The results are in!  The Prior Lake-Spring Lake Watershed District is happy to announce that we’ve completed two winter seines so far this year on Upper Prior Lake, one on March 2-3rd and the other one on March 5th. 

Successful first seine: The first one successfully removed over FIVE TONS of carp from Upper Prior Lake!  This was the District’s first time using underwater speakers and block nets to “herd” carp into the removal areas.  It worked like a charm and will definitely be a tool we’ll use on future seines.

How did the second seine go?  The commercial fishermen had a nice aggregation of carp in the haul area to start with.  This was our first time putting the nets into this portion of the lake, and we weren’t sure what to expect.  While the fishermen didn’t run into any obstructions on the bottom of the lake like trees and cinderblocks (as we did on Spring Lake earlier this year), they got caught in the mud several times.  This forced the fishermen to stop pulling in the nets and go find the snag to release it out of the mud, allowing time for carp to find ways to escape the seine haul.  Only 100 pounds of carp were removed from the lake today, but what we learned from this new netting area will make the next attempt in this area more successful!  The fishermen are now experienced at netting this area, and if the carp group up here again, we’ll have a game plan to trap them.

Wish I had been there to see it!  No problem – we’ve go you covered!  Click below to see a video to see footage from the seine and a recap of how both the seine events went.

So what’s next?  The District isn’t done removing carp from Upper Prior Lake!  We still have many tricks up our sleeve to get the job done including open water seines this spring, box traps, electrofishing removals, and stocking bluegills (to name a few!).  Please click here to learn more about the District’s Integrated Pest Management Plan for Carp and ways that you can help. You can follow the District’s carp removal activities on our Carp Removal Updates page or email kkeller-miller@plslwd.org to be added to the carp seine notification list.