US Fish & Game Data on Colorado River now posted.

[TopH2o]

web site www.100thmeridian.org/certificate.asp actual pictures, diver reports & water sample findings through out the Colorado River system. Mussels now fround throughout Colorado lakes. USF&W Service posted that bass fishing tournaments on the Colorado River has infected at least 9 lakes in Cali. Click on site then click on Home then Colorado findings. Whats really distrubing is by the evidence found these things have been here for a very long time. Along with the idea that recreational boaters , wave runners & hunters played a very big part in the transferal of mussels.

[B Becker]

Hey Top,

that is BS that tournaments caused this......I would be almost certian we had nothing to do with it.....we are down stream from a lot of people and a ton of DUCKS!!!....yes, ducks......water fowl has always, and will always be a major transporter of any plants and fish, and whatever else.....we as bass fisherman have always been a target......ok, I'm done.....

[TopH2o]

Your right Bret I knew something was up bro when they started taking NAME ,BOAT NUMBERS , & TRAILER NUMBERS befor you could enter the tournament. I knew then that they were up to something but I dont want to state the names of a few people from this site that said " hey no big deal just fill it out it only takes a few minutes. " What they did was compile a list of were everyone lived and what were the closet lakes and BAM.
Your also right largest bird migartion path in the western US second too the Mississippi. Thats why these Cali boys are going too have alot of problems in the up comming years. The Democratic Republic of Cali. You know Bret that this Quagga is actually the 3rd invasive mussel spieces too enter the US since 1930. :

[TopH2o]

Your right Bret I knew something was up bro when they started taking NAME ,BOAT NUMBERS , & TRAILER NUMBERS befor you could enter the tournament. I knew then that they were up to something but I dont want to state the names of a few people from this site that said " hey no big deal just fill it out it only takes a few minutes. " What they did was compile a list of were everyone lived and what were the closet lakes and BAM.
Your also right largest bird migartion path in the western US second too the Mississippi. Thats why these Cali boys are going too have alot of problems in the up comming years. The Democratic Republic of Cali. You know Bret that this Quagga is actually the 3rd invasive mussel spieces too enter the US since 1930. :

[drew]

I agree with your water fowl theory. Many on both sides seem to be accepting as fact, without a thorough study, that water birds are not the cause.

[mark poulson]

Bird watchers don't pay for licenses, but it's a PC hobby (The Audubon Society), and lots of rich, well connected people do it, so no one is going to point the finger at birds until one drops a mussel on their heads.

[TopH2o]

Drew the Offical Report of Susan Mangin Division of Fish & Wildlife Management Stated that ; {A} Between 1993 & 1998 zebra mussels had been found on 18 vessels passing through Cali. Agricultureal Inspection Stations by Commerical Boat Haulers. Please take note of the date.
{B} During that time Professional Tournament Bass fisherman were found with the same.

[drew]

Does this mean that boaters are the sole source of introducing the mussels into CA lakes? Maybe they would have died by that transportation method and the real culprit was the water fowl. Maybe there are multiple methods that are the cause.

If the CA lakes are close before the detection of the mussels and later at some point they are detected at the recently closed lake, will they open the lakes back up to outside boats?

Drew the Offical Report of Susan Mangin Division of Fish & Wildlife Management Stated that ; {A} Between 1993 & 1998 zebra mussels had been found on 18 vessels passing through Cali. Agricultureal Inspection Stations by Commerical Boat Haulers. Please take note of the date.
{B} During that time Professional Tournament Bass fisherman were found with the same.

[Terry]

Top H20, will you please send me the actual URLs to these statements? I'm especially interested in the one where bass boats are implicated in infecting 9 lakes in So Cal. Couldn't find it using your instructions. I'll look into why they said that without data.

Thanks.

Terry

[TopH2o]

Drew whats really interesting is that there was a western regional panel formed as a task force by the Dept of Bio @ University of Texas. Kevin Len Buch & Robert F McMahon. The report is some 60 pages long with boat counts & inspections done in 25 states highways & boat ramps at lakes. These people knew in the 1990s that these things were being transported by rec boaters along with commercial boat haulers from the East across the 100th meridian into western states. Yes larva can attach themselfs to the coats and fur of animals along with birds. But The major culprit is man. Someone placed a hell of alot of money into these deptaments to record all this information.

Whats funny is that now 15 years later everyone is in a panic . Bottom line is your not going to stop them the best ya can do is try to control them. But this Sh** in Cali about 28 day quarrentine boats or not lettin em on the water is BS. Maybe they ought to have ya all take your lights apart along with the rollers on the trailers apart and have ya dry them all out.

[Pred]

One huge reason sent my boat back east. Im not going to deal with name and number BS. Like I said in the other thread. Officals are looking to act like they are doing something. Its easy to say you inspected a 200 boat tournament and banned over 10% in violation.
You have just acted like you have a solution and a culprit. By the time the problem is found to have spread like wildfire you are way out of the crosshairs and enjoying a corner office 6 figures and a 3 hour workday, oh and a gov licenseplate.

