and choice there of, and thankfully the headaches that came with it. We are purchasing the chemicals for them to apply. Dprice, I would love to tell you that agencies always learn from their own mistakes and mistakes of others, unfortunately we know that isn't always true. In this case I don't see any damage really being done by the application of copper sulfate, could there be some minor fish mortality, I suspect there could be though I would be surprised if that happened in this situation and with the timing. Could there bere some native mussell mortality, again sure there could, but the risks are fairly low, and the amount of possible damage limited. Honestly I don't see any substantial risks to the treatment plan, I see some substantial risk with not even trying though.

The COE maintained ramps should be in good shape, they were useable when we were 5 feet low a few years ago, although it was amazing the amount of rock and gravel we cleaned off of them when it was that low. But launching shouldn't be any problems. If you launch at a gravel ramp, it will depend a lot on which ramp and how well it has been maintained. The gravel ramps tend to develop a "blow hole" or washout from the prop wash, creating a hole and corresponsing pile just past it.

Jerry I've been called a lot of things but never a team player before. Don't know if that is a compliment or not and really doesn't matter I guess. I will agree that the threats are continually there from boats that go from LoZ to Pomme on a regular basis, however the threat that they "might" contain veligers is different from knowing that adult zebra mussels are there. It may well go down as a lost cause in the end, however for the cost of treatment I am still more than willing to spend the $ even if it doesn't work I am not gonna give them (the mussels) a free ride if I can help it. We have been expecting a population of zebra mussels to develop for several years but so far it hasn't happened, hoping to continue that tradition.

The treatment will be Copper Sulfate.

The general area was the upper lindley creek arm.

Gentleman I don't disagree that we will likely have zebra mussels in time whether we do any treatment for this even or not. BUT I am not willing to let it slide by without making the attempt, even if it only gains us a year or two, it will be worth it. At the very least we will hve tried. I am willing to stand up for that even if it ultimately fails. Fishbait I understand, thing is we did notice, and made him remove it the next day, actually pretty lucky and some good Ranger work on that one. Note: There has been some speculation on why Pomme hasn't been infested with zebra mussels yet, possibly something with the chemisty of the water that may not be to their liking, if so I hope it stays that way. The last several years seem to proved a new invasive species of consern every year, whether its zebra mussels, Hydrilla, feral hogs, kudzu, spiny teasel etc. etc.

Fishbait, the dock owner already had a permit, his dock had been destroyed, he simply purchased a used dock from a company at Lake of the Ozarks, the company put it on a large equipment trailer (note this is a single stall dock) and transported in via road to the area and launched at the gravel ramp nearby. Had the owner done it properly, it wouldn't have been a problem there are methods to decomontaminate/kill any zebra mussels, primarily by drying time. We utilize the 100th meridian website, it provides drying times based upon location, average temps, consecutive days of freezing temps etc. Dutch. The State of Missouri has more lattitude on the prosecution/fines than we do, they are currently working through cost estimates etc. to try to recover some on the costs associated with the control efforts. Note. I personally spoke with the owner on a couple of occasions after the dock was removed from the lake, I do not believe it was done with indifference or disregard on his part for possible zebra mussel transport, I honestly believe it never crossed his mind, he was simply happy to find a good deal on a dock to replace his destroyed one and never thought beyond that.

here is the link to the web page. The article is located right next to the daily lake info. http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/Locations/DistrictLakes/PommedeTerreLake.aspx

All I have written an article that explains the situation to post of the COE website, as soon as it gets posted there I will let you know. Short version no one "let" anyone put the dock on the lake, it was done without authorization. 2 the dropping of the lake is not to try to kill any zebra mussels off it is to reduce the amount of water to be treated, since its only about an acre of water the 3 foot drop will reduce the amount to treat by 130,680 cubic feet, or roughly 977,486 gallons of water. Any zebra mussels that might have fallen into less than 3 feet of water, yes hopefully they would dry out or freeze and die. We are planning on beginning the drawdown possibly as soon as tomorrow. I will do my best to check back and answer questions.

Life is too short for all that crap. If I am bank fishing and someone crowds me either from a boat or bank, I will either keep fishing and maybe even have a conversation with them (friendly one). If I am fishing from a boat and another person crowds me, I don't get outwardly upset anymore than I would if a dog jumped in and swam around. I fish for enjoyment and relaxation. Be an idiot and start threatening and throwing rocks and we have just crossed into a different topic, hopefully one day when you "show your weapon" it will be to an off duty State Trooper. Most disrespectful folks are like log chains you can lead them to understand but not push them into it.

I expect ours to cancel as well.

Thats sort of what we expect, catching might be tougher, but fishing will be great.

Am considering a fall float down crooked creek, how is water level compared to early june. Weather may shut us out this weekend but sure would like another trip down before too cold. Anyone floated it in the fall, how does fishing compare to earlier.

Actually there will be a swift water re-certification training this week, it will only be a one day event and hopefully won't impact the lake level too much. There simply wasn't enough water to hold the regular 3+ day full training. In addition the MDC is conducting a study on native mussells in the Pomme de Terre river, they have different benchmark flows they need to conduct the study, one of them was 250 CFS which we had enough water for, and could run it for a few days.

