Quote:
Originally Posted by Smalls
Can some of the land loss from 2005-2011 be attributed to the weirs? Certainly, but I'm certain it is not the overwhelming majority of that, but more likely a small percentage.
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You're probably right. Perhaps the more detrimental impact of leaving the weirs open from 2005-2011 is that it allowed anglers' skills to deteriorate as they became overly dependent on the effect of open weirs concentrating fish in locations were they were easy to find and catch.
Easy pickings at the weirs diverted angler attention from the destruction of essential oyster reef habitat on the E side (mostly summer 2010) and created the widespread misperception that wide open weirs are an essential part of sufficient forage in the lake, when the reality was more just making fish easy to catch.
The weirs were open far less in 2014, yet 2014 is the year where we've observed the best fish condition in specks and redfish. It seems that ample forage is entering the lake through the narrow fish slots, from the open Gulf, and being produced in the main lake itself without the need to put the marsh at risk with dangerously high salinities from keeping the weirs open.