7 million bats die from WNS: ‘We can’t stop this thing......"

[MrRiplEy[H]]

You can keep your EBL2 over there where it belongs.  And it sounds like you have a better chance of winning the lotto and getting struck by lightning than dying from a bat bite.

Ok whatever. You go hanging around bat nests all you like then

[PFactorDave]

I troll at night with a stealth electric and little planer boards on my lines, drilled and little chemical nightsticks put in them so's I can register a bite. After a while by watching the light you can tell the difference between your rapala knicking cabbage tops, a good place to be, and a walleye picking at your bait. Remove the front trebel for less hangups and be veeeery, veeery quiet. Electronics keeps you on the edge of structure and deep drop offs and a line counter reel will let you know exactly how deep your lure is going. Jointed Rebel Blackstars were deadly on drop offs. Chartreuse most of all in clear water at night. For a 3rd line you could even run one long, long line. But inline planers will outproduce long lines 3 to 1.

I never fished Twin Bear but Ive seen it. That LONG troll on the east side is perfect for night planering. You want long planer runs over straight structure most of all if running 2 to 6 lines. You outside line will be set to run deeper and your inside will run more shallow. The big thing is quiet. I even lined the bottom of my boat with old carpet to prevent banging cause MR. Walleye has veeeeery good hearing.

That's similar to how we do it.  Twin Bear used to be great for crappie too, but in the 80s there was an invasion of a particular crayfish species that decimated the weed beds.  Thirty years later and the crappie population has never recovered.  Lots of smallish bass and stunted blue gill.  We go through the narrows into Eagle Lake for crappie now.  Eagle has a different bottom that helped protect it from the crayfish, so the crappie are still plentiful there.

[Melvin]

Rusty crayfish are yummy.

Catch a bunch and let them clean out in clean water for a day or two. Boil them alive and enjoy.

(This is how I do my part to save the weed beds.)

 

EDIT: I love bats too. We have boatloads living in our sauna. The only time they bother me is when they run into my fishing line, thus exciting me to thinking I may have a bite.

[RedBull1]

Didnt see many this year in SE Pennsylvania.......we use to sit out on the deck and be dive bombed by the bats going after the bugs around one of the flood lights near our deck.......I think we say maybe 20 this year. We use to see 50+ a night.  Just sad

What City do you live in Bailey? Im in NEPA, Wilkes Barre/Scranton to be exact 

[Vudu15]

Sounds like the bats needed abit of thining out.....unless this was caused by some manmade problem...

[Megalodon]

Ok whatever. You go hanging around bat nests all you like then

You should see this then it's spectacular, even a large amphitheater for watching.

http://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/bat_flight_program.htm

We ride over there every few years watch the Bats and take one of the off trail hikes in the cave.

I hope this does not hit there in NM.

[Karnak]

Sounds like the bats needed abit of thining out.....unless this was caused by some manmade problem...

I don't think it was man made, but it was likely man facilitated.  A lot of epidemics are brought about by human trade that unintentionally provides transport for invasive species carrying non-native contagions into populations that have no resistance to the contagion.  A human example would be the bringing of small pox to the Americas by European explorers and colonists which then took a heavy toll on the native Americans who had no resistance to small pox.

So the bats do not need thinning out and while man likely played a role it was not man made.

[Shuffler]

The Congress Avenue Bridge spans Town Lake in downtown Austin Texas and is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America.  The colony is estimated at 1.5 million Mexican free-tail bats.   Each night from mid-March to November, the bats emerge from under the bridge at dusk to blanket the sky as they head out to forage for food.  This event has become one of the most spectacular and unusual tourist attractions in Texas.  The most spectacular bat flights are during hot, dry August nights, when multiple columns of bats emerge.  There are several points from which to view the event, and an information kiosk is located on the north bank of the river, just east of the bridge.

[Nathan60]

I heard  a quote somehwhere "Nature hates a vaccum,  everytime a species goes extinct something fills that void." If bats  go what fills thier void?

[Karnak]

I heard  a quote somehwhere "Nature hates a vaccum,  everytime a species goes extinct something fills that void." If bats  go what fills thier void?

It doesn't work promptly with sudden large die offs though.  If something gradually goes extinct it is often because the thing that will replace it is out competing with it for resources.  With rapid die offs the hole is sometimes left open for a long time before other organisms are able to adapt and take advantage of the resources that are now abundant and competition free.  This is likely even more the case when you're looking at something like insect eating bats as being a flying, nocturnal insectivore take a lot of specialized abilities to succeed as.

In some cases the hole that is opened by a die off can cause a cascading die off.  Phytoplankton, for example, serve as the base of the food pyramid in the ocean.  Kill those off and a die off leading all the way to the whales would result.  That sort of thing can be seen in some of the catastrophic mass extinction events in Earth's past.

[RTHolmes]

If bats  go what fills thier void?

even more bugs

[bozon]

Human are to blame!... yes.. with their cell phones that confuse the bat sonar and... CO2.. yes! CO2 emission from V8 cars. We should all drive hybrids!

[Karnak]

Human are to blame!... yes.. with their cell phones that confuse the bat sonar and... CO2.. yes! CO2 emission from V8 cars. We should all drive hybrids!

Shush now.  Adults are trying to have a conversation.

[mbailey]

What City do you live in Bailey? Im in NEPA, Wilkes Barre/Scranton to be exact 

About 1 1/2 hrs south of you......Little town called Center Valley (Upper Saucon Township) (near Allentown) were close-ish to Lehigh University.