Lake George/Salt run could not believe my eyes

[Orion922]

Over the past several years I have been deployed more than home. When home--I fish George, Salt Run, and Welka south as much as I could. Now that I am retired, I finally had time to make it back down yesterday to get a feel again. I could not believe Salt Run grasses are gone, reeds heading into George are all gone, and George itself looks like it never had grass in it. The winds precluded me from running the whole lake but WOW! Drayton Island is totally different,etc.

Anyone think it has to do with the dredging by Mayport? I know the water is high but can that really kill it all? I suppose the storms also... I love fishing a shell beds like the next guy, but I hope our river does not turn into just that! It is fun but nothing beats fishing eel grass and others.

WOW

[MARK R]

ACoE sprays the river and lake every other day then they and FWC blames everything but them selves. It called Government corruption at its finest.

[bass2dy]

Yep Mother Nature and spraying!! Eel grass has no chance

[Mickstix]

Yea, river can handle mother nature or the FWC.. Not both.

[Spanky06]

Jason,
Everything these guys have said X10, the storms were bad enough, the spraying has finished it. I have not fished the river in over a year and that's a damned shame. No grass equals no Bass

Spanky

[Spanky06]

Today was ruff out on Orange.....Mud Fish central

Spanky

[DTS]

Orion, I grew up fishing salt run and have never seen it like it is now. The river, the springs and the lake will take years to recover if at all. Sad sight to see. It will take low and clean water for years, no spraying, no storms, etc. to get the grass to come back. I could be wrong though!

[Gamblerman65]

I saw on the news the other day that the gov. is going to spend millions on the everglades cleanup. I think they need to start further north on their cleanup.

[MARK R]

There is also an over population of manatees. 40+ wintering in the run the last 3 years. The grass that was growing on Lisk point last winter is now incompletely gone and most of the dollar pads on the east side are gone. There are now more manatees in the state than there have ever been, and I mean EVER. One good cold winter and there will be a massive die off. They don't have enough food to eat as it is.

[Gray]

It will be interesting to see how the Elites handle the river in February. All of those dollar pad areas are gone also. More might go into Rodman if it's open again.

[DTS]

The elites will not be able to lock into Rodman due to the drawdown(that I am aware of). Likely they will do just like every other time on the SJR, find them bedding and the whole world will see and come beat on them as well. Why else would they plan an elite event in February in Florida! I’d like to see a good long cold winter to see the bedding be later than when the elites are here and get the water lower again. But we shall see!

[Deadeye1]

The West Side changed a lot after Irma beat on it bad ripping up the grass. But it never has a chance to come back when it gets Death Spray Patrol on a constant basis.

Interestingly on their FB Page I got the chance to discuss some of what we see as disaster as a result of the spraying with a Retired guy that was in charge of Signing the Contracts for having the Spraying Done. He stated the Science as the Reason for doing it and why it was so much better than any mechanical harvest and his Buddy made the statement that "these guys are so blind they will never see".

I told him the Pot was calling the Kettle Black.

After quite a bit of discussion the Guy admitted he had never fished the St Johns River, but his friend was reporting good catches of Bream in the creeks off of the River.

In other words these guys in charge have no clue as to what their policies actually are doing to the waters in this state, as they never go look for themself.

[Whiteboat]

All our grasses are in trouble. The Kissimmee grass in Lake Kissimme is dying at an alarming rate and have probably lost 40% of it in the last five years. There is also regression of Kissimmee grass in West Lake Toho. There is no eel grass left in the St. John's river lakes of Monroe and Harney. The buggy whip reads are disappearing in Monroe.

Its very depressing - need to go get some meds.

[Mickstix]

You don't even need to be a fisherman to see the ill effects of the vegetation being gone. Just a pair of eyes to see the crappy water quality. Once it's all gone, I don't believe it ever comes back without some sort of restoration/manual replanting.. It needs something there to grow/build off and currently it's ALL gone, far as the St. Johns is concerned.. I could spray whats left on Lake Monroe with a 12oz bottle of roundup. Prolly have 6 oz. left over. Like Mark was saying, what mother nature and the FWC didn't get, the manatees did.

[Orion922]

I agree with all and from a personal stand point and mother nature, health of river, etc., is most important. We all get lakes, rivers, etc., change over time and always will. What sucks is have 50 miles of river and no natural grass to fish. I don't mind fishing stumps, docks, shell beds but it was nice for those of us who cannot spend 20 hours a week on the river to pick a few spots and catch some fish. I did find a pattern Saturday with the winds and would have run it if weather was good but its nice when you can just pick a grass flat to cast and wind without trying to figure out the puzzle. I enjoy the puzzle but it is nice to just fish. Ok off my first world problems.

[JohnM64]

I don't think much to do with dredging, I believe it was Matthew and then Irma really finished it off.

The damage those storms did was incredible. They put just about every dock on the north end up on the hill, and Matthew managed to take out 16 at the Shands in St Johns County.

I'd like to blame spraying, but to my knowledge the River is sprayed by USACE only and they seem to focus on hyacinths wadded up in the spatterdock.

After the storms I've not seen any submerged grass. Some reeds are growing, and the spatterdock has bounced back, but I agree its depressing.