Has algae killed the bass fishing in my local pond?

[plawren53202]

So my "home water" is our HOA pond.  3 acres or so, typical HOA type pond, bowl shaped, not very deep, no real dam to speak of.  Very little cover, except that in the shallower end some thick stalked weeds grew in the summer.  Last year I had quite a bit of success especially fishing those weeds.  All generally small, but it was a good way to entertain myself and only 2 minutes from front door to water.  Even managed to catch some into January, until it got really cold.

 

This year, the water has been much clearer than last year.  Water was never muddy, per se, but always had a slight stain.  My guess is due to the fountain that used to always run (maybe stirring up the water enough to loosen a little silt?).  They always turn the fountain off when it ices over, of course, but for some reason they didn't turn it back on after ice out this year.  Now, the water is gin clear.  And, the moss/algae/slime growing up from the bottom has completely taken over the whole pond.  It is so thick you can't hardly fish anything without coming out with a goo ball of green mush every time.  And, it forms big mats on the surface.  In fact, the shallow end where the "good" weeds grew last year is also on the downwind side of the pond, and now it is just completely cased over from bank to bank with thick green slime.

 

So needless to say, the bass fishing has been nonexistent this spring.  I have tried every possible solution to fish the slime: fishing a drop shot to ride my bait over it; weedless rigged fluke and Senko; and a topwater, even though probably still too early.  Several trips out now, not a single bite.

 

And interestingly, yesterday I was trying throwing super light tackle to see if that would help.  Again, not a bite from the bass, but I did catch three good sized bluegill.  That was unusual because I have never seen anything other than tiny bluegill in the past.  The bluegill are the main forage in this pond, so the fact that I for the first time caught a couple of good sized ones makes me worry that it's because the bass aren't eating them any more.

 

Anyone else experience anything like this?  I really hope my usual evening-after-work spot isn't dead.  There are not a lot of great publicly available fishing options in my area to begin with, so that would really stink.

[scaleface]

I fished a sub-division pond that was covered in that gorilla snot and duck weed . Caught a bunch of big bass with a Riverside top Gun , "now its called the Yum Swurm " rigged weightless and a big heavy offset flipping hook . It went over the stuff well . The big hook added a little bit of weight to aid in casting and was strong enough to bring in a 6 lb bass enveloped in lbs of moss . The bass dont even fight , they cant . Just cast right on top of the stuff . I was even able to plop it in place, move it a little pause in holes or less thick areas . The hits were spectacular as the big bass would blow up through it . 

[fishballer06]

Its possible that your water turned over. Hence the floating debris in the water column. Give it two weeks and it will likely return to normal if that was the case. 

[Paul Roberts]

You are describing filamentous algae. It isn't toxic and won't kill fish. It is practically the first thing to start growing in spring; Actually starting at ice-out. It starts on bottom then gets buoyed to the top via gas bubbles. Bass love it, when it floats forming mats.

 

But, having SO much of it, might indicate over-fertilization. Could be in the soil (old agricultural?), inlets or runoff, or being an HOA pond, maybe the lawns are a little too perfect in the neighborhood. The concern there might be winter-kill, if the pond is very shallow and ice cover, with snow on top, and cloudy skies, stay too long. Winter-killed fish sink, so you have to be there at ice-out to really know the extent of it.

 

This said, winter-kill is fairly rare, esp in MO. My guess is, your bass are still there. You'll have to deal with the snot-grass. Tough when it coats the bottom and all the weed and wood stems. There is such thing as too much of the stuff. You'll learn to love it when it mats.

[plawren53202]

1 minute ago, Paul Roberts said:

Could be in the soil (old agricultural?), inlets or runoff, or being an HOA pond, maybe the lawns are a little too perfect in the neighborhood. 

I'm quite sure that is the case (too perfect lawns).  I deal with that non-fishing as well, I'm just not a lawn guy and a lot of the people in our subdivision have Augusta National quality grass going.

 

The stuff is matting up in one end of the pond already.  Last time out I tried throwing a fog on top of it for a while, but no takers.

[Paul Roberts]

@plawren53202 The side it's matting on is probably the downwind shoreline. The downwind shore will collect heat too. Could be dyno! Wouldn't hurt to, inadvertently, drop in a dead bush or two there, since there's little cover. One bush could wind up a magnet. Add overhead cover, and this time of year, heat, and... potential carnage zone!

[WRB]

The fountain is a aeration system to reduce the effects of a thermocline when the water temps rise above 75 degrees. With clear water any bass beds should standout and be easy to see. What is the water temps?

Sometimes algea gets confused with pollin blooms that occurs in the spring. If knowone is taking care of your pond the water quality could suffer and radical measures incorporated by unskilled HOA members.

Good luck.

Tom