Weed Killers

[Skipper]

99% of my fishing is in these highland reservoirs in East Tennessee and Kentucky.  We just simply don't have grass in the water.  Rocks and stumps maybe, but no grass.  That 1% is our annual shiner trip to Florida.  There's grass and grass everywhere.  This year after a torrid week of cold weather and cold water, the fish turned on Thursday.  Just as quick though, the weed killer people visited.  They were spraying they hydrilla and knotted weeds whatever they were with some sort of chemical.  On Friday, that didn't seem to help the fishing down there.  Aside from being what would seem like a hopeless endeavor on that lake, what has been your experience fishing in areas where they have sprayed.

Skipper

[ibfestus]

Usually, as a lake matures and the organic material decays away, the water begins to clear allowing sunlight to reach the lake bottom.  This works to promote weed growth which in turn tends to work as a filter allowing more sunlight and more weeds.  Some lakes have bottoms that prevent this from happening ie. rocks/gravel etc.  There is also the case (in mostly natural oxbow lakes) where the lake is stained by the presence of tannin leached from Tupelo and/or Cypress trees. In those lakes surface vegetation can take hold (duck weed). There are other lakes that have fluctuating levels that tend to kill the vegetation.  This can be a natural occurence or done by the Corps of Engineers.

In the case of the weed killer in Fla. it definitely puts the fishing on hold until it dissipates.  Even then if there is a huge amount of this dead vegetation in the water, it can rapidly diminish the oxygen levels placing a great deal of stress on the fish population.  There is no doubt that I would avoid those sprayed areas for at least a couple of weeks.