So we made our annual trip to SD the last week of May and as usual we weren't disappointed. It was a great week of smallies and largies, and a few walleye by accident. Staying in the Waubay area we went to launch on Enemy Swim the first morning and were greeted by a parks and wildlife crew checking all inputting boats for Zebra Mussels. They wanted a name rank and serial number on me and the boat. Inspected live wells, tilted the motor down for any residual drainage and wanted to know the last body of water I had been on. Since the wind was blowing 45 mph from a different direction everyday we didn't have the opportunity to fish any other lakes so we fished ES everyday and everyday it was the same thing with the P&W crew there to greet us at 6am every morning. Same questions, same checks. I asked them on the first day of our inspection if and where there was a zebra mussel issue and they told me that they have been found on Pickerel but no other lake yet and they were trying to keep it that way. Understood. My inquiring mind immediately asked that if Pickerel was the only lake with a known infestation problem, wouldn't all of the other lakes be better protected if they set up a boat cleaning station on Pickerel and hot washed every boat coming off instead of trying to post a team at every launch on every other lake which is an impossible feat. They said the funds weren't allocated to support such a cleaning station. Mmmm? We had planned to fish Pickerel during the week but when they told me that if I go there they would be required to hook the muffs up to my motor and run hot water through it for about ten minutes. I wasn't trying to be an a$$ about it but I had to ask, "and who is responsible for replacing or rebuilding my motor if it craters while you're running it?" They hadn't even thought about that and said they would have to ask and get back to me. Sorry, but I've never ran an outboard on water muffs. It may be perfectly safe but I never have and never will for ten minutes running a 120 degree hot water solution through it like they wanted to do. Needless to say we didn't fish Pickerel that week because I would not have been able to lie about being there when asked and I was not going to run/flush my motor. For what it's worth, we did check out the east ramp on Waubay one morning but the wind was going to keep us from where we wanted to fish so we didn't launch. There was no GP&W team there checking boats. We did fish Roy one day and same, no crew checking boats. Pickerel is not a huge lake so if this is where the infestation has been identified then why not clean the boats that are coming off it? This could be a manifested and more costly problem in the future for more SD as well as out of state lakes. The logic defies me
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Macsimus
