Help / advice on clearing weeds required

Yorky

Sorry to post here but I hope you might be able to help.

There are going to be water safety and swimming classes at a local lake next week so a small army of volunteers went down to carry out a clean-up. The problem this year is it is choked with weeds; only a recent phenomenon apparently due to the fact that it is not being used as a reservoir any more(?).

We used rakes, forks and a makeshift grid attached to a ladder on a small boat and got loads out but it really was tokenism as only the top couple of feet were cleared. For next year, they are going to be sprayed which can only be done in October apparently and then barley straw placed at various places in the lake to prevent re-growth.

For next week though we really need a quick fix. Is there a purpose-made device which could be attached to a boat and dragged around the small area we need to clear? This is in a rural area and would be the only means of learning about water safety and to swim for many children.

Any advice/comments would be greatly appreciated as we are quickly running out of time and may have to cancel the event.

billyk

you should try sticking a very big brick to the end of a rake
the extra weight shifts a lot more weed

adonis

you should probably go through waterways ireland..
i think they are a government body that regulate all of that stuff, they do work on canals local to me...thats their area...
i dont think the standard fisherman swim cleaning tactics will be of any use to u!
tight lines

polished

Here at our fisihing club we've investigated a number of options over the years, one thing that seems to work well is a heavy chain dragged between 2 boats and every couple of links in you add bolts ( the one without heads that you can add nuts to each side, leave the bolts about 5 inches long and insert into the links and tights nuts each side.) works quite well. You have to lift them out every so often. Hope this helps.

Blub2k4

There is a device I saw a few years back which is basically like two blades on a hinge butterfly style hung on a chain.
You throw it out and drag it back. The blades open out and the chain is attached at the hinge so when you drag it back it does a scissor action of sorts.
I dont know what they are called, but definitely remember seeing them in books.

I just googled it and they are called weed cutter blades, there's a picture here.

uch

Best thing we found when we were cleaning swims was to get a lenght of steel tube 1" x 1" about seven foot long and weld a flat piece of steel about five feet long at a 90 degree angle to the handle in a 'T' shape, then attach to a rope or chain and drag along the bottom from a boat or from the bank if you dont need to get out too far. This works best as it cuts the weeds at the base of the plant on the bottom of the lake. only problem is that the cut weeds float to the surface and need to be collected then. This will keep the weeds down for about a week to ten days depending on the depth of the lake.