Before and after salvinia

[Boatless]

I've been fishing the lake since june 07 or "after" the Salivinia cleanup and was wondering how it was "before" the infestation. Can you guys who have been fishing a while do a comparison? Any big changes?

[Stan Wright]

Before the sulvenia molesta I use to catch a lot of bluegill. They seem to be every where. There were many places where I would see them on the surface and you could catch 30 or 40 on surface poppers. Now days I'm lucky to catch one or two while fishing deep. They just seem to have vanished.

Right after the lake opened back up the fishing was fantastic. Lots of peacock bass and red devils. I don't know if it was just better fishing or the fact that I hadn't been able to fish for almost a year. LOL

I think I'm catching fewer largemouth bass now.... but then I really only target the peacock bass. The good old days are now.

[Ca_Bass]

From what I hear th sulvenia weed was pretty bad stuff. I don't really know what affect it had on the water quallity. It seems like there is now absolutely no underwater vegetation of any sort. From some basic knowledge I have underwater vegetation helps create a healthy eco-system in various way, habitat, increased oxygen levels, correct me if I'm wrong but I think even reduces ammonia, nitrites and nitrates created by fish waste that is unhealthy to just about everything. Pretty much the california grass is the only "vegetation" on the lake/in the water, and the use of that as habitat is limited to the current levels of the lake. I wonder if maybe the DLNR has thought about implanting some sort of aquatic vegetation to increase the overall health of lake wilson. Or maybe the chemicals used to get rid of the sulvenia molesta are still present and therefore make the lake resistant to aquatic vegetation.

[Boatless]

aquatic vegetation would indeed help the biological filtration of the lake but would also help the baitfish thrive wouldnt you think? They'd have more places to hide, etc. and the same goes for the ambush predators.

Have any bluegills been caught or even seen since?

[Ken]

I got a 6" bluegill in the grass as my first fish ever caught on the lake. I didn't take a picture of that since catching a bluegill is like catching baby peacocks to me, common, sometimes fun when you couldn't find anything else, but could quickly get boring

Stan can be my witness on that catch

[Sr. Castalot]

We went out on Monday the 31 for a few hours. Working the shoreline with our fly rods. We were retiring to a spot were the tucs were hitting I was letting my fly drag in the water I felt a good but unexpeted strike it was a blue gill.

[Ca_Bass]

It was probably about two months ago but my buddy and I hooked with double blue gills on our fly rods. I think they were both lake records, sorry no pictures of that guys.

[Lrry93]

Bluegills are in the lake and breeding. Im not sure about the amount?? I took 6 out about 2 weeks ago and gave them to the middle school for breeding.