Dying Grass Weeds

[fishking247]

how do you guys tackle this? the aftermath of hurricane sandy blew a lot of dead vegetation around which was already beginning to die off and it is covering the shorelines and patches in the middle. the pond is about 100 acres with a maximum depth of 6-8' most of the pond is 2-3'. i have read that bass do not like dyine vegetation

[whale]

Fish do not like decaying vegetation because it consumes to much oxygen and can produce higher nitrogen levels. If it starts to smell bad it could lead to a fish kill. if its a closed pond, and the decaying vegetation is covering over 1/4 the cover, I'd assume some fish loss. If the pond was on my land, I'd get a 1 or 2 hp pump and run it through some 5 gallon bucks full of bio beads or plastic pot scrubbers to cycle the nitrogen and shoot the water back into the pond waterfall or fountain style to oxygenate water. if the water was fresh, the bass would love the cover.

[fishking247]

interesting. as of yesterday i saw no dead fish and no smell. just a bunch of weeds that were brought up from the bottom floating all over the surface.

[whale]

If the decaying vegetation was just move from the bottom to the top, no additional was added to the mix then it shouldn't be too bad. If you don’t smell a rotten egg type smell, the pond will return to normal in time. In the short term, the mix up might have depleted some of the dissolved O2. You might want to put a small fountain to help aerate the water. The most common reason bass would leave or not bit with this type of cover lack of O2 or too much N.

[fishking247]

a large spillway is helping to citrculate the water around. the fishing has been tough here most likely due to the dying vegeatation.

[Paul Roberts]

Dying vegetation alone doesn't tell you too much. Adverse effects would come from a host of other things that MIGHT be manifested by dying weeds. Weed beds commonly die off in th efall, some die in mid-summer as conditions change.

In some ponds I've fished "tobacco cabbage" (Large leafed Potemageton) dies off by July and is replaced, or more accurately "succeeded", by milfoil. The ponds I frequent now bounce year to year between milfoil and coontail, depending on amount of sunlight as milfoil needs lotsof light whereas coontail does better with shade. An overcast year and the milfoil dies back and the coontail comes on strong.

Broadly speaking, remaining green vegetation is something to look for in fall bc they, most simply, show you the most environmentally stable locations in the water body, those less affected by the temperature drops that come in fall. This is most consistent a pattern in the North where seasonal transitions are more intense. And it tends to be a deeper water pattern bc that's where the temperature stability is most apt to be.

In your water, is it happens to be overnutirifed (possible) with high temperatures (>85) (not likely where you are this time of year) then maybe the fish are adversely affected. But I would guess not and suggest you not concern yourself with such negatives. Certainly explore, looking for remaining live vegetation keeping with the general autumn changes, but since there's a catastrophic event on top of it, bringing what I assume is floating vegetation pieces, you might be able to exploit that. Since it's so shallow, cover will be primary for your fish. I be checking areas already known to hold fish and concentrate on the thicker matts, likely fishing edges with a falling plastic or jig or punching the matts. If dead weeds are blown over a good area, it could be a gold mine.

One thing I consistently found on small waters in the fall was the bass coming out of the dead and dying (but still rooted) weedbeds, holding just outside them -like the outside weedline -the more convoluted the better. I'd fish a jig-n-pig in falls and smooth sweeps and the bass were on it. All summer I'd fish the beds themselves, with cranks, plastics, and spinnerbaits, but this fell away as water's cooled and weeds died. Then the j-n-p would come on really strong.

[Ratherbfishing]

I am not a biochemist but the increased carbon dioxide may be offset somewhat by any additional rain that fell into or is feeding the lake. Plus, while bass may avoid areas with low oxygen levels, it does not mean the entire lake is adversely affected and the fish can move around as necessary. As water temperatures are probably falling, the cooler water is placing less stress on the fish (unlike the horribly hot summer most of the U.S. encountered). I wouldn't be overly concerned.