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Chamber of Commerce to Manage Fishing Tournaments

Posted

HUNTINGDON (May 25) — Carroll County Chamber of Commerce was granted the rights to administer future fishing tournaments on the Carroll County 1000-Acre Recreational Lake. During a meeting of the Carroll County Watershed Authority on Tuesday, May 25, the board voted unanimously to administer the tournaments, including the annual Bassmaster Junior High tournament. Each tournament will bear a $500 fee to help fund the fish population management.
The plan also calls for the Chamber to be part of the management of the fish population and to raise funds to stock 20,000 threadfin shad in the lake by June 15, 2021 at a cost of approximately $4,100. The shad are bait fish for bass.
Brad Hurley, president of The Chamber, said a leading expert on fish biologist said the lake is “bass crowded.” There are too many predators for the amount of prey. The bass find enough food to survive but don’t grow very fast and get stunted. The lake is a little bass factory, pumping out more and more each year. The lake has a lack of harvest by anglers and insufficient forage to feed that many hungry mouths.
The Authority members approved a four-point plan including the infusion of bait shad, granting the Chamber authority to manage tournaments and assess a $500 fee per tournament for fish care, the CCWA to monitor the fish catch of boats exiting the lake to assure only one fish 16 inches or greater are harvested, and fourth, the CCWA and Chamber will launch a campaign requesting anglers to keep small fish instead of catching and releasing.
Authority members also learned David Rush, lake manager, has resigned and an interim manager is in charge.
Two new private boat docks were approved. The first was for Heath Spain in Sportsman Cover and the second was for George and Melissa Climer on Angler’s Point.

Several residents around the lake voiced their concerns for the lake.
Marco Taaffe, who owns real estate on Reedy Creek Road, complained about persons littering and partying on the nearby dead-end road. He said there is no signage concerning trespassing. He has cleared drug paraphernalia from the area. He requested the road be closed.
Authority Chairman Natalie Porter said the first thing is to install signage on the road.
Cyril Ostiguy, who is not a resident of the lake, expressed concern about the increasing number of private boat docks on the lake. He said he recently watched a documentary of a lake that became overpopulated by private docks.
One suggestion was to lower the application fee for a community dock, so fewer, but larger docks could serve more area residents.
Presently, the one-time fee of $5,000 is for a single dock plus a $100 annual fee for years two through 10 and $25 for years 11-plus.
The community dock application fee is $5,000 multiplied by the number of slips plus the ongoing fees associated with a single dock.