Lake Norman suffers, like many reservoirs, from habitat loss due to the reservoir aging process. The fishery was impounded almost 60 years ago and over time standing timber has degraded, silt has accumulated and a group made up of North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Lake Norman Marine Commision, Duke Energy and Charlotte Water have stocked triploid grass carp to eliminate aquatic vegetation. This has resulted in very limited fish habitat available within the reservoir.
The Major League Fishing Fisheries Management Division and Minn Kota joined forces last year to tackle improving habitat on reservoirs just like Norman. At REDCREST, we completed the first Minn Kota habitat restoration project of the 2023 season.
The project was supported by the KVD Foundation which generously donated $5,000 to directly purchase MossBack Fish Habitat for North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commision. MossBack Fish Habitat is a long-time supporter of the MLF FMD and they doubled VanDam’s order to provide $10,000 in product for the event.
VanDam said about the KVD Foundation donation, “Our reservoirs need help, they need habitat and we are providing a solution that lasts forever.”
The product was on display during the REDCREST expo and used to teach the local community and the 24 boy scouts who were earning their fish and wildlife merit badges about the benefits of artificial habitat. Following the expo, NCWRC took the MossBack product and will be deploying it this summer in Lake Norman. We look forward to seeing the product go in and sharing the GPS locations for each of the structures.
The trio of Minn Kota, the KVD Foundation and MossBack Fish Habitat did the same in 2022 at REDCREST on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees and we expect to continue to the tradition in Alabama in 2024.
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