Lake Winnebago is infected with VHS virus — viral hemorrhagic septicemia.
To prevent the spread of this virus to other instate lakes the DNR has recommended washing boats including the hull, bilge and live wells.
This past weekend Lake Winnebago had the annual Walleye Weekend event in Fond du Lac.
There were 300 boats participating in the fishing tournament.
Volunteers brought in tucks with washing equipment. One truck had a mixture of bleach then the second had fresh water.
There was no fee for this.
Out of 300 boats participating in the walleye weekend fishing tournament, only 5 used this free service.Only 5. I first learned about this when I had the TV on this morning. I was watching the news and had channel 26 on. This is WGBA – NBC 26. They covered this story. The reporter was Claudia Hickey – phone 920-490-2672. I called the station and she was not in yet however the person in the news room was able to tell me that that company who provided the trucks with the equipment was:
Valley Hydro-Excavation, LLC
Contact: Jeff & Jackie Rindt
Address:
W1902 Town Hall Road
Campbellsport, WI 53010
Phone: (920) 533-5927
I next called Valley Hydro, got Jeff’s cell number and verified the information was correct, only 5 out of 300 boats washed their boats. The rest drove on past.
The company, Valley Hydro-Excavation, LLC, and its owners volunteered their time and had to turn down business to b e available for this event. I called and spoke to Jeff and he said he did this out of his hope to help prevent the spread of the VHS virus.
To make matters worse, they had a group of youth volunteers that were part of a little league and football team to do the work. The kids were also very disappointed.
