Indian Lake Little Ferry Report 5/19/19

[BergenBassin]

Originally Posted by steve392

The town's dpw has cut down area's along the banks but this stuff just spawns new offshoots and grows back again. The area around the dock is now becoming infested with this stuff a good 20 feet out from shore.

The whole area were brick pits. The old valley fair which is now H mart was one and filled in with trash. Alll the apartments along the area were small pits too.

A week or two ago I reached out to a NJF&W north jersey regional biologist about the problem, a week later I recieve an email back from him thanking me for reaching out and that he attempted to call the township to discuss treating the weeds and will continue to reach out until he has an answer. I also sent him pictures of the condition there.

I also brought up with him the possibility of the state stocking a species like grass carp that can naturally control the aquatic vegetation, before the fish kill I believe the pond had a fair population of common carp that got in from the hackensack river.

If you also wish to reach out and put more pressure for the state to clean the pond up his email is Justin.Rozema@dep.nj.gov

[steve392]

Originally Posted by BergenBassin

A week or two ago I reached out to a NJF&W north jersey regional biologist about the problem, a week later I recieve an email back from him thanking me for reaching out and that he attempted to call the township to discuss treating the weeds and will continue to reach out until he has an answer. I also sent him pictures of the condition there.

I also brought up with him the possibility of the state stocking a species like grass carp that can naturally control the aquatic vegetation, before the fish kill I believe the pond had a fair population of common carp that got in from the hackensack river.

If you also wish to reach out and put more pressure for the state to clean the pond up his email is Justin.Rozema@dep.nj.gov

The lake was in great shape prior to that kill off. Thank you for taking the time to reach out to them.

[BergenBassin]

Originally Posted by steve392

The lake was in great shape prior to that kill off. Thank you for taking the time to reach out to them.

Received an email from the regional biologist a few weeks back regarding the situation at Indian Lake.

The email below
"Hi there,



I spoke with Little Ferry’s DPW and am glad to report they have heard anglers’ suggestions and are already currently taking steps towards hiring an aquatic consultant to begin treating the weeds in Indian Lake next year. They are still in the early stages of the process, so they were unable to provide me with a more detailed plan as to when or how the weeds will be treated yet."

[steve392]

Originally Posted by BergenBassin

Received an email from the regional biologist a few weeks back regarding the situation at Indian Lake.

The email below
"Hi there,



I spoke with Little Ferry’s DPW and am glad to report they have heard anglers’ suggestions and are already currently taking steps towards hiring an aquatic consultant to begin treating the weeds in Indian Lake next year. They are still in the early stages of the process, so they were unable to provide me with a more detailed plan as to when or how the weeds will be treated yet."

AWESOME NEWS!!!

[RAMMFISH66]

That is great news..was a good local pond back when and it needs to be put back into a "fishing" pond.
Overgrowth gotta go!!!

[steve392]

DPW was using a backhoe and digging up the weeds/reeds or whatever they are along the banks yesterday. Hopefully its a start to keeping it clear.

[steve392]

DPW has done an amazing job so far with removing all this plant life. Hoping there is more work to be done in terms of adding fish or some kind of waterlife safe herbicide to the lake to combat this stuff long term.

[oelgnal1]

Be careful what you wish for, and I think that a "safe Herbicide" may be an oxymoron, at least from what I've seen over the years. Eco systems can be complex, and a band aid approach may be all you get for such a small body of water. Back in the 70's, I worked a few minutes away and would sometimes go at lunchtime for a few casts, usually during trout season. As I recall it's connected to the river and killies were in there. Keep in mind that when the weeds die, they will decay, and the herbicides don't always discriminate between the good and bad weeds even when you are told they do. I hope that you are right with your optimism because it was once pretty good years ago for the area.

[BergenBassin]

Originally Posted by steve392

DPW was using a backhoe and digging up the weeds/reeds or whatever they are along the banks yesterday. Hopefully its a start to keeping it clear.

I spoke to the regional biologist about what they were and apparently they're those meadowland weeds. I forgot the exact name but it begins with a P. Also asked him about the possibility of the DPW stocking grass carp to control the hydrilla but apparently the carp wouldn't be good for the pond because they would only eat the plants and the algea blooms would be really bad. I think they're probably gonna use aquatic herbicides or something along those lines. What they really need to do is just rip all those weeds put by the roots or draw down the pond in the winter so it dies off naturally from the cold.

[BergenBassin]

Originally Posted by oelgnal1

Be careful what you wish for, and I think that a "safe Herbicide" may be an oxymoron, at least from what I've seen over the years. Eco systems can be complex, and a band aid approach may be all you get for such a small body of water. Back in the 70's, I worked a few minutes away and would sometimes go at lunchtime for a few casts, usually during trout season. As I recall it's connected to the river and killies were in there. Keep in mind that when the weeds die, they will decay, and the herbicides don't always discriminate between the good and bad weeds even when you are told they do. I hope that you are right with your optimism because it was once pretty good years ago for the area.

After the fish kill those pipes that connected it to the hackensack river were closed off by the ground dirt or plants. At least on the side of the pond where the H mart is. After fishing it again for a year I haven't seen any river fish like eels or white perch and even carp. So far the pond seems to be only filled with stocked trout in the spring, bass and catfish and sunnies. We used to catch crazy stuff in there back in the day. Used to be big pet kois were dumped in there.