Poor vegetation trend

[Ratherbfishing]

This year has been an odd year.  It seems that, at least on most of the smaller bodies of water, vegetation has been sparse or non-existent.  Albeit, we have had various heavy rains and fluctuating temps throughout much of the year but nothing really all that out of the ordinary.  The fish, when I can find them, seem healthy enough but I wonder how much longer this can go on.

 

On one body of water (Emiquon-just off the Illinois River) where Asian and Chinese carp are present it has largely become, a mud hole.  Where there use to be matted vegetation along the shore and stands of flooded cattails, now there is almost nothing.  I think this can be attribute mostly to the carp but in other locales... I dunno.

 

Has anyone else noticed a similar trend where they are from?  It worries me.

[T-Billy]

Weeds flourished here this year. I think it was the lack of high water last spring. Our lakes never got much over normal pool. The lake closest to me has the least weeds. This year it had more in it than I've seen since the 80's. I had my best year ever on that lake by far. 

[QED]

Here at my local mountain lake (NorCal), the weeds were thick during the summer, but have mostly died off now.  But we are having a toxic algae bloom and a "natural" fish die-off so conditions are different but not better. 

[Bankbeater]

Most of the ponds and small lakes I fish had a lot of vegetation this year.  Later in the summer it seemed to get thicker, but that may be to the water levels dropping some.

[papajoe222]

Last year, as in some previous years, my local lake was 'treated' for weeds prior to Memorial Day. The result was no weeds until mid September.  Fishing was tough for many of the locals because they relied on the weed beds for the majority of the fish they caught.  In reality, the fish were still in those same general areas, but were using other forms of cover. That cover was sparse compared to the abundance of weeds, so it would hold multiple fish. I could pull five bass from a deadfall that I'd likely only catch one from when the weeds were present.

Bass are great at adapting to their changing surroundings, but still relate to structure, weeds or no weeds.

[Bluebasser86]

Weeds have been very sparse in many lakes that I fish where they normally are healthy. Some are due to the state spraying them. Others I have no idea. Water willows are the biggest concern as they provide great shoreline habitat and prevent erosion but they've been absent from many lakes that they're usually plentiful. 

[Chris Catignani]

I've seen plenty of grass is just about every lake in Tennessee.

[GreenPig]

All normal here in central Ga.

[gim]

Weeds really exploded in growth here around early June because of warm, sunny days.  By July, they were sunburned near the surface and they dialed back some.  That actually helped the fishing here.  We had and still have very low water leves here because of the drought.  They're pretty much toast here now that the water is about 50 degrees.

[Bankc]

Weeds have been crazy thick this years at my local lake.  I've never seen so many.  In fact, I have rarely seen any in the past.  It's a water reservoir, and I think they've been treating it in the past for weeds.  But I don't know.  All I can say is that this year the water in that lake has never been cleaner, and I've never seen so many baitfish just cruising the bank.  Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a new trend, because it's got a long history of being a terrible lake for bass.