They hit the reefs on the East side a lot harder than in West Cove.
They only hit the reefs on the West side after the East area closed due to someone getting sick.
9 Mile Cut, Steam Engine, Washout and all the reefs North of the Old Jettys were pretty much wiped out. The bottom is still hard, but not as many oysters. Just a few that were culled and thrown back.
Towards the end of the season, they opened up the whole lake. We saw a bunch of them dredging all of the newer artificial reefs in the lake.
They didn't hit much of Turners cause it is full of clams.
I banged around the bottoms with a PVC pipe Thurs. night to see what it felt like at different places. Lots of hard bottom. Not much oysters.
They will fish themselves out of a job real soon. Allowing dredges in Big Lake and allowing an individual to have several boats is going to wipe them out.
If they go back to tonging and allow a license per individual instead of allowing a person to have a license for 5 boats, the oysters will outlast them.
Dredging makes it too easy to catch oysters.
Before dredging, it took them half a day to all day to catch 15 sacks.
Now they can do it in 3 hours and it is very easy with the dredge. Not as much work.
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