Weird Cloudiness In The Lake

[bassin' 4 life]

Have you contacted the state.conservation dept.? Something like this may interest them.

No, I never thought of that.

[WRB]

If the lake freezes over and after ice has cleared a turnover is common, however you can smell a turnover and the bottom debris is usually chucks of floating decayed junk.

What you may have experienced is phytoplankton or zooplankton rising toward the surface. Algae usually turns into pea size lumps and floats on the surface after a few days.

Tom

[Paul Roberts]

Algal blooms can be "natural" although nowadays they are often augmented by fertilizing nutrients flushed in from agricultural or urbanized landscapes. Excessive blooms are often a sign of nutrient pollution. Algae tends to produce oxygen, being photosynthetic, but, too much of it can end up using up precious oxygen after it dies (tends to be short-lived) when oxygen-using bacteria populations develop to decompose the dead bloom.

 

Here's an image of algal bloom along with it's cause: bird droppings on a popular roosting beach for geese and gulls.

[WRB]

Nice photo of green algae bloom. Some types of algea can be deadly, golden algea for example wiped out Mission Viejo lake last year, a trophy bass lake that a lot of folks thought would produce a world record bass.

Tom

[bassin' 4 life]

It usually freezes over, but it did not this year, spring turnover happened last month, and I definitely have not seen any pee sized lumps. I do not have an overhead image of what was in my lake, but I would guess it looked similar to the above picture, just more brown. Maybe.

[Paul Roberts]

Nice photo of green algae bloom. Some types of algea can be deadly, golden algea for example wiped out Mission Viejo lake last year, a trophy bass lake that a lot of folks thought would produce a world record bass.

Tom

That is a satellite image of Lake Ronkonkoma on Long Island NY I happened upon when looking into that lake for a BR member. Over-nutrification and excessive algal blooms have played a detrimental role in the recent history of that fishery, which is now in process of bouncing back with better water clarity and healthier vegetation.

 

It usually freezes over, but it did not this year, spring turnover happened last month, and I definitely have not seen any pee sized lumps. I do not have an overhead image of what was in my lake, but I would guess it looked similar to the above picture, just more brown. Maybe.

"More brown", and time of year, sounds like a diatom bloom -a colder water algae.

 

 

Here's an image of a diatom bloom:

photo by Simon Mitrovic

[bassin' 4 life]

Hmmm, Yeah that looks about right.

[Paul Roberts]

Moderate algae blooms are natural and kick off the food chain.

[hawgenvy]

If you see it again, collect some in a jar and see if you can get someone in a lab to put it on a slide and look at it under a micrscope. Perhaps at a university biology dept or a goverment agency, or if you know a doctor or lab worker. Algae, diatoms, and suspended silt should each look very different.

 

BTW, if you've ever looked at a random sample of water from a pond (microscopically) it's pretty amazing, especially if you collect water ajacent to some weeds. Water fleas, cyclops, hydrae and all kinds of bizare creatures -- stuff at the bottom of the food chain that bass fry eat so they can eventually grow big and fat.

[bassin' 4 life]

Cool, thanks.

[WRB]

Paul's chart clearly show you what was going on, phytoplankton (diatoms) raising towards the surface mid day, brownish olive drab coloration. Green algae blooms look similar, bright green color and tend to stay on the surface as shown in the photo Paul posted.

Thank you Paul for taking the time to post the photo and chart answering this question, very informatitive.

Tom

[J Francho]

Diatoms and phytoplankton are algae.

[bassin' 4 life]

Okay, sorry, it isn't gone, I walked around the lake today and from the other side on a hill I could see lots of it all over the lake. It is not bright green, it is definitely olive drab/brown. Thank you for info.

[WRB]

Diatoms and phytoplankton are algae.

Phytoplankton is a type of algea that Threadfin Shad feed on, the reason I can identify it by color looking at it for decades.

Tom

[Hyrule Bass]

Okay, sorry, it isn't gone, I walked around the lake today and from the other side on a hill I could see lots of it all over the lake. It is not bright green, it is definitely olive drab/brown. Thank you for info.

and you still didnt take a picture to show us? couldve confirmed your thoughts possibly anyways....

[bassin' 4 life]

I didn't have a camera, I tried to get some pics today though, but due to wind I could not get any pictures of it. I'll post the best pic later.

[bassin' 4 life]

Closeups showed absolutely nothing, but to me it looked like tiny hairs with tiny gel cluster things under it that I could not focus on. Sounds weird, but that's the best I can explain it.

[bassin' 4 life]

The stuff is hard to take pictures of.

[Penguino]

Closeups showed absolutely nothing, but to me it looked like tiny hairs with tiny gel cluster things under it that I could not focus on. Sounds weird, but that's the best I can explain it.

That lake looks absolutely gorgeous. Are you still catching fish out of it though?

[bassin' 4 life]

Yes it is. I've seen a couple jumping, have not been able to get out lately though, but once the water warms up the fishing is very good.