Differences in coontail and milfoil

[porthos33]

So I was wondering how to tell the difference in coontail and milfoil grass? Is there an easy way to tell them apart from one another>? Seems I find the Hydrilla and then I've noticed a whole lot of coontail which I used to mistake as milfoil. Is the milfoil in chickamauga eurasia-milfoil?

 

[fishinvol]

I haven't seen milfoil on Chick. Lot's of it on Nickajack. I've seen mostly hydrilla on Chick.

 

[sdfd29]

Here are a couple of links that show pictures of each and describe them.


http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/plant-identification/alphabetical-index/coontail/

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/plant-identification/alphabetical-index/eurasian-watermilfoil/

 

[porthos33]

Yeah I haven't seen the milfoil either but have heard people talking about it. Maybe people mistake it for coontail. I find the coontail all year.

 

[Jpxb2003]

There is plenty of milfoil in Chickamauga you just have to know what you're looking at. I will agree however with the predominance of hydrilla.

 

[churly]

There is a good bit of Milfoil but it is up River, the hydrilla is like cudzu. It is very evasive and chokes out most any type of vegetation it competes with including coontail, and especially milfoil. The coon tail can grow pretty deep so you can always find some on the outter edges of hydrilla lines. It and milfoil can tolerate cooler temps than milfoil so you will usually see both before the hydrilla takes off in early summer and again in the fall when the hydrilla begins to die back. If you google images of each 3 types of aquatic vegetation, you should be able to tell the difference.

 

[Tsuga]

In case it is not obvious from the photographs:
Milfoil leaves are similar to feathers: that is, there is a midrib with small parts extending to each side. (This may not be true for leaves that grow above water.)
Hydrilla leaves are solid without tiny parts.
Coon tail leaves are divided, but the small parts radiate like a two tines on a fork or a few fingers from the palm of a hand.

 

[porthos33]

So I found an old article back in the times free press in 2011 that tells about how the aquatic vegetation got here. I thought it had just always been around but I was wrong.

-TVA and TDEC officials agree Nickajack Lake has the worst aquatic weed problems of the four Tennessee River reservoirs.

Hydrilla first was used in Florida as an aquarium plant, Webb said. It probably made its way here on the boats and trailers of vacationers and fishermen, Webb said.

According to TDEC and TVA officials, hydrilla first was documented in Chickamauga Lake in the late 1980s. A spring flood in 1988 pulled up most of it, sending it to the deep, dark water at the base of Chickamauga Dam, officials said. Hydrilla almost vanished from Chickamauga Lake after that, officials said.

But it's starting to make a comeback on Chickamauga, and it comes and goes elsewhere on the river, TDEC officials and Webb said.

Eurasian watermilfoil probably was introduced from a small pond on Watts Bar Lake in the 1960s, he said.

"A property owner was growing it in a concrete fish pond," he said. "What most people think is it was in that fish pond, and I guess when it got full, they cleaned up or washed it out."

Eurasian watermilfoil then spread downstream from Watts Bar over the years.

 

[Jpxb2003]

porthos33 - 8/3/2016 5:12 PM

So I found an old article back in the times free press in 2011 that tells about how the aquatic vegetation got here. I thought it had just always been around but I was wrong.

-TVA and TDEC officials agree Nickajack Lake has the worst aquatic weed problems of the four Tennessee River reservoirs.

Hydrilla first was used in Florida as an aquarium plant, Webb said. It probably made its way here on the boats and trailers of vacationers and fishermen, Webb said.

According to TDEC and TVA officials, hydrilla first was documented in Chickamauga Lake in the late 1980s. A spring flood in 1988 pulled up most of it, sending it to the deep, dark water at the base of Chickamauga Dam, officials said. Hydrilla almost vanished from Chickamauga Lake after that, officials said.

But it's starting to make a comeback on Chickamauga, and it comes and goes elsewhere on the river, TDEC officials and Webb said.

Eurasian watermilfoil probably was introduced from a small pond on Watts Bar Lake in the 1960s, he said.

"A property owner was growing it in a concrete fish pond," he said. "What most people think is it was in that fish pond, and I guess when it got full, they cleaned up or washed it out."

Eurasian watermilfoil then spread downstream from Watts Bar over the years.

Milfoil was actually introduced into Watts Bar in 1960 from a marina owner in Piney Creek on the lower end of the lake. That's the first documented case of Eurasian milfoil in the Tennessee River. The milfoil spread so prolifically the owner had to close his marina.

 

[churly]

And if you think a flood washed it away in 1988 you've been mislead. TVA brought in barge loads of poisons in the late 80s, early 90s and spread these poisons from watts bar to guntersville in an eradication effort. They spread the poison in liquid and pellet form. Many of those same chemicals are illegal to use now, but we have to watch out for the river system and not allow our lake to be destroyed again. Under the current TVA management plan, we should be fine.

 

[SlabDog]

churly - 8/3/2016 9:40 PM And if you think a flood washed it away in 1988 you've been mislead. TVA brought in barge loads of poisons in the late 80s, early 90s and spread these poisons from watts bar to guntersville in an eradication effort. They spread the poison in liquid and pellet form. Many of those same chemicals are illegal to use now, but we have to watch out for the river system and not allow our lake to be destroyed again. Under the current TVA management plan, we should be fine.

</p>

Yep. TVA is full of crap. I watched them use air boats and helicopters and sprayed the crap out of the lake. I had pellets dropped in my boat a few times by helicopters that went over my boat and waited a little to long to stop the pellets. I remember the protest by bass fishermen in downtown chattanooga over TVA's weed eradication. Fish were caught with sores on them. I'm sure some here remember the years after that when 15 lbs would win the CBA and that was when it was an 8 fish limit.</p>