is dredging harmful?

marklar · Post by **marklar** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:21 pm

can the dredging of a lake cause problems for aquatic life?

crawdaddy · Post by **crawdaddy** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 5:51 pm

Think of it this way. If someone came into your neigborhood with a huge blower and blew all the soil and dust and small debris into the air and kept it there for a while would it bother you if you went outside and walked around the block several times?

marklar · Post by **marklar** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 6:00 pm

well.................of course it would bother me, but it probably wouldn't kill me. what i was trying to ask is if you can expect a die off of fish.

allbelac · Post by **allbelac** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 6:19 pm

How many of us fish up river at McClure? If you do then you are experiencing what dredging can do for a fishery, creates humps valley's removes silt from the bedrock, nice rock piles. From the dredging that I have witnessed the silt issue is a non-issue. The silt stays within a few yards of the area being worked and settles on the tailing piles that are being created. So there can be some advantages.

Beyond that, the government has many guidlines in place to keep the dredging from harming both the trout spawn as well as the Bass spawn. Depending on the area that is being dredged. For example, at Mclure(wich is one of the few lakes that one can dredged) a dredger can only dredge from late May until the 15th of October and only dredge above the debris line. The debris line at McClure is caused by the wind blowing debris up the river channel and the current pushing debris down the channel, any area above this can be dredged. During low water conditions when a debris line does not exist, dredging must take place in moving water.

From experience, Bass do not mind the dredges. My dad has dredged for most of my life and I went with him when I was a kid. We used to catch small mouth within feet of where the dredges were running. Just recently I have been told that after a few hours of the dredge running the spots at McClure are within inches of my dads face while he is running the dredge.

Hope that helps.

Andy Giannini · Post by **Andy Giannini** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 6:45 pm

Sure it can, but just consider what happens during winter. A tremendous amount of silt is kicked up throughout the entire system. Somehow everything turns out ok.

My unscientific two cents, the impacts of dredging are blown way out of proportion.

.02 A.G.

allbelac · Post by **allbelac** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 6:53 pm

Well Said!

bassrippin365 · Post by **bassrippin365** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:49 pm

I have also dredged at bagby and while i was dredging the fish would come right up to my face.its kinda cool actually.as far as dust and debri being blown in to their home,their home thus being the entire lake,i don't believe its causing any damage.I have also never seen any dead fish around where we have dredged.