Spraying Weeds = dead fish

[bonebaby0]

Once again this year many lakes have already been sprayed for weeds.   Why spray right during the spawn?  Here is what I found today fishing a tournament up on Goose Lake in Chisago County ..... dead 8-9" sunnies all over the place.   Do the DNR/Homeowners Associations/anyone else that sprays weeds understand that it kills fish - so frustrating to see this year after year.

 

Edited June 4, 2016 by bonebaby0

[Musky Face]

Always sad to see. Was on waconia today and seen the samething. Bunch of 7 8 9 inch crappies and sunfish. 

[Neighbor_guy]

Decaying weeds suck oxygen out of the water and add to the increase in algae bloom as well. 

It's very sad to see. There are lakes in the area that had fantastic fishing for larger than average fish. In the metro area to boot. But once they started killing off the weeds every year taking away the defined weed lines and removing cover....

mediocre and average fishing at best. 

[M1dwestF1sh]

Was on Tonka the past few days and the same thing there.

[serpent]

As far as I know the culry pondweed dies off late spring early summer so whats the point of killing it.  Drives me bonkers

[Juan Grande]

Yep, my home lake got sprayed and EVERYTHING is dead.  Water is very clear until they spray and now it's getting green.  I like how lakeshore owners b**ch about us fishing their docks, but it's perfectly okay for them to spray the weeds and make the lake borderline unfishable.  

[thatoneguy]

I wonder if an alliance could be formed with a group that does advocacy work around water quality - The Nature Conservancy or some such. The only way this will change is if the DNR is forced to change practices around spraying.

[MN Hooksetter]

Bone, I was up there with you on Saturday.  Pretty sad to see dead fish all over the lake and not just a few here and there, entire weed flats littered with them.  I struck up a conversation with the DNR invasive guy about a week ago at White Bear Lake and told him about the dead fish and the decline in fishing at many of these lakes since they started spraying these lakes over the years.  He admitted that one of the sprays they use is pretty much the same as Weed-B-Gone, the same stuff you use in your yard.  He said if we the fisherman get enough people together and go to the legislature and the appropriate people within the DNR, we actually could make significant headway on reducing the spraying.  He said it will take time, because as we all know, this is very political.  From talking to him, it sounds like the lake associations and lake shore property owners don't have any opposition and are doing whatever they want.  He did say we have a lot of power as fishermen due to the economic impact we have and the DNR will listen to us...who knows if he was blowing smoke up my rear, but I'd bet it would be worth a shot. 

[mwal]

The fish die off may not have anything to do with spraying there is a virus that kills mainly panfish when the water warms. thousands were on Lake Independence a week ago. Also that curly leaf pond weed looks healthy.

 

Mwal

[Nick Kuhn]

8 hours ago, mwal said:

The fish die off may not have anything to do with spraying there is a virus that kills mainly panfish when the water warms. thousands were on Lake Independence a week ago. Also that curly leaf pond weed looks healthy.

 

Mwal

It's actually a bacteria called columnaris but yes, it does kill fish (particularly centarchids) every spring, usually in May but I still saw fish affected last Saturday (white mouths is the main symptom you will see in fish on the brink of death).