Weed Problem in My Bass River

[noel411]

I live on the mid-north coast of NSW and have a river that I regularly fish for bass. It's usually fairly productive. However, 2 summers ago it started to get choked with weed quite badly towards the end of the season. I didn't fish there at all through winter of last year, and only returned last spring. The weed was still very bad, and each time I have returned it has been subsequently worse. The last couple of times I've been out there the weed problem has been absolutely terrible, and there has been no sign that there are still any bass there despite hours of throwing around previously successful lures.

I've been hoping that we'd get some heavy rain up here and it would flush the weed out. Well we've had the heavy rain but the weed problem has only gotten worse. Last week when I was out there, there were long stretches of the river that were choked with weed literally from one bank across to the opposite bank, as evidenced in my pictures.

Do these weeds need oxygen to grow? Would this choke up the whole river and wipe out all the bass? Who can I contact about this problem? Do I just contact the appropriate council? What other problems does/can this amount of weed cause?

[rayken1938]

In NSW the responsible body is Department of Primary Industries but they recommend contacting your local council weed officer.
it is a bit hard to identify without a close up of the leaves.
A fairly reliable method of telling if it is a pest weed is if the leaves are opposite each other on the stem.
If no joy from council try contacting
Fiona McPherson
At Aquatic Weeds early detection Project
PMB 2 Grafton NSW 2460
ph 0266401692
or email fiona.mcpherson@dpi.nsw.gov.au
More than likely its salvinia which is fairly controlled with a combination of a weevil and spraying.
In the meantime please practice a bit of hygene with your boat and trailer so that you dont transfer it to other waterways.
Cheers
Ray

[noel411]

Cheers. Thanks for the info.

[shayned]

Nice work Ray.

Try take some close up pics of leaves, stems, flowers(if any) and roots. Post it here and we will give you a pretty good i.d. and how to treat. If it is Sylvania you are right in thinking it can kill off fish or cause them to move away.

For now though clean everything you used there within an inch of its life otherwise you will spread it.