bent rod
Well-known member
As I am not very familar with the Chicks history, what happened to the grass there?
Grass
- Thread starter bent rod
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bent rod
Well-known member
Thank You DK, I just couldn't imagine something killing a whole lake full of grass. Glad to hear it's coming back.
Fat Albert
Well-known member
sprestwood
Well-known member
Can I get a few people to confirm that Chickamauga catfishing slow down after the grass was killed back, it seems like there are fewer catfishermen on the water these past few years.
beetlespin
Well-known member
It won't be here long. Too many people with money living on chickamauga that don't want to see that stuff.
BS
BS
G
Guest
Guest
milfoil is exotic, it disappearance had more to do with water levels from coming out of a multi-year drought and natural pest than with spraying. It never totally left.
TR20bh
Well-known member
Tow the TVA line. Water level fluctuations do not affect vegetation for 15 to 20 years. SONAR does!
WOBBLE HEAD
Well-known member
T.V.A Was who killed the grass back in the 80"s....not the water level's.....Thanks to our congress woman we had at that time, who had a home on Chick.
G
Guest
Guest
Is TVA sneaking out at night and dropping tons of SONAR, without anybody knowing it. HAHA
water levels, weevils, and a natural leveling of the exotic population, reduction in nutrients from inflows. lots of factors but herbicides have not been a factor in the past 15 years.
Even if TVA applied the amount of SONAR needed to cause a 20 year die back of milfoil, we would know it, from all the flouride in any muncipal water source from Chick to Wheeler.
bassfishingnerd
Well-known member
Now I think I've heard it all now. Water clarity?!! Up here in the north country, I have lakes with ZERO visibility that milfoil just grows and grows. The more fertile/green the lake, the better. The clear lakes here have some milfoil, but nothing like the green lakes. BBass can confirm that one for me. 
What they are not telling you is that they used the "pellets" and not the "spray" when treating Chickamauga. The pellets actually stay in the soil for years, and when the roots of the plants get to where the pellets are in the muck/soil, they die. The Minnesota DNR has outlawed the use of pellets here for that reason.
I did notice quite a bit of coontail in Chickamauga the last two years, which does not have much of a root system like milfoil, which is why it can grow. As I recall, the milfoil I saw down there was from Hiawasee on up, which has quite a bit less backwater and faster current, which may account for that. Coontail is a native plant, and actually get much thicker than milfoil, as most of you have probably seen. However, the fish tend to stay on the edges of coontail, since it's much thicker and not matted.
It's funny how the government folks are still trying to do damage control, even 20 years later. :|
What they are not telling you is that they used the "pellets" and not the "spray" when treating Chickamauga. The pellets actually stay in the soil for years, and when the roots of the plants get to where the pellets are in the muck/soil, they die. The Minnesota DNR has outlawed the use of pellets here for that reason.
I did notice quite a bit of coontail in Chickamauga the last two years, which does not have much of a root system like milfoil, which is why it can grow. As I recall, the milfoil I saw down there was from Hiawasee on up, which has quite a bit less backwater and faster current, which may account for that. Coontail is a native plant, and actually get much thicker than milfoil, as most of you have probably seen. However, the fish tend to stay on the edges of coontail, since it's much thicker and not matted.
It's funny how the government folks are still trying to do damage control, even 20 years later. :|
tva did in fact drop pellets out of helicopters, some had them dropped in their boats while fishing, they were also actively spraying everyday. i remember locating many, many big fish on rats in grass in one particular spot on the lower end of chick. for a state federation tournament, i just knew i had it won, this was tuesday, on friday the first day of the tourn. i went there and guess what no grass at all on the surface and very little left under the surface and guess what no fish in the area anywhere! this seems unbelievable but it happened, and the pellets are the reason the grass never started back, tva poisoned the bottom so bad. another thing that should be brought up is they didn't seem to care that this was most of chattanooga's source for drinking water and 2 of the 4 chemicals they were using were known carcinagins (caused cancer)
polo-dog
Well-known member
Now guys, let's give R14 a break. He lives in Northern Va and may not have been here to see the total devastation of the grass in Chickamauga and the effect that it had on the fish population. I really don't think that TVA had planned to totally kill off every blade of grass possible. I think that the huge rains that we had in the winters of the early 90's may have had some effect on the grass but I'm with you guys in that the bottom of the lower end of Chickamauga lake was sterile, without growth of any kind until the last five years or so. I have lived in Wolftever creek since '90 and saw the grass and how thick it was in the creek the late summer of '90 and in the summer of '91 the ground was sterile, no growth of any kind. That is not natural and could never be misconstrued as natural. That was human intervention, pure and simple. l was amazed that there could be such a long term eradication of weed growth from any chemical. I am sure that the chemicals were not totally benign either. We are still nowhere near the growth that was present in '90 and the lake may never recover fully. The fishing has come a huge way since the early '90s too and all I can say is that TVA should never be given the chance to do that again to a fishery/water source. I think that websites like this will be able to coordinate and mobilize people that weren't able to be heard back in the '90s and we may be able to stop it from ever happening again. We are fishery/conservation minded here and we need to keep an eye out for what may be on the TVA agenda in the future.
G
Guest
Guest
I hope TVA kills all the grass in all the lakes.
sdfd504
Well-known member
That is one of the craziest things I have ever heard. emoScratch emoScratch If that happens we might as well quit fishing for another 20 years until the fishing starts to come back again. I was not around when the grass was on the Chick but I have seen pictures and heard stories about the fishing then and the fish population is finally starting to come back to a respectable level. If the grass was not killed off in the late 80's and early 90's there would be no need to go to Guntersville when we could catch the same fish here at the Chick.
WOBBLE HEAD
Well-known member
At least our congress woman who was behind what T.V.A. is not in office any longer. but I THINK WE SHOULD DO WHAT THEY HAVE TO DO IN THE WASHINGTON D.C. AREA. The land owner can have the grass cut around the land, but know one can posion the grass. There are people who have the equipment thre to cut grass in the water there just like we have lawn services.
I understand the land owners not wanting the grass right in front of their docks. But that is know reason to posion the water for all of us.. Some one could start us a nice business for theirselves cutting grass on the water.....
For those of us old enough to remember and were fishing in the 80's. There is know doudt that T.V.A. was behind the grass killing, it had nothing to do with nature,water levels or drout. To many fisherman saw the spraying and had chemicals dropped on them from the air while fishing. (i was one of them). If you can remember local fisherman HAD A FUNERAL FOR CHICK.LAKE back in the late 80's. With a funeral persection, pulling boats thur Chattanooga.
I understand the land owners not wanting the grass right in front of their docks. But that is know reason to posion the water for all of us.. Some one could start us a nice business for theirselves cutting grass on the water.....
For those of us old enough to remember and were fishing in the 80's. There is know doudt that T.V.A. was behind the grass killing, it had nothing to do with nature,water levels or drout. To many fisherman saw the spraying and had chemicals dropped on them from the air while fishing. (i was one of them). If you can remember local fisherman HAD A FUNERAL FOR CHICK.LAKE back in the late 80's. With a funeral persection, pulling boats thur Chattanooga.
WOBBLE HEAD
Well-known member
I was told by some local fisherman in the Northern Va, Washington D,C, and Baltimore area's, that milfiold was brought into some of their local lakes to help clean up the population they had in the water, and it was working. There is know way that milfoiled has to have clean water to grown.
