Go Watertown Go Watertown Logo

Huron man says zebra mussels “biggest challenge” to fisheries in his 65 years of fishing

Share
Huron man says zebra mussels “biggest challenge” to fisheries in his 65 years of fishing

July 14, 2021

 

A note from Steve Charron of Huron:

Enemy Swim is approaching 1,000 boats inspected since ice-out. I listen to your fishing reports on a regular basis. Cute story about the little girl and the $100. bluegill. As a fishing and hunting license holder for over 60 years in SD I’ve seen alot of things happen to our fisheries and habitat.

We are facing the biggest challenge to our fisheries in my probably 65 years of fishing. As the Zebra Mussels spread our favorite fishing spots are going to suffer drastically. During the inspections I enjoy visiting with the anglers. The myths and the misinformation out there is incredible.

We are going on a year now working with some of the top zebra mussel experts in the world from the University of Minnesota. We partnered with the GFP of SD to try and protect our lake.

Back to the little girl at Pickerel. Very few of the campers at Pickeral don’t even know they are coming off an infected lake when we interview them. Last week when I volunteered we had a boat from Kampeska and a boat from Cochrane that had no idea they had been on infected lakes.

According to our friends at U of M if this type of lake jumping without precautions its going to be a very short period of time and all lakes in SD will be infected.

The main fish affected are perch and walleyes. When we get a boat off an infected lake we completely clean with super hot water all the places we have learned zebra mussels hide. We have to get the word out to the anglers or we are dead in the water when the zebra mussels take over.

I suggest you call our Enemy Swim Preservation President and discuss the myths. One of the best ones I hear is all the Mn. lakes are infected. When in fact after having the mussels Mn has limited it to 6% of their lakes have them and 94% don’t. They have had the mussels for 32 years in their state.

Our spokesman is Ron Schreiber 719-641-1358 our ESPA president. He can tell you about DNA testing and all the labs we are working with and how we are trying to save NE SD lakes by educating the fisherman.