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  1. #1
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    Golden Mussels

    How many of you guys outside of California have to quarantine your boat for 30 days due to this new golden mussel invasion?. I currently have 15 days in barnacle jail and it totally screwed my spawn fishing.
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  2. Member apdriver's Avatar
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    #2
    I’ve never heard of anything like that. What does it take to land in Dirty Bilge Jail?
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    #3
    Quote Originally Posted by apdriver View Post
    I’ve never heard of anything like that. What does it take to land in Dirty Bilge Jail?
    Every one has to go through 30 day decontamination, or pay to have a company decontaminate your boat before launch.
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    #4
    There’s going to be a press release next week they’ve closed several lakes in my area

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    #5
    Does that include kayaks and canoes?

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    #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Dennyg View Post
    Does that include kayaks and canoes?

    Or Turtles and Birds
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    #7
    Its all a sham for the state its a money grab we pay a mussel fee on our boats for the registration and they want more just like the picture floating around of the guy holding mussels in his hand its been used at Berryessa / Folsom / New Melones and im sure we will see it at many other lakes. They have to control everything we do cant wait to leave this place in 4.5 yrs i will be retired then good bye, I love California but i cant stand our governor and our EPA and CARB rules its all about money here and thats not my thing theres alot more states with no BS restrictions outside California

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    #8
    Kayaks are fine unless trailered. Regulations are making everyone come here. It’s a zoo.Sucks to miss Berryessa fishing. But can’t go 30 days without fishing. They have decontamination available but not early enough to fish the morning bite.

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    #9
    Up here we got wind of it so I called a mobile guy out to 30 day tag me as soon as I found out. I Will be able to launch about first of June. My only hope is that the lakes accept each others green seals, I like to fish about 5 different lakes. I haven't heard about any regulations for the California Delta though....but that is where they found the mussel at the Port of Stockton. Probably a lot of dudes fishing the delta this summer. I see the Bass Factory only has old Quagga mussel regs in place on their website....I wonder why the state did not impose on that park........money maybe. But the older gentleman that came to seal my boat was a retired marine mechanic. said he got state certified to red seal and is making some coin doing it. I was happy to pay him his fee and we had a great conversation. Unless the state starts requiring a new sticker, I cant see how they are making money from this. Their parks will actually loose money due to lost boating customers. Not sure what to think of this......I have heard these mussels can devastate lakes.
    Last edited by Zone18; 05-17-2025 at 11:01 AM.
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    #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Zone18 View Post
    Up here we got wind of it so I called a mobile guy out to 30 day tag me as soon as I found out. I Will be able to launch about first of June. My only hope is that the lakes accept each others green seals, I like to fish about 5 different lakes. I haven't heard about any regulations for the California Delta though....but that is where they found the mussel at the Port of Stockton. Probably a lot of dudes fishing the delta this summer. I see the Bass Factory only has old Quagga mussel regs in place on their website....I wonder why the state did not impose on that park........money maybe. But the older gentleman that came to seal my boat was a retired marine mechanic. said he got state certified to red seal and is making some coin doing it. I was happy to pay him his fee and we had a great conversation. Unless the state starts requiring a new sticker, I cant see how they are making money from this. Their parks will actually loose money due to lost boating customers. Not sure what to think of this......
    Regulations change lake to lake depending on who is running it. State doesn’t run Clear Lake. Lake county does. I personally don’t see a multi lake banding system ever going to exist

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    #11
    Quote Originally Posted by DaveBrabec View Post
    Regulations change lake to lake depending on who is running it. State doesn’t run Clear Lake. Lake county does. I personally don’t see a multi lake banding system ever going to exist
    This will suck, also I have heard that the employees applying green seals when you pull out will be off work way before sundown. This blows as I will stay out past dark regularly when I fish late day. I noticed Comanche prohibits all public boat launches now. If you want to run a boat on their lake you have to rent one of theirs. Thats a bummer too, I really enjoy fishing that lake.
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    #12
    Not because of mussels, but people do need to have their boats and trailers cleaned before launching in any Adirondack body of water. You can either stop to a State DEC boat wash station, or clean the boat yourself and fill out a self certification form that lists the recent bodies of water you visited, dates, etc. if there’s a ramp steward and you show up without a form, or it’s clear you lied on the form, they give you three options: go to a cleaning station and come back, go to a lake somewhere outside of the blue line, or have a citation on your truck when you come back to take out

    Most everyone is respectful of the rules and polices themselves so it’s rarely ever an issue. Mostly it’s just the ignorant, opinionated tourists that cause problems
    Last edited by ECobb91; 05-17-2025 at 11:52 AM.
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    #13
    I was turned down at Diamond Valley in SoCal once because my bilge looked wet at the console drain, dry paper towel showed it was dry and the boat wasn't used for a month.
    He said it looked shiny so it must be wet.

