YOUR MOST IMMEDIATE SOURCE OF CANDLEWICK LAKE NEWS, EVENTS, AND OPINION.
THIS SITE IS INDEPENDENT FROM THE CANDLEWICK LAKE HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

How many will remember this?

I have mentioned before we have lived here almost thirty years. The entire time our association has been fighting to have a close to pristine lake. I was thinking back a couple days ago and remembering some of the earlier fiascos.
How many of you remember the time we decided to drain several feet of water from the lake so we could bring in heavy equipment to dredge Fisherman's Cove and the Dip? The lake was drained and the equipment started at Fisherman's Cove where the Cat was immediately mired in feet of silt and sludge. It sat there for what seems like weeks until something was found that could pull it out. 
Now it was time to refill the lake, which took a lot of time due it being in the summer. Well, the huge exposed land mass decided to grow those tall weeds kids use as spears you see often next to fields. They turn white as they die and are at least as big around as your thumb. They stood into the winter as a testament to our utter failure. The spring melt refilled our now disgusting lake.
When the water was again high enough for me to get my boat out through the weeds I would have to make a path and I put tin foil on an occasional weed so I could find my way back to my pier using a flashlight if it was getting dark. From the lake the entire area in front of our place for a good distance out looked like a wall of white sticks. I am not kidding. You should have witnessed this.
(YEAH, RIGHT!)
Later I was on the Fishing Committee (now called Lake Management.) I believe it was Bruce Minch who was our biologist at the time. As I recall it made sense to put Triploid Carp in the lake because they eat weeds and we were buried in weeds. The first year nothing happened so in our great wisdom we decided we needed to hit it again with another stocking. You guessed it, that is where those submarines we now see cruising the lake came from. We now even allow bow hunting trying to get rid of those bottom stirring monstrosities that can weight fifty pounds.
Why bring these things up? Every year it seems there is something new and better. (SURE!) This year we are deciding on a harvester, a skimmer, or a biological approach with muck eating microbes. The newest idea is the microbial treatment and further investigation into that approach is ongoing. The Lord only knows what is next.........
Ken