First Day Out on Lake Austin

What is a hydrilla?

It’s a freshwater weed that grows in ~70 degree water. It’s not native to Texas, and Lake Austin is infested with it. They’ve been trying to get it under control for years.

This looks awesome, with the weather we have had in Tulsa, I haven’t been able to take my boat out yet. It looks like its going to be a month or so yet. So yeah…….I’m jealous man.

Ahhhh Lake season!!! That is the great thing about Lake County Florida…we have lake season all year except for maybe 2-3 weeks. Hope you guys had a blast!!

Seems fun, I guess living in a desert has it’s drawbacks, LOL.

Another benefit of having the lake down to kill the hydrilla is that anyone wanting crawfish has great access to them – if they don’t mind the mud.

Sounds like some of the weed issues they were having back in Minnesota. On one of the lakes I used to go to they had floating harvesters that would go around in the spring and fall pulling out as much weed as possible. Can’t remember the name of the stuff but it was not native ether. Never heard of draining a lake every year.

regarding the challenges of Hydrilla…. Cant comment on that but I know about milfoil which might be almost as bad. There is a website here in Minnesota that has alot of stuff for both of those weeds. its http://www.LakeWeeds.MN I have bought a few items there but I mainly go there for the advice and the educational videos

James,

Lake Austin is a section of river with a dam on either end. They just shut off the water flowing into that section of the river, and the water level drops fast. They try to time it with the freezing weather to kill off the hydrilla.

Hey Eric, That is pretty Kool surfing behind a boat. A friend of mine was telling me about that. I live and surf here in Hawaii. Is that one of those boats that you can let water in the back end to make the wake? I heard some of them can as high as 4 feet. Not as big as I would prefer, but sure would be fun behind a boat :)

Hey Jeff. We were on a Mastercraft X-45, which comes stock w/ fat sacks (w/ remote pumps.) We throw in a couple of extras that we manually pump to get the wake higher. Wakesurfing is definitely fun, but I’m sure it doesn’t even come close to Hawaii. Personally, I like hitting the wakeboard better.

If you ever have a reason to come to town, hit me up – I’d be more than happy to take you out!

Hey Eric, That sounds great! Same with you if you ever come to Hawaii. Late….

Oh man I love going on lakes, they are pretty awesome. Do the weeds cause problems for the local ecosystem? Is that why they try and kill it off? Don’t let others give you a hard time cause you want your core protected from colder weather. I mean isn’t it survival of the fittest? ;)