Just got a report about Long Pond Freetown

[twitch]

Heard they have some machines doing weed removal in the Freetown section of the lake ,curious how that is gonna go

[basscat21]

Machines are better than spray.....for many reasons, but one thing the machines still leaves some on the bottom, and they re grow! I ran a small one on ponds.

[cape cod basser]

Machines kill all the fish in the weeds and spreads them out even more. Huge waste of time.
They were doing that in pembroke and a bass over 10 pounds was found dead.

[twitch]

Wow I hope that is not the case we need all the big fish we can get in there

[basscat21]

My experience was there was some by catch, mostly small fish, a lot of small sunfish shinners, little perch.and yes some yearling size bass. Larger fish tend move off, the machine is pretty loud and vibrates a lot and does not move very fast. They are going to get rid of the weeds, mechanical still leaves some places to hide for the small bass. Chemical wipes the weeds all out. Kind pick your poison because they a sure not going to leave the weeds alone.

[Reel Northern Bass]

Machines kill all the fish in the weeds and spreads them out even more. Huge waste of time. They were doing that in pembroke and a bass over 10 pounds was found dead.

Seems to work best for the lilly pads but is horrible for milfoil. One of my favorite lakes had a 200x500 foot area that was like a perfect patch of milfoil. They went in and removed it with one of those boats. In 2 years, the milfoil spread to a little over 1/3 of the pond, maybe more. It was great in the end though, that pond has almost nothing for structure and most of the big fish had been long gone, cookie cutter 1.5 lbers all day everyday in there. Great for numbers if you wanted to just bend the rod a bunch any day of the week. 2 years ago, I noticed the average size was getting into the low 2's, and last year the average size was closer to the 2.5+ lb range, so we were trending in the right direction. This spring I caught a 6.26 lber and my buddy caught a 5.78 lber, plus several over 3 lbs. Haven't seen fish that big since we both did the same thing back in 2009. Went back two weeks ago only to find they removed all of the milfoil again. Oh well. Rough for the next year before it all grows back like wildfire again!

[Capw]

What’s important is that no one has to have a weed touch their leg when they go in.

[paulrodbender]

Heard the machine in the parking lot is doing real good removing money from peoples accounts.