Lake Lowell news.

[hooknhunter]

http://www.jrn.com/kivitv/news/Feds-ease...58651.html
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[Squarehog]

I say the surf boats are fine. As long as they don't damage fish nesting Beds..I do enjoy birds.. But in my eyes, the reservoir should favor human usage, and fish management should be priority . Not bird usage. The fish are pretty well stuck in the lake.. The birds can go somewhere else to nest and live if need be. What i'm concerned about is population of carp that apparently can't be controlled. They decimate the panfish population by eating the eggs. This is our local reservoir, built for the farming community of the lower treasure valley. It provides great entertainment for a growing community and should be utilized and managed for the people. Imo!
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[Mojo1]

My OPINION is that wake generators are bad. I have about $2,000.00 worth of damage to my jet boat from a wake board boat that threw me in to the rocks at Strike. By the time I picked myself up off the floor, they were too far away to see the numbers. I saw a kid pitched out of his dad or grampa's boat at Lucky Peak because of waves from a couple of wake boats. I hate them.

HOWEVER, once we start kicking individual user groups off any body of water, it opens the door for the powers that be to start picking other user groups to kick off. At that point it becomes "which user groups get what lakes". Should we limit Lowell to fishing only, Lucky Peak to only waterski and wake boats, etc...?

Instead, I believe we as a population should educate all users as to the possible impacts created by the toys they have, and that they are fiscally responsible for damages they incur (Federal Laws regulate wake damage by the way). And having focused enforcement of rules and regulations. Inform users on Lowell that if they stay away from the floating vegetation areas, they will not impact the nesting grebes. This will reduce the impacts to these birds, and also reduce the likelihood of mandated legal restrictions. Next step should be the USF&WS posting buoys around the nesting bird areas so people can reduce wakes there. Beats the heck out of kicking all wake boats off the lake.
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[idahoron]

Well said!
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[SmartWeed]

Over my many years of fishing Lake Lowell, I have seen many nesting grebes. Usually, they nest like this:


or like this:


Note that these grebes are nesting on pads of bull rushes and dead smartweed stems. Also note that the smartweed is just starting to emerge in these photos. I have yet to see my first grebe nest in the smartweed beds - but I will concede that they do nest there.

I don't believe in boats disturbing the grebes, or me as a wading fisherman, but I don't really believe that wakes create a problem for nesting grebes. If that were so, they'd never nest in the smartweed beds. Lake Lowell was a mass of 1-2' whitecaps yesterday due to the wind. The wind creates far greater waves on Lake Lowell than boaters. I also believe the birds have learned this and do not nest where the nests will be destroyed by high waves. Back in the trees the wakes do not impact the nesting grebes or coots. I see lots of coot nests also, but they don't dance across the water as nice as the grebes, so we won't worry about them.
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[97sx]

Spot on about the wind Smartweed!

I have been out there when the wind has blown me off the water because waves were crashing over my boat...never been out there when the waves from other boaters sent me off the lake.
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[StacyR]

I certainly wouldn't mind if they put a no-wake speed limit on Lowell or restricted it to electric motors only.

Those fools who zoom up and down the lake on jetskis or pulling waterskiers/wakeboards and blasting their stereos can all go to hell (or Lucky Peak) as far as I'm concerned.
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[dtayboyz]

Like the fools who anchor in the narrows at Cj and then get attitude about the boats going by. It is what it is. They ought to only allow veterans with bass boats at Lowell. Lol
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[Duck-Slayer]

some good opinions and some seriously lop sided ones also.... make it equal for everyone than there shouldn't be a problem, just need more enforcement and education for the user's on the lake that don't know squat....
Matt

Oh and don't forget it's a free country by the way, some of us made sure of that.....[fishon]
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