I was visiting family at Green Lake in western Wisconsin over labor day weekend. We saw this huge paddlewheel machine working at a distance and figured it must somehow harvest weeds. It came across the lake and parked closer to me in a little channel off the main lake so I snapped some pictures. I wouldn't want to know the power it takes to run this or how much one of these boats cost! It appeared to have a big diesel generator running up on the deck. The paddlewheel provided propulsion although it moved very slowly (ineffective beating of the water to try to achieve forward motion).
Are they even effective at clearing weeds? I would imagine in most lakes the hopper under the seat would fill with weeds very quickly, and then how do you dump or dispose of the weeds?
Later the kids and I went to a neighboring 'farm pond' where the owner wanted the bluegill caught (and the perch thrown back) and was planning to help a friend restock his 'farm pond' that had winter killed. The fish were quite hungry, yet of very good size. The kids loved catching the big BG, pumpkinseed and the smallish perch in this shallow, weedy pond.
I noted an aerator running, the presence of some pond dye, no sign of the owner feeding the fish, yet they must have adequate forage as the fish were fat.
And guess what? They have aggressive and very fat green sunfish (GSF) there as well. I noted the very vivid yellow/gold coloring on the bottom fins of the fish that we see in some of the fish pictures seen on PB forum here from indiana and Illinois pond owners. Took a picture to show it here:
