Post by moose1am on Nov 29, 2014 9:08:42 GMT -5
Well I'm pretty sure that today is the opening of water fowl hunting season in the South Zone in Indiana.
Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife Area's lakes are all closed to fishing as of today and it's time to let the Waterfowl hunters have the place to themselves this morning.
I think that hunting waterfowl starts at 1/2 hr before sunrise and ends at noon at Bluegrass F&W area's lakes.
I'm curious as to how many people actually hunt ducks out there on these pits.
The following pits were sprayed with a herbicide via aerial spraying:
Shoveler
Scalup
Buck
Ringneck
Greenwing
Widgeon
Puddler
They were surrounded by Phragmite and the IDNR decided to spray the vegetation to help provide better shoreline fishing from what I understood. These aerial spraying was performed from Oct 13th though Oct 17th 2014.
I'm curious if one can see the results of the spraying yet. I have been out there after the spraying in Oct but didn't really notice anything had changed that much. Maybe the Phragmite had turned a little brown but it was still standing and all around most of these pits. So I'm going to have to get back out there and see if they Phragmite is dead or not. Maybe I should first do a Google Search to see exactly what Phragmite is. LOL. I'm assuming that it's the tall grass that surrounds these pits but I'm just guessing right now.
Well here is the answer to my question:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phragmites
That's what I figured it was but it's always good to double check and be accurate.
But here is the twist. If they kill the Phragmite grass the duck hunters will lose valuable hiding spots for waterfowl hunting around the edges of these smaller pits. Yes the fishermen will get better access to the lakes but at a cost to the water fowl hunters. I not too upset as I fish more than I hunt water fowl these days. But the guys who like to hunt ducks out there might want to know that the area has been sprayed with a Herbicide. I'm not sure what type of herbicide they used or how long it's residues stick around in the grass, land or water. Its' obviously toxic to Phragmite but who knows what it might do to animal tissue or fish or the other plants in the area. Or how long it might stick around and leave breakdown products on the land. Obviously the IDNR chose it for a reason. But they didn't give that information out in the Notices that were posted in the area right before they sprayed the area. They did notify the public to avoid the area during the spraying time period as they posted notices that the area was closed during the aerial spraying on those dates.
