munchman

[townsend8512]

In a previous thread, I mentioned our uneventful trip up to Squaw Lake.
For one entire week the the fishing was completely turned off. Everything.....panfish, walleye, bass, northern and Musky.

One item we noticed was the massive amount of a blue/green substance on the surface. It was very thick and I/we have never seen anything like it before.
Is this what turned off the fishing? I was told that this is an algae (if this is correct, what kind of algae and what causes it?)

Again, interested in any feedback as this was new to us.
I admit that we are not Ken Jackson-caliber fisherman, but hell, we're not that bad!

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Munch

[Mark Benson]

munchman:

There have been some pretty bad blue-green algal blooms this year on some of our lakes... I know I had gotten a report up just after someone had left to come up here on Squaw and had had a pretty bad report from a friend who said he wasn't going back until that bloom was concluded. With our current weather conditions and my desire to chase muskies, I picked Squaw for last Sunday to check out.

There is still a bloom going on, but not to the extent that my imagination had portrayed my friends report and ultimately yours.
We were able to put a very nice smb in da boat while casting for 'skies, 20 inches and pushing 5# and was caught by a buddies son. We also had a pretty nice fish move off a whopper plopper at the last second in very shallow water making our eyes light up right at sunset, but after going back on him right at dark, it was still a no go. We fished from 2:30 p.m. til dark and water temps through the day were 56*-59*. I know that in Rob's last report, he mentioned that lakes were greening up again with this warm spell.

At issue here is years of continual septic seepage and homeowner yard fertilizing and in some cases it may still be going on. I have a customer who has talked about how bad its going to get if no one pays any attention to it and it certainly looks like his theory is showing signs of becoming real. Wished I could tell you more, and if you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

Mark