http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050731/NEWS/507310350/1017

July 31, 2005

Rutland Herald (Vermont)

Don't like milfoil? 'Bomb' the lake

-- Contact Dennis Jensen at dennis.jensen@rutlandherald.com

The first fish of the morning was taken by Jim Lynch. He also landed the second fish, a fat largemouth bass that went about 2-1/2 pounds.

"Damn milfoil," Jim says, as he releases the fish. Then he removes a long stem of the nasty weed that has become tangled around his artificial bait. "It gets in the way of everything."

He's smiling, of course. It's a little running joke we have. Jim, like any other savvy bass fisherman, knows how important milfoil has been to the explosion of largemouth bass in lakes around Vermont.

We were fishing on Lake Champlain from Jim's bass boat a week ago and got to talking about a whole wide range of topics — from Texas Hold 'Em to striper fishing to spring turkey hunting to the "bombing" of an important local lake.

While we don't see eye to eye when it comes to President Bush and our politics couldn't be farther apart, we have kept our friendship intact for years. And we are both in total agreement when it comes to the subject of milfoil.

Bass fingerlings find plenty of protection from other predators in the stuff. Adult largemouths, predators that ambush their prey from cover, thrive in it.

Jim was talking about the impact on largemouth bass, not to mention a bunch of other species of fish and God-knows-what-else in the food chain, after Lake St. Catherine was bombed last year with the herbicide Sonar.

In the long run, he said, the bass population at the lake will suffer, because of the chemical. The cover that largemouth and other species of fish so depend upon is gone, thanks to Sonar.

For $300,000 to pay for the herbicide, the Lake St. Catherine Association managed to rid the lake of "most" of the milfoil. The result? A lake that has been "bombed" out, Lynch said.

This is yet another example of how the "haves" manage to dictate policy to those who "have not." The Lake St. Catherine Association is made up of lakefront property owners who have just had it up to here with the pesky weed.

Solution? Chemicals — our dear, old friend of the 20th Century.

Fishermen around the state should hang their heads in shame that such a thing as poisoning a lake took place with hardly a whimper.

Meanwhile, a news article on the front page of the Herald earlier this month went on and on about the so-called benefits of the killer chemical.

But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the story was how several spokesmen bad-mouthed organized bass-fishing tournaments and the perceived threat that they pose of bringing milfoil and zebra mussels — both exotic species — into Lake St. Catherine.

"Those (bass) boats are in all kinds of lakes all over the place," First Constable David Murray was quoted as saying.

By bass tournaments, they're talking generally about the Rutland County Bassmasters.

Nowhere in the story does anyone talk about the public use of the lake. Hundreds, if not thousands, of boaters, fishermen, jet skiers, what have you, use that lake every spring, summer and fall. Yet, when it comes to boaters using the lake, there were no fewer than six references to bass fishing tournaments in the news story. The other users? Nary a word.

Let's put it in perspective. These men and women who fish the tournament trail in Lake Bomoseen, Lake Champlain, Lake St. Catherine and in other Vermont bodies of water are not some bunch of Bozos who have no sense of what is environmentally sound. I suspect that the members of Bassmasters are probably some of the most enlightened, environmentally aware sportsmen around.

Many of them are successful Vermonters who spend a good deal of money on their sport. They take it very seriously.

So why did the bass anglers come under such criticism in that news story?

I don't know what's going on, but it sounds like some folks in the Lake St. Catherine Association have it in for the bass seekers. Maybe some of the lake residents just can't tolerate having those nasty bass anglers running up and down "their" lake, at all hours of the morning during their — get this — two bass tournaments a year.

It is safe to say that the local Bassmasters are, to an angler, quite aware of the "problem" of milfoil. They also know, as did the late Tom Evanoika, that milfoil is here to stay. That is, unless you intend to bomb your lake every three or four years, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, all for the sake of some lakefront property owners who have grown tired of cleaning milfoil from around their docks.

Maybe the lake association folks should be reminded of one critical fact: They own the lake front, not the lake.

You'd think we would have learned our lessons about chemicals by now. DDT, Agent Orange, the list goes on and on. Do we really know the long-term effects of Sonar? How closely is this herbicide being monitored? By whom?

Meanwhile, there is talk going around now that Lake Bomoseen might be next on the "Let's dump some chemicals on the problem" mindset.

I fish that lake. I treasure that lake. My kids learned how to swim and caught plenty of fish in that lake. It has milfoil, lots of milfoil. It is also loaded with largemouth bass.

With Lake Hortonia nuked to the north and Lake St. Catherine Sonared to the south, is it only a matter of time before Lake Bomoseen becomes Lake Bomboseen?

Lynch, the president of the Rutland chapter, lives just across the road from Lake Bomoseen. If there is any talk about applying herbicides to the lake, the Bassmasters want to be part of the process, he said.

"We want to be involved in the discussions about the application of the Sonar in Lake Bomoseen," Lynch said.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one too, Jim. There is no discussion.

I'll take the milfoil. For me, the issue is closed: Keep your stinking chemicals out of Lake Bomoseen.