Zebra Mussels In Bull

[Quillback]

Those things take the fun out of fishing Carolina rigs. I'm sure it's just a matter of time until they show up in Table Rock.

[Fish24/7]

while fishing yesterday I noticed that areas of the lake that are entirely covered in a "carpet" of bottom algae out to about 10'

did not have any mussels. A month ago they were so thick there, and the bottom was sand and rocky..clean

I saw a few dead open shells.

Maybe they died off from the lake bottom being covered with it or they moved deeeep?

[Bluff-Bassin]

I was shocked to pull up a decent size stick today around turkey creek with NO. MUSSELS on it. That's a rarity these days.

[rFisherk]

I didn't know about them retaining toxins. But it makes sense because mussels are known to filter the water. Are there toxins in Bull?

I was guiding on KY Lake when they invaded there. A couple of years after the report, we started catching big redear, and they got bigger and more plentiful each year after, until fish of a pound were so common, no one even showed them off. I caught a few of about 2 pounds and saw a few close to 3 pounds. It actually created a great fishery.

[Quillback]

I didn't know about them retaining toxins. But it makes sense because mussels are known to filter the water. Are there toxins in Bull?

I was guiding on KY Lake when they invaded there. A couple of years after the report, we started catching big redear, and they got bigger and more plentiful each year after, until fish of a pound were so common, no one even showed them off. I caught a few of about 2 pounds and saw a few close to 3 pounds. It actually created a great fishery.

If you've got the time, it sure would be interesting to hear what your recommended redear tactics are, been thinking about pursuing them on Table Rock.

[Mike Worley]

I remember a few years ago we started catching some huge 1 pound + bluegills while bottom bouncing for walleyes with night crawlers. That was about the same time we started to find zebra mussels. Maybe there will be a bright side after all to the ##%#% infestation.

[bluebasser86]

There's several lakes that I fish in Kansas that have had zebras in them for several years now. Any of those lakes that have populations of smallmouth, the numbers and quality of fish has exploded. One lake in particular, where it used to be a rare day to see a smallmouth over the 18" limit, now it's not uncommon to see a few and they're so fat that a fish in the 18.5" range is often pushing 4 pounds. I'm not saying I don't want to stop the spread of them, just saying that there may be some bright sides to it. I even had a smallmouth that was in my livewell during a tournament puke up zebra mussel shells. Not sure if it actually ate them or sucked them up while trying to eat something else though. I believe that drum eat a lot of them, and the blue cat populations have also taken off in lakes that now have zebra mussels.

[Ham]

I find it interesting that while I don't catch a lot of bluegill on Bull, I catch some monster gills. Toads.

[Fish24/7]

in 2012 I saw a guy with a 6' stringer full of bluegill. Every one was at least a 1/2 lb, or bigger!

[Ham]

In fairness, I'm not fishing for the bluegill either. That's a lot of Bluegill for BSL though. Legal limit is 25?