Thanks for the update on this. I've been reading up online to get up to speed and everything I see points to this being a big issue - one that is not going away any time soon, if ever.

The idea of a database is interesting, but still complicated. Most lakes I fish use "iron rangers" to collect your money, ostensibly because the lakes are already strapped for cash. An iron ranger can't scan your boat to determine whether to let you in or not.

And what about hand launched craft like float tubes, kick boats, and kayaks? If I have my float tube in the back of my truck under my camper shell and there's a quagga mussel inside the nylon lining around the inner tube, who is going to scan me or check me - and how? I've taken my float tube from lake to lake while it's wet on many occasions. People who operate these lakes are going to realize this real quick - and I don't see good things in the future for hand launched boats as a result.

My gut feeling as it pertains to boats is that there are going to be major lake closures throughout the state in the near future. Water means too much to too many people to give a damn if people get to fish on it. I hope some creative solution can be worked out, but I cannot think of any right now. Clean and dry is a good idea, but how do you dry tubing that runs inside the boat - or check it for that matter? As this comes on to more water district radar screens, they will be thinking very carefully about all possible ways for the mussel to be transferred.

It's also worth noting that the DFG site reports that 90 out of 80,664 trailered boats that were checked at CDFA border stations were quarantined, which I assume means they had the mussels. If that number is greater than zero, water managers will be fearful. If they are fearful, they will go to great lengths to protect water supplies.

I don't know why Casitas is getting all the attention right now, other than that that particular district may have a lot of money or resources to throw at the problem. But what they do will no doubt serve as a baseline for other districts, especially those with less money to research and analyze the issue.

Maybe in the end it will come down to some kind of cost benefit analysis where lakes look at how much revenue they get from boating and camping and compare that with what it would cost them to mitigate mussel infestation. But if your recreation revenues are being used to mitigate mussels, you're out a whole bunch of money. So I don't see how this is all going to work out.

Shore fishing anyone? I'm not joking...