Holiday Boat Parade this Sunday – Dec 21st, 5:30pm
Calling all kayakers, bargers and boaters to meet out in the middle of the lake at 5:30pm on Sunday, December 21, for ELRA’s Holiday Boat Parade!
We encourage participants to add holiday lights or decorations to their watercraft… we’ve even seen whole Christmas trees on barges and kayakers wearing their Christmas lights. The holiday boat parade is a wonderful way for Enchanted Lake residents to celebrate the season. We hope to see you out there!!
ELRA Board Members will be making house calls
ELRA board members will be paying short visits to homeowners around the lake early in the coming year. We want to hear your concerns and ideas, and this will be an ideal time for you to learn more about the management of the lake.
The board member that will be stopping by lives in your neighborhood and will be able to answer many of your questions about the lake.
For more information, please email Michele Compton at mmcompton@juno.com.
Take the Legislative Survey
Lake-side residents are all in Senator Laura Thielen’s District 25, and if you voted in the last 2 elections, you should have received her legislative report with a survey about upcoming issues. If you neglected to mail in your survey (closes Dec. 26), you can fill out the survey online at https://www.senatorlaurathielen.com/2015-legislative-survey/
There’s a spot to write in suggestions or concerns. You may want to write about problems that we face as lake-front residents, such as damage to lakes, streams and oceans caused by storm-runoff from developments with large areas of cleared land.
Papio in the pond
The fish populations of the pond change every season and every year in response to a wide number of variables. This year, for whatever reason, the pond has been blessed with an abundance of juvenile ama ama (Hawaiian mullet, Mugil cephalus), and papio (Jacks, Caranx ignobilis). While mullet populations rise and fall year to year, this is the first year since at least 2000, that papio have been regular inhabitants of Enchanted Lake. These fish likely entered our pond last winter or spring as eggs or babies, and have grown initially on the abundant zooplankton in the water, then on the many invertebrates living in the mud on the bottom of the pond. At present, the fish seem to range from about 3 inch to about 10 inches and up to a pound in weight. These one-pounders appear to be eating small tilapia.
The minimum size to capture and keep these fish is one-pound – or about 10 inches. They can be caught on small casting lures, but be sure to flatten the barbs on your hooks to make it easier to release the fish without serious damage. It is likely that when the stream opens to the ocean, many of the fish will escape back to the sea, but by this time next year those fish that remain will be about a foot long and several pounds in weight. Hawaiians give a different name to these same fish once they are over about a foot long – – Ulua. In the ocean ulua grow to more than 3 feet long and more than 100 pounds in about 7 years. Nobody knows how big an ulua will grow when chowing down on a bunch of fat dumb tilapia. This should be interesting.
Bob has ordered some special fish tags for fishermen who wish to catch, measure, tag and release their papio back to the pond. Any fishermen interested in participating, please drop him an email (rebourke2003@yahoo.com).