Again I have seen wake boats, pleasure boats, and pontoon boats dump ballast in Mead and plenty of other places. Yet its the bass boater that has an official lumbering over to "check for water"
Yeah my livewell hold 36 gallons of water, but that wake boater over there has 3 50 gallon bags. That pontoon thats almost sinking... has a pontoon FULL of water. See that nice cabin cruiser pissing water from its bilge and other holes? Oh look its got a RING from where it was previously docked,
No biggie they cant regulate them, they can only regulate people coming up to them and asking for a permit for 200 boats to fish. They can take that to the board and say " its the bass people and we are stopping it"

What they NEED to see is that we are DUMPING $$$$ into the economy and we need to bring them the numbers. BASS has a lot of these stats and it may be worth a shot to get them to send the info they have on it. I dont even think they include the gas and lodging dollars we spend getting to the lakes.
Again money talks and when they see that they are going to be losing well over 10 million in revenue they may reconsider their knee jerk comments.

[DL]

Does anyone know of any lakes in the Great Lakes region that have been closed due to the Quagga mussel threat?

If the government was so vigiliant in its study between 93' and 98', why did it take 7 frikkin' years for us to find out about it?

This whole thing stinks and it sounds like a power play between agencies and the taxpayers. I bet there is a 1200 page environmental impact study from the great lakes sitting in a store room somewhere....gathering dust. This whole thing could have been dealt with years ago but someone, somewhere, dropped the ball.... And we, as anglers are the ones that use the resource the most, are the last line of defense to lake closures and the spread of the mussel. I just hope its not too late.

[Pred]

check out these stats.

http://www.westernbass.com/forum/viewto ... =35967&f=3

you are 100% right, Im guessing the revenues from the freshwater anglers is going to "other" programs so you may have some officials having to pay the piper. Lets be honest there isnt millions being spent on improving launch ramps and facilities, so where is all that money going?

Like I have always said, instead of putting carp in places like Mead, lets stock it with smallmouth and start having a NO RELEASE policy for all stripers and carp.

[TopH2o]

Yes Pred I agree with ya. And because of that reason we are being singled out. Notice that in the report by Susan Mangin she list Commercial boat Haulers & Bass fisherman.

DL I also agree with ya. They knew this sh** was here in the 90 they new it was being transported you cant blame anyone meaning us. Thats why when I read this crap about Castic or what ever lake it is about stopping fisherman just burns my A$$.

I think seeing the actual pictures of Mead scared alot of these agencies or rather they were seeing dollar signs. I come from the great lakes area saw what transpired . Hell just ask Aaron Martins about fishin on the 3 rivers area during the classic a few years ago.

[TopH2o]

Oh yeah DL this last july I went out of Maumee State Park on Lake Erie, no boat inspections everything was open & just alot of big freakin smallmouth bro.

[Pred]

Yes Pred I agree with ya. And because of that reason we are being singled out. Notice that in the report by Susan Mangin she list Commercial boat Haulers & Bass fisherman.

DL I also agree with ya. They knew this sh** was here in the 90 they new it was being transported you cant blame anyone meaning us. Thats why when I read this crap about Castic or what ever lake it is about stopping fisherman just burns my A$$.

I think seeing the actual pictures of Mead scared alot of these agencies or rather they were seeing dollar signs. I come from the great lakes area saw what transpired . Hell just ask Aaron Martins about fishin on the 3 rivers area during the classic a few years ago.

Call me cynical but i truly believe its more than just water officials. Noone cares about mead because there are no land owners on mead that would be whining about bass anglers punching their docks.
Head to TX and the southern states where the Giant Salvina problem was blamed by the landowners on Anglers. If I recall it was traced back to an aquarium that was dumped into the lakes.

I used to live in San Antonio TX and there was a good amount of aquatic life south of the border dumped into the little lakes in the area as well as home aquariums dumped into them. You should have seen the weird fish. Now if they dumped peacocks I would have been happy.
But I think 99% of these issues can be traced back to a single source. Mussels we KNOW where they came from, and the plant life, lets hold the pet stores responsible and then go after whom they sold it too. I dont see tournament anglers dumping paco's into the lakes. I see kids that wanted the "big piranha" doing it.

[TopH2o]

Pred yes in Fl there is over 300 non native creatures that are caught by boarder inspections every year.

Think about this one Pred talking about Lake Mead the Feds own the Lake and the water that moves through it. 10 years ago or so It didnt cost ya anything to put a boat on Mead. Lets see 20.00 for your truck 20.00 for your boat = 40.00 per year times 1.5 million = ?

[Pred]

Pred yes in Fl there is over 300 non native creatures that are caught by boarder inspections every year.

Think about this one Pred talking about Lake Mead the Feds own the Lake and the water that moves through it. 10 years ago or so It didnt cost ya anything to put a boat on Mead. Lets see 20.00 for your truck 20.00 for your boat = 40.00 per year times 1.5 million = ?

Which is why they don't care what happens to the Bass (small/large) on the lake. They nail the guide for 40 and his clients for 20-40. So stripers can pillage the bass populations and noone cares.

Now I know why there are so few tournaments out here, why should FLW or BASS bother coming more than once if any per year?

JB

[Terry]

post the URLs where FWS says the nine So Cal lakes were infected by bass boats. Couldn't find it on my own. I'll talk to the authors of the statement and see why they said that. Very troublesome to blame bass boats for the new invasions in So Cal.

Thanks for the help.

Terry

[Jasper Williams]

same questionaire atDVL nomatter where you fished at last.