What or who is killing the weeds in the bay?

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ready2fish
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2012/07/02 09:46:36 (permalink)

What or who is killing the weeds in the bay?

I've fished the bay for the last 3 weekends. Yesterday, went to two areas where there had been beautiful thick weeds. They are now gone. One of the areas is out from the no wake buoys at Perry's Monument, and in that general area. I was fishing down the buoy line last week and the weeds were beautiful. Now you can see right to a bare bottom. If you go out a little, to where it gets 9-10 feet deep, you can see weeds but they top out at about 5 feet. They came to the surface last weekend.
One other area of the bay I noticed the same thing.
These 2 places hold these weeds year long and have for many, many years.
They have either been cut or sprayed. See it at Chautauqau and Conneaut every year, but now the bay?
Any inout on what agency is doing this?

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    deetz4352
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    Re:What or who is killing the weeds in the bay? 2012/07/02 09:58:03 (permalink)
    Im wondering if those areas have been dredged to get rid of the weeds. I have not heard of any plans to dredge the bay of weeds BUT I think its about time to do so , if thats whats going on, to the weed disappearance. There are some areas in the bay that need it badly ( to be dredged). It will not hurt the bay fishing I believe but help it in the long run. Some areas are so over grown with weeds its unfishable by the middle of May. 
     
    However thick weeds here and there help fish to breed and survive but overgrown weeds will suffocate and rid the area for proper breeding and survival of some fish species.
     
    I dont know if dredging is whats going on but someone has to know something. Im sure someone will chime in here with the facts. Im only suggesting a possibility of the disappearance of said weed beds.

    The Deetz
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    World Famous
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    Re:What or who is killing the weeds in the bay? 2012/07/02 14:12:32 (permalink)
    It was me. I was looking for Slicks lost rod....WF
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    ready2fish
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    Re:What or who is killing the weeds in the bay? 2012/07/02 16:07:24 (permalink)
    I can see dredging a channel, but almost all the weeds from Perrys Monument to the channel are gone. In other words, the whole square from the shipping channel to Misery no wake buoys, over to the beginning of the flat West of Perry's, and to the East toward the Horseshoe Pond shorleline, all the good weeds are gone. All that remains is bare bottom in some places and some sporattic clumps of stringy junk weed. All the good weeds that held fish, and always did, are gone. It looks to me like they have been sprayed based on what I've seen on other lakes.
    Removing that kind of aquatic vegetation from a bay that already has a problem (weeds haven't grown good in most other areas , like they used to 5+ years ago) can't be good for the fish population, especially just after the spawn when fry are looking for a place to hide.
    5+ years ago, large areas of milfoil and coontail grew throughout the bay. Those areas always held good populations of varoious fish from Spring through late fall. Now, many of those same areas contain nothing but that green stringy weed, and almost nothing lives in that stuff. I know Marina bay is sprayed in late Spring, I highly suspect that activity has been expanded and I fear that the bay will become overrun with the stringy stuff. I also speculate that many of the larger largemouth bass move to the main lake now, especially just outisde the bay between the Hammermill stacks and Lampe, because the habitat and forage is better there now. I can easily go to that area and catch keeper largemouth, doing that in the bay these days is a challenge.
    post edited by ready2fish - 2012/07/02 16:14:13

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    Fishmark
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    Re:What or who is killing the weeds in the bay? 2012/07/03 11:15:20 (permalink)
    Marina Bay seemed to only have a fraction of the weeds that it has had in the past.  Looked like they must have been sprayed.
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    flynut
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    Re:What or who is killing the weeds in the bay? 2012/07/03 18:51:37 (permalink)
    I think they sprayed, was at Thomson Bay the day before the concert there, and they had signs up about spraying for invasive species. Saw them down by the light house about 15 with white suits and back sprayers, any rain it can runoff in the water and kill weeds maybe
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