Christmas Lake, How the fishing and access?, How is the Lake?

Just wondering if anybody has been out there and how the lake is doing after all the Chemicals and Zequanox they’ve dumped into that lake?

One friend has said the water Clarity is worst he’s seen it in 20 years, Lures now disappear after 10-12′ vs 20′ plus previous to the Zebra Mussel eradication experiments (Dumping in Zequanox, Copper Sulfate, Potash {Potassium chloride}). The water appears cloudy, Not clear like it used to be.

In the Treated Bay near the access, he says the weeds are thicker than ever. (I guess when you dump Fertilizer {Potash} on them, they Grow big and hearty).

As far as Fishing, he hasn’t found any big schools of Sunfish as in all previous years. In the past it would take him less than 2-hours in the morning to get a mess of panfish for a meal, usually 12-15, many times less than and hour without moving. This year it takes lots of moving around to find them, getting 2-3 then having to move to another spot.

Just wondering what others have experienced?

PS: The City of Shorewood Installed a Security Camera at the Access to view what’s happening.

They have a Link on their webpage, but I cannot access it and neither can another friend?

I agree that the water clarity does not seem to be as good. The fishing has been different this year, I can’t say It was really worse or better, just that the fish were not as deep as they normally are. In addition to these treatments, we have had some odd weather the last 2 seasons. In 2014, it was still cold/snowing in may. This year, I launched my boat on March 31st!

Size is another issue, but I don’t think that’s directly related to the treatments. Over the last few years, the average size of the sunfish in xmas has really started going down. My theory has been that there are too many big ones being kept, so I always try to release bigger ones when I catch them and just eat more of the average sized fish.

As far as my catch rate this year, I saw slightly more crappies than usual, slightly less sunnies and only a few very small examples of other species like northern and bass.

The landing is different now too. The new ramp is less steep, which is probably a good thing. There is an entire parking spot dedicated to the decon machine, and another parking spot that is completely blocked with the concrete slabs from the old ramp. So there are 2 less parking spots for boat/trailer combos. The decon machine is now required for all wakeboard boats and any boat that is not dry. If you frequent this lake, they will give you a tag for your boat that lets you launch next time without an inspection, assuming you don’t break the tag by launching (it’s basically a zip tie that goes through your bow eye and trailer that will break when you launch). Despite feeling like you are in a sci fi movie and being quaranteened, the decon isn’t as big of a deal as it looks. As long as your boat is dry, and you aren’t coming from a zeeb infested lake, the inspection is a quick minute of your time. The only hassle at that point is getting stuck waiting behind another boat that is being decon’d, but I have only experienced that once.

They want everybody to believe that even with the number of boats coming and going out of the access for the 2-3 weeks between discovery of the Zebra Mussels and the closure that they were NOT transported or otherwise moved out of the bay with the access.

They also want us to believe that with all the scuba gear on and searching under water looking through a mask that they didn’t miss any Zebra Mussels during their search.

I have to ask:
What person with common sense would believe that in an area say 2-acres in size (approx. 87,000 square feet) with a depth from waters edge to 6 or 7 feet of water stuffed full of Aquatic Plants that they did not miss finding a single Zebra Mussel. An Organism at the time the size of 10-11 mm (I.E.: the white of an average man’s finger nail or smaller)?

Now, add the over 267 acres of the lake with depths to 87 feet, but only 77 acres less than 15 feet. Now they say they search many areas and didn’t find any other Zebra Mussel’s, do you believe that they would have found something that small in a lake of that size?

Even if they were possibly only in the Littoral area (<15ft deep) that is 3,354,000 square ft; now if we assume an average depth in this zone of 5ft that is 16,770,600 cubic ft pretty choked with weeds (aquatic plants). And they didn’t miss a single Zebra Mussel?

I say from my research on Zebra Mussel life cycles to give it 3-4 years from the discovery last August, then do a comprehensive search. Average growth rates per the experts they (MnDNR, MCWD, & Christmas Lake Assoc.) brought in say 18-24 months to reach breeding maturity. Let’s assume only 1-pair (a Male & a Female survive in Breeding proximity to one another) to breed. This puts the first batch of Christmas Lake born Veligers coming in the Spring-Summer of 2016. Likely you won’t see these until they reach Maturity, so add another 18-months to see the masses of these Zebra Mussels and this puts us at a minimum the fall of 2017 or more likely the Spring of 2018.

In the mean time be patient friends, we have 2-4 years to find they I was wrong or they were wrong.

The Lakeshore Owners have had the Lake Private to themselves most of last Fall and early this Spring and again later when they closed it over the Fourth of July. Just what they really wanted, Private Lake!

It would be nice to see that no lawn area’s are maintained within 25-50 feet of the water’s edge. No Chemical’s dumped into the Lake and Ban any person or company from removing and treating any aquatic plants, Verify there are No Septic Systems still in use.

Attachments:

1. 

   MnDNR_ChristmasLake_Depths.jpg
   

The parking lot situation is really getting ridiculous here. The last 2 times I have tried to launch here, all of the parking spots were full. When I went this weekend, there were 2 stalls with trailers, the trailers were small, probably for 12-14′ boats. All of the other stalls were filled with cars that did not have trailers. I asked the inspector if these cars were swimmers, and why there were so many of them. The inspector told me that all of the non-trailered cars came with the 2 small boats. Based on the size of these trailers, I can’t believe these boats were rated for more than 2-3 people each. Both tow vehicles were easily capable of holding 4-5 passengers, and they apparently got there right at 6am. I just can’t believe anyone would be this inconsiderate, unless the intention was to keep the public from using the lake. Of course, without a parking space, I couldn’t launch and see if there were as many people in these boats as there were cars parked at the launch. But regardless of whether this was an evil plot by homeowners or just a group of people meeting there to fish, what a bunch of jerks.

According to others that have fished the lake for years, this used to happen quite frequently.

One time he was launching on a Sunday morning (Before the Gates) and when he pulled up to park a woman had just took the last stall and still in her nightgown and robe got into a car with her husband (Boyfriend, whatever) and they drove off. He had to load his boat up and go elsewhere.

From a recent weekday evening visit, there were 3-open stalls and the inspector was parked in the stall with the Decontamination Unit.

Oh, yes, there is a Camera mounted on a Pole near the entrance, viewable from the internet.

http://www.ci.shorewood.mn.us/

http://clha.wirepathdns.com/

I get an error saying Google Chrome needs additional files to view the camera, but then it wants a user name and password?

My assumption is the web address clha is Christmas Lake Homeowners Association.

I emailed the City Manager & Mayor and City Clerk along with cc to KSTP News Joe Augustine. Maybe they’ll start asking questions?

I was able to view the camera on my phone tonight. It was dark but saw some bugs moving on the screen.
DT

The camera works for me right now. Assuming it’s active all the time, it’s actually pretty cool. This way I will know if there are spots available before I even hook up my boat.