General weed question

To go along with the comment old dog made about the snow cover, maybe the ice thickness has some effect as well. If I remember right, the 2 years you're saying they were brown we had harsh winters with alot of ice. Not sure, just a thought. Regardless, I hope we have a winter with lots of ice. Last year was a bummer for the most part.

smally hunter, What a great question. I can go along with old dog & crappy Slayer with their theory as the weather those years was quite different. This is a real think question. And weeds that are green would if still functioning give off oxygen which would play into fish patterns. What a good subject.
  We need a savvy fresh water Limnologist.

BTDT, Good article. I ice fish and find most gills and crappys associated with weeds or structure.

the title of this thread is also misleading.  

Exactly what Coyote said. The weeds at Conneaut have been brown for most of the last two seasons because of chemical treatment. Supposedly they're going to treat pymatunning because of a weed they want to get rid of. Heard that from a park guy at Snodgrass one day doing a survey.

That's because of the hydrilla that's started to take over. I know parts of Conneaut were about destroyed from the stuff this past year. Some of our best musky areas didn't even hold pike it got so thick with the stuff.

I was told Bay 41 at pymie got so thick with it that it was impossible to launch from there towards the end of August. I haven't been up since around the end of July so I don't know own if that's accurate or not.

Hello All. This thread was passed along to me and I thought I might be able to provide some insight into Pymatuning. I currently work as one of the assistant managers at PA Pymatuning. We did treat for hydrilla this past season. Hydrilla is currently only present south of the causeway. It looks very similar to Elodea which is what you are seeing at Conneaut Lake. You are probably seeing Eurasian Watermilfoil by the spillway. Hydrilla first appeared in PA in the mid-1990's and was identified in Pymatuning Lake in 2010. Even with our treatments in 2016 the population increased 3x over 2015's survey. All species present in Pymatuning Lake did extremely well with growth in 2016 with dry conditions and high water clarity. We will be treating again in 2017 to try to at least contain the spread of hydrilla. You can all help by checking your boats before launching to make sure you don't have any hitchhikers and letting us know if you see hydrilla north of the causeway or in Conneaut Lake. GPS coordinates are fantastic. Please let me know if I can answer any other questions for you.

Provided by Texas A & M...

Hydrilla is a perennial plant that forms dense colonies and can grow to the surface in water over 20 feet deep. Hydrilla branches profusely and after reaching the surface it extends across it forming thick mats. Hydrilla can reproduce by fragmentation, from seeds, from turions (axilary buds), and from tubers. Leaves are blade-like about 1/8 inch and 3/8 inch long with small tooth margins and spines on the underside of the midrib which make them feel rough. Leaves are usually 4 to 8 in a whorl.

Hydrilla is native to Europe and Asia and was probably brought to the U.S. for the aquarium industry. It is considered a noxious pest because it grows so rapidly, out competing and eliminating native species, and forming surface mats that hinder recreation, navigation, and water intakes.

Hydrilla is often confused with the native Elodea or the non-native Egeria. Hydrilla has one or more teeth on the underside of the midrib, neither Elodea nor Egeria have these midrib teeth. The teeth make Hydrilla feel rough when drawn through your hand from base to tip. Flowers of Hydrilla are much smaller (1/4 inch in diameter) than Egeria.

Submerged portions of all aquatic plants provide habitats for many micro and macro invertebrates. These invertebrates in turn are used as food by fish and other wildlife species (e.g. amphibians, reptiles, ducks, etc.). After aquatic plants die, their decomposition by bacteria and fungi provides food (called “detritus”) for many aquatic invertebrates. Hydrilla turions and tubers are consumed by some ducks but generally it is not considered a good wildlife food.

The seasonal winter drawdown would limit the impacts of Hydrilla on the Shenango drainage basin. I have only observed one aquatic plant in a Shenango Lake embayment, that was Carex which is no longer present.

Not very good news for Pymatuning or Shenango's future as of now. Major spreading problem is Shenango water continues south bound to the Gulf of Mexico eventually !

I'll admit I don't know one water weed from another......just ticks me off when they stick on my lures !....lol    I'll have to be more observant into the future.
 
What's amazing is how resilient some water weeds are! They completely drained a small lake in our town, dug it out deeper, refilled it and it's already half choked up with weeds a few years later.....unreal.      

Old Dog- I will check out the northwest corner of the causeway this summer. For Bennett Bay- I'm assuming you are referring to the small bay that Bennett Run flows into just south of the spillway between the spillway, Hartstown Road and Fries Road? We treated the Phragmites in that area this past September. I noticed the bay was full of lotus but didn't see any hydrilla. Let me know if you are referring to a different area.

I'm like the Captain, really don't know one from another, just weeds.  But I do have a couple questions as well.  One, wayyyy back when, probably thirty years or better, there was a huge downturn in the perch population.  Not only numbers, but size as well.  Pymie used to have fantastic perch fishing in regards to very large specimens being caught.  11 and 12 inch perch were not uncommon.  Rumor back then was they treated the weeds and it really decimated the perch population.  Do you believe there was any truth to that, or was it even possible?
The other question I have is a bay that I used to launch my boat in, As you approach the spillway it would be on the left (southwest?) side of the road.  You have to exit the bay under the old railway bridge to enter the main lake.  I used to use that bay all year, even though it's nothing more than a sandy beach, but now by May it is choked full of what looks like lily pads!  What caused that?  Same with many areas all throughout the northend.  I assume the nitrogen rich run off from the farms had something to do with this, but how/what are the plans to contain  or reverse it?

Even tho it doesn't affect the fish, it does affect where the fish will be. Weedbeds that had produced great catches of gills and crappies for numerous years were practically devoid of the beds that were normally there last season. I did manage to find some areas that still held bedding gills but not nearly the numbers of years past. I'll adapt to where the fish move too. Just hope it doesn't turn out like Shenango is, with very few weed beds for the bigger gills to spawn in.

 Waterfowl spread all kinds ov stuff, ain't gonna stop it from spreading. Buddy dug a hole last spring in yard & filled with water for frogs. By end ov summer full of minnies from birds.
 
crappy