designated underwater vegeation sites

[bog hole]

as we all know,
almost all underwater vegetation on the santee lakes is all but gone.
with the exeption of coontail,and the tiny hydrilla floorboards around rocks pond.
in the attempts to eraticate hydrilla the state has made some drastic and not-so-thought out decisions.
ie. grass carp. which were supposed to eraticate hydrilla by stocking sterile males. well fellas guess what? they arent sterile, and oops! our research didnt tell us they would eat other natural vegetation.
well, they f*cked that up.
i say what about designated sites for hydrilla
and for natural vegetation.
it would have to be fenced so they grass carp couldnt get to it, and in turn it could be controlled.
is anyone here against hydrilla in our lakes?
its not rocket science, when we had hydrilla, we had ducks. yes its an exotic species that can choke out natural vegetaion, as well as choke up coves and pose problems when running a boat.
all these facts have been posted by santee cooper. (it cloggs the turbines ) well dumbass, put a fence around the turbines!
im not talking about a bunch of rednecks dumping it with 5gallon buckets, i mean designated areas where hydrilla as well as natural vegetation can be grown to benefit waterfowl.
there are alot of vegetation test sites around rocks pond. i say somewhat like that.
fence off certain areas to try it.
and by the way SHOOT EVERY GRASS CARP U SEE!

[sc high tide]

Hydrilla is like AIDS, you cant stop it, only hope to contain/slow it. If it gets too thick and you kill it then it goes to the bottom and creates an area of anoxic goo on the bottom that will never go away, or support other plant life, lots of lakes like that here in florida. Dont waste your time or brain cells on trying to bring hydrilla back into the state, because millions of dollars will need to be spent to control/erradicate it when, not if it gets out of control.

Oh yeah, not too mention everybody and his cousin would want to hunt it, and they would intentionally or unintentionally move it around. You could call it hydrilla pond WMA.

[jwilliams]

yea, that would be terrible if that nasty ole hydrilla got spread around....Those suckers knew the carp weren't sterile. It cost too much to keep restocking. They are going to end up screwing up murray, too...MARK IT DOWN....The little brokeback mountain boys on their little hot pink jet skis don't want it...The big money in their freakin deck boats don't want it....The only people that want it are the public hunters and bass fishermen. Crap on em I say.

[Moatsy]

yep, and I sold my house on Murray to one of those fags for quite a tidy little profit... I just didn't know that the duck hunting would die off THAT quickly...

[jwilliams]

I hope you skint em bad les means more.

[bog hole]

ive seen what hydrilla can do damagewise, it becomes so thick it will free-stand above the water. a yamaha 40 can't fight it.
hell, i remember when the yankees started complaining about it choking up their docks and filling up their water recreation areas.
it can become quite a nuisance if it isnt controlled. but they've done a pretty good job on knocking it out on the santee lakes. why nit monitor it, there are tons of hydrilla ponds left from the spread of the lake.
taw caw, potato creek hatchery, tree lake, moore pond. they all do well, and the birds can't stay off them.
i read jab111 post about us shortstopping birds from florida bc of hydrilla. well, i cant understand why this cant happen again. (im not trying to say ( "stiff fla. for their ducks")
but i think we need to worry about us.
if designated hydrilla sites would help ducks to winter on the lakes, i would be for it.

[bog hole]

high tide, i lived in okeechobee for 5yrs.
ive seen the ducks stack up on the lake there, and as well as hydrilla ponds and savannahs around morehaven.
they seem to hold more teal than ringnecks on the savannahs though.
hydrilla may cause alot of problems in florida, but their are no shortage of teal, widgeon, and ringnecks in and around lake okeechobee that ive seen, and im sure it has something to do with the hydro.

[Stripa Swipa]

I bet that if you went to the Banana River right now you would see thousands of divers rafted up. Do they have hydro there?

