zebra mussels

[crappiefisherman]

OMG,what can be donw . K dock area has billions of those clams billions, on every thing that was submerged and I'm sure under water.

[Old plug]

Nothing 

 

[Sam]

For about 25 years, upper Bull Shoals from Powersite Dam down to the AR line has been my hidey-hole where I get away from the crowds and boats on Tablerock, usually launching from K Dock.  I know every bit of that part of the lake, but I've stayed away this year except for some walleye trips in February.  I stayed away because of extreme high water since the spring/ early summer rains, but now there's those zebra mussels.  We saw ZM's in February, a few, but I guess they really multiplied over the summer.  So far as future fishing there, I just don't know.  We'll see what next season brings - I'll sure miss Bull Shoals if it's ruined, and I'm sure the mussels will get in all the other lakes around here too, soon.

crappiefisherman, I sure like the picture you used.  I think that's George Nelson from "O Brother, Where Art Thou" - just don't call him 'Baby Face'.  

[MOPanfisher]

The lake is certainly not ruined.  Other lakes with them are not ruined so why expect Bull Shoals to be.  There is no way to get rid of them so you will simply have to deal with them. 

[Sam]

3 hours ago, MOPanfisher said:

The lake is certainly not ruined.  Other lakes with them are not ruined so why expect Bull Shoals to be.  There is no way to get rid of them so you will simply have to deal with them. 

I dunno about that - if fishing gets too bad I won't go fishing.  I think any body of water will always support as much life as conditions allow.  That capacity depends on many things - the season, depth, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, amount of sunlight received, temperature, lots of variables.  But life always exploits available resources to the fullest, so a square acre (let's say) of Bull Shoals water will always support as much life as it's capable of at any given time, no less, no more - all the algae, crawdads, frogs, mud turtles, carp, gamefish, zebra mussels, and everything else.  You see where I'm going with this.  If an acre of lake is supporting a ton of zebra mussels, then it ISN'T supporting a ton of other life that would be there if the ZM's weren't - and some of that loss is bound to come from the species we like to fish for.

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

 How deep can those things live? Because all summer pool was 40' deep maybe they didnt live through it . 

[Old plug]

They can live very deep. And they can tolerate extreme cold. But they do not do well in heat. You need to google them up and read about them we had them on LOZ and they were all over the place. Then. There was a massive die off. It happened during a very hot summer. I cannot prove it but I think the hot summer was part of the cause. When they died the many of them would turn upside down and floated up.  Looked  like punkin seed floating buy the dock. 

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

I dive Diamond City area a lot and i never see them deeper than 40. We see blankets of them in 25 or less. 

[Ham]

FWIW, A goodly number of them died when the water dropped out. The zebra mussels being in the lake is most definitely NOT a good thing, but it is not the end of fishing at the lake either.

i expect that the numbers is Zebra mussels will wax and wane, but I don't think the ZM's are fully dispersed yet. The worst is yet to come. I remain hopeful that big numbers of them will be nibbled on by panfish, drum, and catfish. 

[Fish24/7]

http://www.lakenews.com/News.asp?ID=BFEBABA1-B729-4574-8220-C2965D2169B2&SiteID=AR002
 

http://www.lakenews.com/News.asp?ID=40A850C8-A889-4C40-8D86-653C159A7167&SiteID=AR002

 

http://www.lakenews.com/News.asp?ID=26B88137-689B-47A4-AACB-4DFC3A62CECF&SiteID=AR002

 

i do have some good news, it seems some places that had a ton of zebras last winter, there are none this year