jpsdad, thanks for posting that link! You learn something new every day!
My wife's grandmother (96 yo) still has a cottage on Sand Lake and after years of not having a chance to go there, we were there for an evening of fishing a few weeks ago.
The lake association still is killing the weeds with chemicals every June, but another thing they did the last few years is they put in a LAKE WIDE aeration system. At least I assume the association is footing the bill... I've never heard of the DNR doing this..
But there are about 14 large air stations all around the lake and they run day and night in the summer. The water clarity and the removal of muck in the shallows is amazing. The water out to about 4' deep is back to pure sand (like it was in the good old days). I'm not sure if the natural springs have opened back up yet or not but I have to believe they are cutting down on muck in the deeper water too. It is an all around shallow lake with very few places deeper than 12' deep.
The locals say the bluegill fishing has dried up almost completely. Even hard to catch bass bigger than 14". I see from the PDF that they did plant catfish (that was a rumor I had heard before) but the report suggests no natural reproduction in their sampling.
Rarely someone catches a NP so they must not naturally reproduce so well either.
The graphs show very few pumpkinseed even. I'm wondering if the lake had gone through possibly some bad winterkills since it is so shallow.
But the evidence even in this tiny lake with a challenging environment for predator and prey shows that the hungry flatheads were cleaning up on small fish in the desired size range (less than 6")
Very fascinating read. Thanks!
