Still Giving Back

Keeping the momentum going this year on a few projects that are intended to help the lakes that I fish, fish better. One lake is fairly small, under 5 surface acres and seriously weed choked. I have been manually raking two sections, one at each end, to open them up a bit as well as dig down to the original gravel bottom. Now the biggest bluegills are battling for those spots to use as spawning areas. And bass are always cruising by looking for a snack. How cool is that?


(After one raking, this beautiful bluegill moved in and spawned.)

The results from the manual raking have been so good that more areas will be selected and worked next year. An even earlier start will commence in 2009 with a goal of manually raking 25% of the weed matte.

The next project on the drawing board for this place was a viable port in. The steep ledges make it a bit treacherous to enter and leave the water with small watercraft like a belly boat. The area people use now to get in and out is causing erosion and gets very sloppy. You could easily pop the tube on some of the sticks poking out around the area as well. One slip and so many bad things could happen.

“No more complaining about this.” I said last weekend. “Let’s do something for a change!”

So utilizing some old landscape material that was just sitting there, I crafted a small stairway into the steep slope. This is so much safer and pleasing to the eye. It may just save me from having to replace a tube sometime so it’s a complete win-win from all sides. Hopefully I get a better picture from the front on my next trip.



The rock on top was added because it was smaller and more natural looking. If I had more of these rocks, I sure would have used them. Instead I used some square concrete blocks and placed them as needed. Very solid and should withstand the elements for at least a few years. Some shoreline backing will be added over time as well to eliminate some potential erosion problems.

Add one water bottle, one Heineken can and two glass beer bottles to the trash tally. This spot I visit frequently enough that I can gauge the “ill Pressure” by how much trash I pick up each trip.