Clem, we do a fair amount of work on the TVA boats and every time they come in I quiz them a good bit. I took a 10 year or so break from fishing and started back 4 years ago. Before I stopped fishing I had never seen any eelgrass. Now it's everywhere and the uprooted grass floats everywhere making fishing difficult at times. I had no idea it was a native and had been around forever because I had never seen it. The guys that I talked to said it had always been contained to spots along the river ledges, primarily upstream above Scottsboro. Then it just exploded and started growing everywhere. They have no idea what caused it to do that. They're definitely not going to kill it. No matter how many times I beg them to. LOL I like the hydrilla and coontail, but I hate that freaking eelgrass with a passion.
I like the hydrilla, milfoil and coontail as well. Not so much with the eelgrass. It's been here at least 20+ years. I remember back in the late 90s a friend of mine practicing for a tournament telling me about finding it up above BB Comer Bridge. He and his partner were shocked that it was eelgrass and that it was growing so well, thick, lush, etc. They caught bass out of it, too.
I mentioned that to the TVA guys and they agreed that 20-25 years was about when they started seeing it above BBC bridge. I don't know how far upstream from the bridge that was or the exact location, but they agreed on that timeline.
Also, I really like their Diamondback airboats. Being on it gave me the itch to go bowfishing.
TVA ruined fishing on Wheeler when they killed all the millfoil. It’s coming back now. I’m sure they will kill it again. Fish and waterfowl love the millfoil.
I agree, and believe it was a combo of whatever sh*t they were putting into the lake along with whatever was being pumped into the lake -- legally or otherwise -- by the plants. When I fished over there more regularly years ago, the fish, muck, grass, mud and anything else on the bottom along the channel and in the flats smelled like the pet food mill. I talked with some mussel divers who said the bottom in a lot of that stretch looked like oily sludge and was pretty much devoid of much aquatic life.
One of the TVA guys said the flats have eelgrass on them now. I haven't fished or hunted over there in quite a while so I don't know. I certainly would rather see milfoil or hydrilla.
