New Type of Vegetation I Have Never Fished

[OCdockskipper]

My home lake is a HOA controlled lake and for the past decade had a pretty competent guy in charge of weed & vegetation eradication.  He would typically focus his eradication efforts on anything in 5 feet of water or less, so the homeowners would think it looks nice, yet let some of the bushy pondweed in the 7 - 10 foot depth areas grow over the summer for the fish.

 

This year, we have a new young man in charge of weed eradication and the end result is different.  All of the bushy pondweed is gone and the only vegetation is what I would classify as snotgrass.  In the shallow areas, it grows in a thin strand with a bubble holding it to the surface.  In the deeper areas, it kind of blooms not unlike other vegetation.  When your lure comes in contact with it, it engulfs the lure with green slime.  It hasn't taken over the lake, but there is alot of it covering the shallow areas and blooms of it in some of the deeper areas.  This is the first time I can ever recall having this much of this type of vegetation in our lake & I have some questions about it.

 

With pondweed, the bass would cruise above it or on the shallow edges in the low light and then swim through it or park themselves in it as the sun got higher in the sky.  That hasn't seemed to be the case with snotgrass.  I am struggling to figure out how the fish relate to the snotgrass in various conditions.  It does seem like they will swim along the deep edge during low light conditions, but it almost seems like they don't like to sit or swim in it like they do with pondweed.  I don't know for sure because of how difficult it is to get a lure through the gunk without ending up with a string of salad hanging off of your lure.

 

For those of you who have to deal with snotgrass on a yearly basis, how do you find it affects the bass compared to other types of vegetation?

[RoLo]

 

The plant you refer to as 'snotgrass' sounds like it might be 'spirogyra". 

If so, it's actually algae (not to be confused with chara), and can be a horror show for lure delivery.

On the other hand, Pondweed (potamogeton) is a non-invasive plant that's beneficial to largemouth.

 

To your question: snotgrass (spirogyra) may not be harmful to the bass population,

but is certainly a bane to lure presentation. IMO, the bigger problem is the loss of pondweed.

BTW: Pondweed is called 'peppergrass' in the south; and called 'cabbage' in the north (favorite of pike).

 

Roger

[JustJames]

I followed
Same problem here in Canyon Lake, thanks to Ron (my wife’s friend) who provide POA the Alum treatment. This is the second year I can’t find no weed whatsoever down to 6-8 feet. I have quit fishing a lot of techniques, fluke, weightless worm or chatterbait.
Prior to this I would see a lot of bluegill hang out in shallow and plenty of woof pack cruising and hanging along the weed line boiling everywhere. Since last year, I still see tons of bluegill, some wood packs up to 8-10 bass that cruise pass but never stay around.

[Team9nine]

No pic, but what we call snotgrass around here is filamentous algae, of which the Spirogyra @RoLo mentioned is one type. The best way to deal with it fishing/location wise that I’ve found is to largely treat it like it doesn’t exist. Except in the shallowest water where it might create opportunities to position fish, it doesn’t do much otherwise. I’d focus instead on other breaks or breaklines that exist.  Those things will now take on greater importance, at least initially. You will still get fish cruising shallow through these areas than can be caught, but they typically keep moving unless there is something else to pause them. Hard to fish baits through the shallowest areas, but things like frogs do a decent job. The other thing is to look for small openings that you can sometimes exploit between the shoreline and the snotgrass.

[TnRiver46]

I hate that stuff . We get it way down deep in the dead of winter on highland lakes. I set the hook every time thinking it’s mister big 

[OCdockskipper]

6 hours ago, RoLo said:

 

The plant you refer to as 'snotgrass' sounds like it might be 'spirogyra". 

 

BTW: Pondweed is called 'peppergrass' in the south; and called 'cabbage' in the north (favorite of pike).

 

Roger

It may indeed be spirogyra, the images I googled looked similar to what we have.  Many of those images showed the spirogyra in huge mats in shallow areas, we don't have it that bad.

 

The bushy pondweed I refer to is actually Southern Naiad, coming from Lake Havasu & the Colorado river.

[Koz]

It definitely sounds like a summer algae bloom. We get that down here, but when it gets windy for a day or two it tends to bunch up and come to the surface down in the wind blown ends of the lagoon. That's when it gets fun because when you drag a frog over the top the bass come crashing through the gunk to get it.

 

Of course, you think you're pulling in a 5 pounder but when you finally get all the gunk off the bass is barely two pounds.

[MIbassyaker]

Yeah, that sounds exactly like a filamentous algae.

 

There are several species of Potemogeton we call "cabbage" up here. The best stuff tends to be the Large-Leaf or Clasping-Leaf varieties, which can grow in expansive underwater forests, reaching up to the surface by late summer from 10 feet down or more:

 

This stuff is a food-chain wonderland, supporting lots of invertebrate activity at multiple depths, and in turn baitfish & sunfish...and in turn bass and pike. I look for any beds of cabbage whenever I'm out on fairly clear natural lake. It can be fished almost any way you want...the leaves and stalks are pretty brittle, so baits rip free fairly easily.