A buddy and I put in at Browns Bend Friday the 26th. Ended the day with 20 keepers but sure had to work for them. Caught lots and lots of short crappie too. All fish were around brush piles, a few were on shallow piles but most deeper in the 12 to 15 foot range. Like Wrench said its gonna change soon, one of my favorite times is when the move up under the docks and you can flip a white jig way back under and it doesn't sink very far before a crappie has it. Its gonna get better.

I'll be the first to admit that the historical significance of the M16/AR15 is lost on me. However anyone that believes the AR 15 is not a very adequate to even outstanding Home SD weapon is wrong. The comments of overpenetration would be valid if the user is shooting FMJ or AP rounds, however with more modern light fast HP ammo the penetration of the .223 is considerably less than that of most pistol rounds, and larger buckshot rounds. Personally I had no real interest in an AR 15 until a deputy talked me into shooting his, light, fast to the shoulder and quite accurate. Fast forward a few years and a co-worker/buddy loaned me his for an evening, my mistake was taking it home to let my wife shoot it. It took about 2 shots for her 14 years of Army Reserve service (including a deployment to Kosovo) to kick in and she was on board with getting one. Which one I ended up is immaterial, however its usefulness become more and more apparent as I use it. I would describe it as a Saws-all, not the best for very many jobs but more than capable of doing them, and you never realize how handy it is until you have one. I live out in the country and the rifle over the door is more useful for feral dogs, armadillos and the like than for zombies, or rampaging motorcycle gangs. Instead of open sites mine has a very low powered scope that at first my wife didn't like but now wouldn't trade it for open sites. Light fast hollow points in the mag while doing "over the door duty", a 10 round mag of either 60 grain Nosler partitions or 55 grain Barnes TSX's for deer hunting and it is more than capable of taking deer (the Noslers leave an amazing amount of damage inside). At short range it is fast and accurate, doesn't overpenetrate with the HP ammo, and is ridiculously easy to control. My wife is intimately familiar with its workings, and doesn't like the recoil of a shotgun, I am only so so with a handgun, and shotguns are for flying things, I am a rifle guy at heart and always will be. The reason it is so popular is because its simply a dang handy little rifle, and with all the "extras" its so easy to customize you can have it in any configuration you want, from very short and light, to a long heavy varmit barrel. I don't fear the zombie hordes, nor the Gov't coming to get me and my scary firearms, I have way more faith in the military than that, but that is a whole other topic. Personally I don't like smart phones, I think they are ruining peoples ability to communicate in writing and face to face, but they aren't going away, and I don't care if other people own them by the bushel basket or not. And finally according to the FBI Stats long guns (rifles specifically) are one of the least used items to commit murder or crimes.

I work for the COE at Pomme de Terre Lake.

Hmm I thought I had posted a reply but doesn't show. Anyway Stocktons morning reading was 868.34. I would guess a lightning strike messed it up, happens to us occasionally and has to be re-set. Has to be manually read for a while though, and the automatic reading is what gest reported to all the electronic sources. so for now use the link below, it will give you the level as of about 0800 hrs until it gets fixed. http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/Locations/DistrictLakes/StocktonLake/DailyLakeInformation.aspx

My simplified outlook. Is the sun responsible, yes. Doubt it, what would happen if there were no sun. Is there Climate Change, yes, the geologic record shows much climate change over the history of earth. Is man the cause, no, can man have an exaccerbating effect sure. Sort of like wearing a shirt over a sunburn. Can man reverse climate change, no. Can man make positive changes, sure we can, do out absolute best to control and reduce pollution levels in water, air, soil etc. The natural world is a fantastic "filter" for pollution, however it can be overtaxed and we are pretty well there. Just as we talk about our individual fishing/camping trips where we leave an area better than we found it, that should be our goal worldwide, leave the earth and natural systems in better shape than we are living in. Will pollution and energy needs be solved in our individual lifetimes, likely not, however it can improved with each generation. Now if someone can just figure out a way to get even the majority of the earths nations/governments to work together on anything we could make some real progress, sadly that is not likely to happen.

We have run into them in Rainey Creek, launching out of Browns Bend, there seems to always be at least one bank in there where the wind is hitting. Seems like if the wind blows the same direction for 2 days or more the whites and hybrids will be there munching on shad. We did well in early November (I think that was 2 years ago), just before deer season, sometimes we would be the only vehicle in the parking lot, and maybe the only customer at Possum Hollow for a cheeseburger as well, but man o man the crappie were silly cooperative and if you got bored or it slowed down hit the "bank of many things", sometimes you would get a hit, set the hook and my buddy would say, what have you got, I would have to answer, I don't know if I can turn him away from the open lake we might find out, usually a nice hybrid but about everything thing was hanging around catfish, toothy fish, etc. I remember being very confused on opening day of deer season, I wanted to go fishing but my buddy was deer hunting, only thing I could think about while in the tree stand was another limit of crappie and whites, kept making me drool on my orange jacket.