Keep it Green

There’s a lake that I’ve fished since late 1995 that is effectively bereft of vegetation. There are some lily pads in the backs of pockets, but most of them are in less than a foot of water and rarely hold more than a fish or two. I’ve been told, however, that in the early 90s, there was a brief period of time when grass flourished. It was matted on the surface in places, and fishing got really good for a while. Then the homeowners got involved. I don’t know if they sprayed, but they dumped in a truckload of grass carp and the good times came to an end. Around 2004, I found a little more, but a couple of months later it too was somehow gone.

But I’ve been to the lake twice in the past month and there is now quite a bit of grass. In some places, it runs across the entirety of coves or blankets a point. In others, there are “bushes” of hydrilla that I know will someday hold a bass and promote a killer population – if only it’s allowed to remain. 

And therein lies the rub. It’s a residential lake, with lots of swimmers and skiers and other ne’er do wells. At some point, they’re going to agitate against it, and they will likely win the war. I know that, and while I’ll curse it when it happens, I won’t be surprised in the slightest. Accordingly, I’ve set my wish-o-meter to “low.” I hope the grass stays around through the spawn, or maybe a little longer. I hope it gives us a few years of increasing populations not just of bass, but on the species bass feed on. And I hope it remains long enough for me to have a few days of killer frog fishing. I don’t ask for much but I’ll take as much as I can get.