Lake County fishermen received some good news and some bad news during 2008. The good news is that gas prices dropped from more than $4.50 a gallon to less than $2 a gallon, which made a day of fishing on Clear Lake a whole lot cheaper. The other good news is that overall the bass fishing remained very good throughout the year and it looks even better for 2009.
The bad news in 2008 centers around two small critters that played havoc with local fishermen. The quagga mussel and the red-legged frog could mean profound changes in the future for local fishermen.
Without a doubt the top story for fishermen and boaters on Clear Lake in 2008 was the quagga mussel. The threat of the quagga mussels coming to the county drew comments from just about every fisherman and boater.
The county responded to the possible quagga mussel threat by requiring all boaters who launched in any water in the county to first obtain a quagga mussel sticker, which would help identify boats that came from quagga mussel-infested lakes. The fee for the sticker was $10 per boat and the stickers for local boaters were good indefinitely. For out-of-county boaters, new stickers must be obtained annually.
The county also came up with a plan to inspect suspected infested boats although that plan hasn”t yet been fully implemented. The inspection process should be in place sometime in 2009.
Officials say that if the mussels ever establish themselves in Clear Lake the impact would be huge. Quagga mussels feed on phytoplankton, which is the primary food for the young bass and other game fish in Clear Lake. They are filter feeders and feed by pumping water through their digestive systems. A tiny quagga mussel is capable of pumping more than a quart of water through its system in one day. When you multiply that by millions of mussels you can see that they will quickly use up all the plankton in the lake. What makes Clear Lake so attractive to the mussels is its rich supply of plankton and the calcium in the water, both of which supply the mussel with required nutrients.
Once the mussels get a foothold in a lake they”re nearly impossible to eradicate. In fact, there has never been a lake in the world where the mussels have been controlled let alone eradicated. In addition to devastating the fishery at Clear Lake, the mussels could clog up the water intakes that serve as a source of water for the cities of Lakeport and Clearlake as well as other water districts in the county.
The big question is if the mussels can be kept out of the lake? Many people think it”s just a matter of time before the quagga mussels reach Clear Lake.
The red-legged frog story caught just about everyone by surprise. Without any warning the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) announced it would no longer be stocking any waters in Lake County with trout, the reason being that a lawsuit was filed against the DFG by two environmental groups claiming the endangered red-legged frog would be eaten by the trout.
The DFG settled out of court and agreed not to stock more than 171 waters throughout the state — including Upper Blue Lakes, Lake Pillsbury and Indian Valley Reservoir in Lake County — until an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was completed. The EIR could take as long as a year, or even longer, to complete.
Later the DFG removed Lake Pillsbury and Indian Valley Reservoir because both lakes had more than 1,000 surface acres, which made them exempt from the trout stocking restriction. However, Upper Blue Lake stiill remains on the banned list and it”s unknown if it will ever be stocked with trout again.
Lake County officials are mystified as to why Lake County was included on the banned list in the first place because there has never been a red-legged frog found in the county. The Lake County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution requesting that the DFG remove Upper Blue Lake from the banned list and restore the trout stocking program. To date, the DFG has taken no action on that request.
