Sago pond weed

[garyh20ski]

Hi everyone new here to ball of spray. I have a somewhat new lake in Nor Cal wine country that is now in our fourth year. We developed a Sago pond weed issue last year and treated with Reward. This stunted the growth for a few months but the weeds have kept coming back.. Tried to get a stocking permit with DFG for grass carp but they will not issue for our area. Was told by our chemical supplier to use Sonar but was a bit surprised at the cost. Could buy a few new skis at the price of a single treatment. The lake is about 50 acre feet in capacity, no fish other than mosquito fish, and we do not irrigate from it. Have read a bit about Diuron sp? But many seem to recommend against it. Any advice from others who have has similar problems?

 

Thanks,

 

Gary

[eleeski]

Diuron was not an approved option for me in California. I was using a registered applicator on a food fish crop. Diquat was what my applicator used on that first and worst chara infestation. Short quarantine and my fish were OK and not outrageous in cost. Blue dye and occasional spot treatment with copper sulfate granules has worked to minimize the problem since. Ski a lot and you won't have a weed problem.

Good luck, Eric

[Marco]

We had a bad Sago problem when we first built our lake. Initially treated it with Natique aquacide, then put in sterile grass carp, and dye the lake. No major problems since. Even though you cant have carp, try the dye after the Natique.

http://www.montereyagresources.com/wp-content/plugins/ewm-product-manager/files/Nautique0705.pdf

 

You should contact Glenn Tashima at Monterey Ag Resources. He is a skier who understands ski lakes, and they manufacture all kinds of aquacide and lake dyes. He helped with our problem 10 years ago. His contact information is here: http://www.montereyagresources.com/contact-us/distribution-area/

[estrom]

@garyh20ski, whereabouts are you located in Nor Cal?

[garyh20ski]

Just over the Napa county line in Middletown

[A_B]

Isn't it about time that you guys take on the state legislsture on the carp issue?

That has to be one of the most ridiculous rules governing private bodies of water that I have heard. Public waterways, sure, but private... We need an attorney skier/lake-owner to take this on and set a precedent!

[estrom]

Welcome to BOS. I'm over in Windsor.

 

[eleeski]

@AB We are lucky we can ski at all! A buddy wasn't allowed to launch his boat in Norcal because it was registered in Riverside county. He had to reregister his boat up north before he could use it there. You need an inspection before you launch. Regulations are killing the sport in CA - as well as our entire economy. But the majority doesn't ski (or farm or produce goods) so the voting is heading towards more regulation. Careful it doesn't spread to you - like the hordes of escaping grass carp that will take over the state!

 

Eric

[garyh20ski]

@estrom you will have to visit sometime and take a ride. @AB you would not believe regulatory agencies in CA we had over 25 involved in our permiting which took 5 years. We even had to buy wetland mitigation credits as USACE deemed a 12 acre ski lake as having no wildlife value. Grass Carp would be the perfect solution.

[estrom]

@garyh20ski, I will definitely have to take you up on that sometime this summer! Thanks for the offer.

[MISkier]

@AB, I think the regulation on the private body of water is there due to issues with flooding or other overflow where private water mixes with public water. If memory serves me, the high-flying asian carp nuisance now invading the Great Lake waterways originated in a private body of water that was flooded by a hurricane. They have spread very successfully since then.

 

I am not a fan of regulation on private water, but I do see the threat that they are trying to address. However, it seems like sterilized grass carp would be something they could allow. Basically, I would think anything that is engineered to be non-toxic, temporary, and not self-sustaining should be allowed in private water.

[Skoot1123]

@eleeski and @garyh20ski - I feel your pain with the involvement of government in building a lake. Running into that ourselves..... We are able to use sterilized grass carp in a farm pond. It is also stocked with bass. We are not however able to use Reward to kill off the nuisance weeds that grow in the farm pond. Here is to hoping that skiing on it and dying it will take care of that!!

[rodltg2]

Very nice lake! I found it on google earth.

[sharkbait]

Some of you that are very interested in grass carp might want to visit our water districts website and read up on our history of our use with these fish. (DLWID.org) Check out our research page. Our 680 acre lake became heavily infested with weeds in the 70's and 80"s. We got approval to to use grass carp to save our lake which was almost unusable for the public. 10,000 steril carp were planted in 1986 and 17,000 more in 1987 and a final drop of 5,000 in 1993. The lake became weed free as of 94/95. It took 7-8 years to get rid the mass of weeds. The lake today is still weed free. We are in the process of appealling for more grass carp. We have very few left today. We are working on rules changes in order to comply with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife present regulations that got changed from after our initial plantings thru the influence of the warm water fishing groups.

[estrom]

@garyh20ski, is your lake the one on the south side of 29 between town and Hidden Valley? Seems skiing in the morning & then golf at HV would make a perfect day!

[garyh20ski]

@estrom That is the lake. We have a lot of double headers with skiing in the am and golf or Mtn biking at Boggs in the pm. Not to mention a ton of great local wine tasting. Let me know when you want to come up it's like Disney Land for grown ups.