It was Christmas in February for anglers on Jordan Lake.
Some 150 Christmas trees were bundled and dropped in 10 strategic locations by Alabama Power’s Environmental Affairs Stewardship team in an effort to attract fish. The locations were marked with GPS coordinates and posted on the Shorelines app so anglers can fish directly over the recycled trees.
“We wanted to enhance some areas of the lake we haven’t enhanced in the past,” said Mike Clelland, Environmental specialist responsible for coordinating the Fish Habitat Program and Renew Our Rivers lake cleanups.
Clelland and Josh Yerby, Environmental specialist responsible for coordinating aquatic plant management, were assisted by a dozen members of the Lake Jordan Homeowners and Boat Owners Association. The drops were coordinated out of Bonners Point Landing, 9 miles north of Wetumpka.
The company plans seven more Christmas tree drops before the end of March, but chose to begin with Jordan because, Clelland said, “This group is so eager to help and be involved in habitat enhancement.”
Fifty bundles of three trees each were assembled by employees.
Re-cycled Christmas trees, as well as other types of material used in habitat enhancement, provide a place — or substrate — for algae, micro-organisms and macro-invertebrates to attach themselves and colonize. These small organisms and insects attract small baitfish that feed on those organisms, which in turn attracts the larger predator fish, such as bass, crappie and catfish.
Other fish habitat enhancements will be conducted over the next weeks on lakes Mitchell, Smith, Logan Martin, Martin and Neely Henry, and in early summer at Weiss Lake.
