If the following picture gets your bass blood flowing, you probably know a little bit about Indiana emergent vegetation (and good bass fishing). This subject actually is meant to piggyback on the reservoir hydrology post. The vegetation marked 'A' in the above picture is Water Willow (Justicia americana). It is a big reason, I believe, for why some of our bassin' waters here in Indiana are as good as they are. Lets look a little closer at this vegetative gem.
Many of the local bass anglers call this 'Geist Weed' or 'Rock Weed'. The first because of where it is very common and the second, because of the substrate it is typically found growing in. In actuality, there are several reservoirs in Indiana that have water willow in abundance. Geist, Morse, Eagle Cr. and Huntingburg all have pretty hefty beds at various locations throughout. Additionally, I have come across it in several embayments off the Ohio River on occasion as well as many of the major creeks and rivers in the state.
Why do some places have water willow and some don't? It turns out that if you have a reservoir with pretty stable water levels and low incidence of (short-term) flooding, you probably have a good candidate reservoir. In the recently published "The Response of Water Willow (Justicia americana) to Different Water Inundation and Desiccation Regimes", Strakosh et al. found that even 2 weeks of inundation (high water levels) was enough to cause 40% or greater mortality of plants. Longer times of submergence resulted in even greater percent mortality. However, the plant did show some fairly good resistance to desiccation or low water level events. So understanding a little about vegetation life cycle can give you a pretty good understanding about water level regimes in this case. Lakes with good abundance of this plant tend to have very stable water levels which can then lead to pretty stable spawning and recruitment.
Previously, Timothy Strakosh had also studied and written "EFFECTS OF WATER WILLOW ESTABLISHMENT ON LITTORAL ASSEMBLAGES IN KANSAS RESERVOIRS: FOCUS ON AGE-0 LARGEMOUTH BASS" in which he found this exact thing to be true. In the small reservoir he studied, there was a significant increase in abundance of age-0 largemouth bass in coves containing water willow when compared to coves without. Not only does the plant provide good cover for juvenile largemouth bass, it also increases abundance and diversity of other fishes and macroinvertebrates. And, its penchant to colonize sand and gravel bottoms lends itself to use as a good spawning site for adult largemouth bass.
I also mentioned water willow's abundance in many of our streams and rivers. Many states are trying to reintroduce this plant into its streams via extensive voluntary plantings. One such example out of West Virginia can be found here (RESTORING WATER-WILLOW (JUSTICIA AMERICANA) POPULATIONS IN STREAMS) and another from our neighbors over in Illinois (Friends of the Fox River).
So it pays to pay attention to the little details, such as what type vegetation is predominat in the waters you fish. Chances are, without ever dropping your boat in the water, you can make some pretty good assumptions as to the reservoir hydrology and bass abundance in a given lake.
does anyone know the reasons why the D.N.R. is killing off all aquatic vegetation ( weeds ) in the strip pits at minnehaha F.W.A. i can't get a straight answer.
Posted by: ramman715 | December 25, 2007 at 10:46 AM
Hello Ramman715 and welcome to the site. I went back and reviewed all the L.A.R.E. grants that have been issued over the past decade (LARE grants are frequently used to fund weed treatment projects on public lakes) and there were none listed for Minnehaha. This would suggest that if there are weed treatments going on, they are probably locally driven and funded.
Usually there are just a few common reasons why they would treat for weeds. One is if the weeds were heavy enough to obstruct and restrict public access and usage. Another would be if the weeds present are considered invasive such as Eurasian milfoil, the most commonly treated weed. The other that comes to mind would be if the weeds were overabundant to the point of hindering fish populations. Usually anything in the 15-30% coverage range is considered acceptable. If more than 30% of a lake is covered with weeds, predators may start having difficulty preying on smaller fish such as bluegills. Subsequently, the bass growth would be slowed and their condition would suffer. Also, the bluegill would tend to have high recruitment and you'd end up with lots of little stunted bluegill.
One last thing to consider would be the possibility that with the extreme drought and hot weather this year, it would not be too unusual to have the weeds die off late summer. I've seen this happen frequently at Monroe over the years.
I'll keep looking around a bit and see if I can find anything else out. If you know more or want to tell me who you've spoken to so far, I'll follow up a bit.
Posted by: Big Indiana Bass | December 25, 2007 at 08:00 PM
thanks for your responds and answer to my concern, never thought about it, in the way you presented the information. its been a long time since the last time i actually inquire about weed sparying at the pits. at mohawk for example the last time there was weeds present was at least 7-8 years ago. yes, i am new to this site, found it a few weeks back, sure glad i did. i been fishing bass at these pits since 1996,and thats how long i been fishing for bass using artifical lures. thanks again
Posted by: ramman715 | December 26, 2007 at 03:15 PM