Nov 06 2012
John E. Harvey
Fingerling
Member Since :
2008
Number of Posts :
90
First off, I love this property. The fish here are aggressive and fight like crazy, I come here, I fish here , I enjoy myself here. Got to the lake @ 7:30 AM to find the water level down at least 3 ft. which ment slogging through muck and mire to launch the boat which had @ 10 ins. of water in it and torn seats—-ruff! Got on the water that was stained dark gold and headed toward the dam area. Threw cranks, plastic and spinners. Caught fish, though at a very slow pace. 20 plus with 3 or 4 at 4lbs. and one real good fish in the 6 lb. range then pre-released the days biggest fish at the gunwale. Now the worrisome part (besides the boat and lack of water) none of these fish had full bellies nor were they the fighters I have known. As I said, I love coming here and would hate for this down ward trend to continue or to lose the fishery altogether.
Nov 06 2012
Steve Alexander
Keeper
Member Since :
2010
Number of Posts :
415
John,
Thanks so much for the report. I just got off the phone with the landowner and we believe the lake is not receiving the phosphate load it was receiving in years past. The chicken manure that once fertilized the fields has stopped, there are 50% less cows, a huge clover crop this year which ate up a lot of the phosphorous in soil, and to top it all off, no run off from rain to wash this into the lake. The phosphorus is what creates phytoplankton, the phytoplankton feed the bluegill, bluegill feed the bass.
We need rain. lots of it. The owner will be spreading manure this spring and we will be adding brush piles for places for the bait fish to hide.
In most cases finding the problem is not as easy as it was in this lake. We think we know exactly what happened and will be taking steps to correct. I wish they were all this easy.
Steve