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    #14
    99 percent of invasive water species (mussles or fish) are put in new lakes by birds, period. Any Wildlife agency says different is just lying to you.

  15. Member jwcfbd's Avatar
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    #15
    Wow that really sucks
    first never heard of them and second how do they know how long you've been out of the water. Is this something you have to everytime you pull your boat or if you just want to jump to a different lake?


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    #16
    You gotta get it done every time you come off the water so they can verify a guy didn’t launch elsewhere before he returns. Lakes don’t recognize a band from another lake. Buddy was talking to a biologist involved in the golden mussel research and she told him the mussels have likely been in the Delta for at least a few years. So they’ve likely already been spread to the nearby lakes or aren’t really that big of a deal anyway. Whole thing is BS.

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    #17
    We definitely have inspections, special stickers, and boat cleaning around here on specific lakes but nothing that quarantines your boat for days. If you have your ducks in a row it should never really hold you up at all actually.

    Theoretically if I traveled out there to fish in one of those lakes would I have to spend 30 days there waiting to fish? Or could I pay the company to decontaminate my boat and go fishing that day? Don't worry the drive is too far I wont be there anytime soon, but its on my bucket list.
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    #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Kramos26 View Post
    We definitely have inspections, special stickers, and boat cleaning around here on specific lakes but nothing that quarantines your boat for days. If you have your ducks in a row it should never really hold you up at all actually.

    Theoretically if I traveled out there to fish in one of those lakes would I have to spend 30 days there waiting to fish? Or could I pay the company to decontaminate my boat and go fishing that day? Don't worry the drive is too far I wont be there anytime soon, but its on my bucket list.
    Yes most lakes will have on site decontamination eventually, Berryessa has it already. There are also Marine dealerships/shops/mobile services that do it. Might screw your first morning up, but as long as you make sure you get green sealed when you pull out, you are good to go back in.
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    #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Zone18 View Post
    Yes most lakes will have on site decontamination eventually, Berryessa has it already. There are also Marine dealerships/shops/mobile services that do it. Might screw your first morning up, but as long as you make sure you get green sealed when you pull out, you are good to go back in.
    Never going to adopt that process at Clear Lake. Around 300 ramps counting private ones. But do have decontamination trailers here. County bought them in 08

  20. Member Ring King's Avatar
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    #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Kramos26 View Post

    Theoretically if I traveled out there to fish in one of those lakes would I have to spend 30 days there waiting to fish? Or could I pay the company to decontaminate my boat and go fishing that day? Don't worry the drive is too far I wont be there anytime soon, but its on my bucket list.
    The trick is that if you came out, yes, you could pay to be decontaminated at say Lake Berryessa and fish. As long as you came off the water prior to the marina closing you could have your boat banded so that you could get back on the water without going through the process again. However, you could only get back on Lake Berryessa. If you missed getting your boat banded (a process where a serialized zip tie is put between your bow eye and trailer) when you got off the water then you would have to be decontaminated again before launching. The bands are unique to each lake and there is no reciprocity between bodies of water. The decontamination process varies in price by location as well as the type of boat and how intensive the process has to be for your boat type ie. number of bait wells, livewells, bilge, ballast tanks, etc. Plan on it being at least $100 for a bass boat though. The other issue is getting an appointment to be decontaminated. Not sure if they've gotten caught up now but initially they only offered so many appointments per day and it was booked out something like 2 months! There's a reason that my boat only goes to Clear Lake!!!! Hopefully that doesn't get screwed up! I used to complain about my $20 a month mussel sticker fee but at this point I'm happy to pay it to still be able to fish what I consider my "home" lake!

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