Spraying at Guntersville 10/01

[Flippen*1]

A buddy of mine fished G on Sat & Sun, he reports that the whole lake has been sprayed to kill the milfoil. Everything 6 foot or less had little red stickers posted. He did catch some nice fish, but said they were real skinny and their gills looked off color, like they weren't getting enouph oxygen. Any of you guys fish down there this weekend?

P.S. I'm new to yalls site, nice to meet all of you.

 

[RangerRob]

Welcome aboard F1!

Hate to hear that about the grass ... but nothing surprises me anymore.

 

[Bprice]

The Whole Lake? I have a hard time believing that they had a large enough operations to spray 35 miles from the Dam to Roseberry???

 

[polo-dog]

I sure hope that TVA hasn't decided to do what they did to Chickamauga. The fishing is just now starting to recover after 16 years, when TVA killed all the grass. It will really hurt the economy of that area if TVA does or did that. I'm sorry to hear that you see signs of spraying on a large scale.

 

[Flippen*1]

Fished it for two days, from Roseberry to pretty close to the dam (no wife, no kids, lucky so in so). Local told him that they had been at it for all that week. At our meeting Mon night he told us that the milfoil was turning to a black sludge and he could find no large areas untouched. That's why I was hoping to hear from someone else who had been down there. This guy is pretty reliable usually.

 

[Bprice]

I really hate hearing that... I'm going to email my club, and see whats up?

btw, WELCOME TO CFF!

 

[Guest]

I have a feeling that he meant around all shallow docks and marinas, and public access. Thats what they have been working on at Nickajack also. Unfortunatley, other areas do get affected. I hate it and am totally opposed to it. I really hate to see what fishing will be like without it.....

 

[Bprice]

TVA is not in the spraying business...

Somewhere like Alred's or Seibold Marina can hire someone to spray their docking areas. I am hoping they left the main channel grass alone... thats my baby.

 

[Flippen*1]

BP & WH are both correct, shallow areas, not main channel from what I hear. Still, that's a lot. Didn't anyone yall know go down there this weekend? What we need is another first hand account.

And I never said it was TVA themselves, but had to have been them contracting it out or it would have been just a spot or two.??? Don't know.

 

[Bprice]

Flippen,

I emailed my club, surely someone was out there this weekend... we'll wait and see!

 

[sandskeeter]

I fished down there saturday and sunday..I seen the red stickers that were posted around docks... you could tell that they had sprayed around the docks .. I think what has really messed up the mats this year is the water level.if you go back and check some of the guntersville guides fishing reports on bfhp they mention this many times.still lots of grass down there on the channel and in the creeks but it isnt as thick as it should be for this time of year..I rat fished both days and never got a blow up, even though some guys in the tourney caught fish in the grass..I dont think spraying around the docks is gonna hurt the whole lake..most of that grass cant take the water moving too much or it will break it up.. steady water level=thick brown nasty grass

 

[Flippen*1]

Well there you go. It happened but doesn't sound as bad as was made out. Thanks for the verification SS!.

 

[Bprice]

From a club member:

A company called Aqua Services in Guntersville is contracted by TVA to do the spraying of chelated copper on the lake. Also, if enough individuals that live on the lake pool enough money to pay Aqua Services to spray their area, they will do it. If you get a copy of the Guntersville newspaper, there is an article(Sunday paper I believe) in there every week that shows when and where they have been spraying. Last week was supposed to be the last spray job of the year. I don’t know about up river, but it had a big effect on fishing around the Honeycomb area.

 

[fish4u]

I was on the Big G Saturday and saw that they had sprayed back in Roseberry. Some of the spraying had taken place at the end of July (according to the dates on the tags) and some had taken place the 20th of September. The docks that were sprayed the 20th had alot of slim under them, and the docks that had been sprayed in July had alot of brown stringy grass around them. This was only around docks though. I found good grass in some pockets and shoreline that were not around docks. Fishing was good, alot of smaller fish in the creeks and the bigger ones coming off the river channel.

 

[2jigs]

I fished a club Tourny down there on Sat.. Spoke to a guy that said they had taken the water uo & down alot as of late & that had hurt the grass. I found it thin but holding fish on the main river. We had 15.10lbs & another boat had 14.50lbs. I do know they went south & I was up above B.B.Commer.

 

[Flippen*1]

Great info, guys. I have a club tourney coming up and I was worried all my spots would look like mars, sounds like it's gonna be ok. Thanks for all who responded, I can tell I'm gonna like this site.

 

[fish4u]

2jigs I heard you were down there and had a good sack. Good to see you back.

 

[Bprice]

Flippen,

Send me a PM with where you are launching from and maybe I can help you out with some areas to fish!

 

[xroadsbasser]

Just got back from lunch and passed a friend of mine that said some spraying had been done at the G and he thought it was done around mid-lake boat houses....like those across the river from the Goose Pond and between Goose Pond and Mink Creek. As wormhook said the same thing is going on at Nickajack but the "sprayers" seem to be concentrating on boat paths and landowner interests.

 

[Bprice]

Most of the boat houses between mink and north sauty were sprayed early this year. BUT, there are still some great fish on them, as I have caught several nice fish off of them. As long as they didn't spray the original creek channel and humps just in-lake from the boat houses I won't be mad. There are BIG fish in those waters.