[turk]

LOOK at all the hydrilla in Alabama on the

Tennesee river, why do you think they have so many ducks?. When I first started going out there about 10 years ago I was talking to a local about all the hydrilla they had ,he said all the fishermen loved it. He said that the TVA came up with a plan to get rid of it and damn near started a riot. They even had bomb threats called in to the TVA offices he said. Now thats taking it to the extreme. He also said the plan was soon changed to just mansge it

[bog hole]

i think everyone agrees HYDRILLA=DUCKS.
so why not use this our advantage.
well managed areas could be so beneficial to lake marion, moultrie, as well as murray.
hydrilla still exists in very small portions of lake marion. and everytime i find a 20ft patch, i find a small batch of ringnecks to go with it.
who would we need to talk to.
jab111, duckman, what do ya'll think?
anyone with info that could help let us know, ill help any way i can.

[bog hole]

and swipa, not just divers feed on hydrilla, the widgeon and grey ducks absolutely love it.

[ziggy]

i just have one thing to say. pardon me of my ignorance on this subject, BUT...

to me this is basically a battle between the duck hunters and fishers, and the wahoos that come out to the lake on the weekends. i believe that the weekenders will win this battle.

just my .02

[bog hole]

well ziggy, maybe so, but there are alot of locals around here that have no concern for the weekenders, and these boys around here have been dumping hydrilla by the bucket for 10 yrs.
if they want it their gonna have it, or show their ass trying.
so why not make everyone happy and designate areas for the hydrilla to grow and that way the yankee jserk offs wont bitch about it over running their docks, and the hunters and fishermen can have what they want also.

[ziggy]

bog hole-
i couldn't agree with you more. it would be a great thing to have for the ducks, and for the fish too. IMHO, you got a good idea going here.

[BigBallin]

I say let it grow....Let it pour over every canal, bay, ditch, resevoir, etc. I will fish it, hunt it, and eat it if need be. If you have trouble drivin through it, go see Nab or Kevin....They both got a cure for that. But alas, we are indeed kicking a dead horse.

[DUCKMAN]

Guys - this is a very dead horse! Part of Santee Coopers FERC re-licensing was a 20 plus year plan for the complete control-eradication of noxious weeds with Hydrilla being number ONE. This is mandated by the US Congress. This is a battle that CAN NOT be won and is a waste of good time and energy that could be focused on the refuge - Sparkleberry WMA and Beidler. In the great mallard days of Santee there was NO hydrilla. They is no proof that the carp are reproducing - the ongoing stocking of a fish with a voracious appetite and a long life span was and is the problem. The grass carp was and is a total disaster. Now with every foot of shoreline being developed - the money will win every time especially with the mandates from the US Congress. During Hugo - not even the grates at the power house stopped the giant beds of hydrilla that broke loose from miles away to close power production down completely for a long period of time - there is not a chance that will ever remotely be allowed to happen again - Santee Cooper makes a tremendous amount of money selling on the national power grid - this makes money for the state and reduces customers bills not just duck hunters and fishermmen but their employers too. There are some great discussions on this board that can be pulled up by a search if you want to take the time.

[Stripa Swipa]

Originally posted by bog hole:
and swipa, not just divers feed on hydrilla, the widgeon and grey ducks absolutely love it.

<font size="-1" face="verdana,arial,helv">No doubt. My point was that Florida has more going for it than hydrilla. My family has had a place at Wyboo my whole life. I'd love to see the hydrilla back just to freak out the jet skiing yanks.

[jwilliams]

hydrilla still exists in very small portions of lake marion. and everytime i find a 20ft patch,

Perhaps I don't get out there enough...I see some eel grass, tons of hyacinth,some coon tail, but I haven't seen a strand of hydrilla in 8 years.

[CarolinaCoaster]

Why not plant something else that's not quite as invasive but still attractive to the ducks? Whatever you plant would provide cover for fish too.

[bog hole]

artdevilish, do you ever spend anytime down near the old canal?
and also if you know where the brickyard is, theres some pretty good patches of it up around the sanctuary.