I know ya'll spent way more time than I did. The good..ole days.
I know ya'll spent way more time than I did. The good..ole days.
Wish i could of fished the spillway in the 70's and 80's bayou black as well.....
Some of you know that I have said this before. I fished most of the lakes in the southeast, all the way to up state New York, and up the Mississippi river to Missouri. I have seen the best and I live in the worst. Extremely poorly managed. That includes the Army corp. The greed is beyond deplorable. Think about today and screw tomorrow. The few that manage the fishery try their best.
The lack of grass in the spillway is because of the extremely cold weather we had last winter. I talked to someone that commercial fishes in the spillway and they said that this flush that has occurred in the spillway will do nothing but help in the future.
About the carp. I have a buddy that lives on Kentucky lake. that lake is on a steady decline because of the carp. This could happen here, but we have an ace in the hole. Crawfish. So, will get worse before it gets better? I say it is done.
Brad, I have to disagree with you on the reason the grass is dead. The cold weather didn’t kill the grass is the basin because there was grass in March in areas I fished that doesn’t have grass today. It was cold in bayou black and the grass is thick and healthy. Grass in flat lake and lower spillway was dead and gone long before the cold winter. There are other contributing factors I wish it was as simple as cold weather but unfortunately I don’t believe that is the cause.
Silt is main reason for no grass in lower basin. To much river flow through flat lake. Fast water canal ruined the boutte,duck lake American lake....
Bingo!!!!Originally Posted by Saint1974
is the grass gone in the piegon area also?
I agree with Brad the cold weather killed the grass or knocked it way back...I fished about 3-4 weeks ago when the water level was 4.5 feet on the Morgan City gauge..On lower end you could look into the swamp & not see a water Hyacinth for as far as you could see.The cold affected the more than we think ... They can't say the carp ate them too...lol
I believe most of the declines in vegetation are more related to water flow and river levels, these can have major effects. Also I am not sure how thick the apple snails are in the area but they will mow down some vegetation for sure.
Did it get cold in bayou black? Plenty of grass there.
SUSHII
21XRS/SHO
Hyacinth and grass are 2 completely different things. Hyacinth are exposed during really cold weather so yes the freeze will knock them down pretty well. The grass however is protected by the water. There is no grass throughout the spillway from Morgan City to pigeon and everywhere in between. This is not the 1st year the weather has been cold in the winter and water temps were not below freezing. There was grass in March in places that there is no grass today. I’ve been fishing the spillway my whole life and I’ve never seen so little vegetation.
Are any plans or ideas being considered to improve water quality? I know it’s a complex issue, such a vast area and many factors come into play at different times of the year. I personally don’t think the problem is overfishing. For those of us old enough to remember the pressure that place had on it during the 70’s/80’s, and they had the metal stringer and ice chest in the boats, no livewells.
I think the plan is and has been since the 70's to silt in the basin and get all the water flowing in certain channels. Its hard for me to believe that it got that much colder in flat lake than in the penchant area. Sure has grass and water lilies down there. Silt may be the answer. Cold may have knocked it back and the silt is now thick over the seed to re grow the grass. If it was just cold I would think it would be growing back pretty good by now. The last real cold weather we had a while back I was breaking ice for a couple of days in the go devil to get to my deer stand. the following summer the run was packed solid with vegetation.
http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/sites/d..._mp-a_2017.pdf
According to their website they have been spraying.
They may be doing some spraying but there is no way they covered from flat lake to Henderson. They aren’t that efficient,nor do they have the resources to cover that many miles. Silt May be a reason for grass loss in flat lake because it’s definitely silting in. Swing chute and grand lake are silting in too but there was grass in swing chute in March. There is none right now. There is none in the shell field either though and that isn’t silting up so what’s the explanation for it?
I believe Saint1974 is correct, too much silt and flow. They spray Bouef every year, and it has grass. They been spraying back there for 3 weeks now.
A good book was just published that I think all Spillway fishermen would enjoy. It doesn't contain any solutions to the current problems but gives a great history of the Basin. It was written by Cliff LeGrange from Bayou Pigeon - "Heritage of the Atchafalaya". It is available from Amazon Books. I just got a copy and skimmed through it. It might give a little perspective to the issues that exist today.
The vegetation declines are more related to turbid high water, siltation, or land use changes around the area. The cold weather will only reduce some of the floating or emergent plants like hyacinth and salvinia. All the submergent vegetation also occurs in states a lot further north than south, central, northern Louisiana, and in my opinion LDWF rarely targets submersed plant species, the floaters like giant salvinia give them a lot more issues to focus on
Correct ! We started at pigeon fished all the way to grand lake then loaded the boat fished flat lake bear bayou and the back of shell cuts , very little to zero vegetation from top to bottom of the spillway .....however we didnt go as far as sorrel , im hearing there killing the goggle eye there
If you read the report that Bayou Wormy posted, it states on page 10 that certain areas are silting in and deep water habitat is being lost. I agree that this is the most damaging factor, and there’s not much that can be done.
What y’all have to remember is that the Atchafalya Basin is managed as a Floodplain/Spillway not a trophy bass lake.
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