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Pothole Lakes Turnover


fsabac

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I am wondering if over this last week our lakes have been turning over. Symptoms: murky water when the algae had not had a chance to bloom and iffy fish-catching. I was at Cardiff on May 7th and Muir on May 13th. Muir looked pretty awful, with brown muck floating about. Anyone else had similar experiences other places? I am tempted to stay put for a week (is that enough?) until the water settles.

I wish I had taken my camera at Muir: Geese, Loons, Pelicans, and others doing cute birdy things in low sunset light.

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I am wondering if over this last week our lakes have been turning over. Symptoms: murky water when the algae had not had a chance to bloom and iffy fish-catching. I was at Cardiff on May 7th and Muir on May 13th. Muir looked pretty awful, with brown muck floating about. Anyone else had similar experiences other places? I am tempted to stay put for a week (is that enough?) until the water settles.

I wish I had taken my camera at Muir: Geese, Loons, Pelicans, and others doing cute birdy things in low sunset light.

 

Not overly uncommon once you get a descent wind going and the colder water sinks as the surface water warms.. It should not last more than 10 days to settle out. It will happen again in the fall for about 10 days as well.

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I am wondering if over this last week our lakes have been turning over. Symptoms: murky water when the algae had not had a chance to bloom and iffy fish-catching. I was at Cardiff on May 7th and Muir on May 13th. Muir looked pretty awful, with brown muck floating about. Anyone else had similar experiences other places? I am tempted to stay put for a week (is that enough?) until the water settles.

Not sure about the other lakes as the waters still pretty cool with ice just coming off recently but Muir is definitely starting to turn. The water has been open for quite a while, is rather shallow and with the 25c temps lately and the strong winds mixing it, you can see decaying matter making it's way to the surface. I don't believe Muir takes as long to turn as most lakes because of it's shallow depth, maybe give it another 4 or 5 days.

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At Muir, the fishing was great on Saturday night, with quite a hatch coming off after sunset. I went out again last night, and the fishing was a bit off; only stocker seemed to be caught by anyone at all. There was a bit of a hatch around 730, but it didn't last long enough for my fishing parterner to get ready and onto the water.

 

I did notice lots of floaties, including dead snails, into the middle of the lake.

 

QT

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I've been told before that Muir is too shallow to stratify, therefore no turnover. I've also been told that the constant mixing from the aerators would prevent stratification in such a small, shallow lake. Could be wrong of course, but I think the floaties you're seeing are primarily due to heavy wind and wave action only. I've often seen floating snails and vegetation in various lakes, in mid-summer, after a couple days of blowing a hoolie.

 

Are you sure the snails were all dead? Did you pick any up? I think I've only seen 2 kinds of floating snail shells in a lake; those with snails slithering along the underside of the surface film, and those that were empty, presumably already eaten by the fish or birds. I have read that fish will sometimes have a belly fuIl of snail shells, but I've seen them suck the meat right out of the shell with my own eyes.

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Rick,

I have personally held fish with crunchy bellies. That felt very much like snails. Another possibility is clams, there are small ones I dug out of the mud at Dolberg. Sucking the snail out of the shell must be quite a sight, I'll look more carefully around.

On the water mixing, that is an interesting theory. I wonder if the two aerators would suffice to keep the whole lake mixed all winter long. I have seen stuff float about after strong wind, but Muir on Sunday looked different. Some of the plant material I was picking up should have been happily rotting on the bottom, that is why I have difficulty blaming it on the wind. Maybe it is all those sinking lines dragging on the bottom...We would have to go out with thermometers attached to a line to figure this one out.

Florin

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Lakes are found to have turnover during the spring and in the fall. The lake turnover occurs during spring season when the ice is separated off from the lake. The sun melts the ice in the lake and warms the surface waters till the waters become denser at 4 Degrees Centigrade. The dense water tries to move to the bottom and makes the less dense water to move up to the surface. This causes the water column to get exchanged in the lake. The advent of spring winds, the warming/melting of the ice layer at the surface and the much smaller temperature differences in the water column, winds and storms are able to create a spring turnover with little difficulty. Lake stratification is not required to turn over a small body of water. In fact small lakes turn over more often than larger lakes dually to the wind effect and this can happen throughout the summer several times with just the right winds. As the waters continue to warm, and the surface layers are forced to one side of the lake the rotation of water begins again and the endless cycle continues. Mother Nature has performed her timeless and never-ending task, adding additional life-giving oxygen to the lake and readying it for the onslaught of another season of fishermen.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I was out at Dolberg over May long and while it was an awesome trip, there were way fewer fish caught than in my other experiences out there.

 

A few of the other anglers were discussing the possibility of the lake turning over. It was quite murky with more plant matter on the surface than I've ever seen. The fishing turned right off on Sunday and Monday (nobody was even getting the cute lil stockers that day), but again in my limited experiences at Dolberg the fishing can and does suddenly turn right off. My brother says "that's trout fishing" lol.

 

Regarding crunchy bellies...I have another possibility for you Florin! Last year in the fall I landed my first decent Rainbow out at Dolberg. The fish had a seriously crunchy belly! It was actually a little disconcerting heh. Unfortunately I had to keep it (damaged and badly bleeding gills) and when cleaning the fish out, I discovered that it was literally full (and I mean full, like coming out of the throat full) of these huge (twoonie-sized) Predacious Water Beetles. I love bugs but dang those things are creepy... a few of them actually got up and started walking around after they'd been in my fishy friend. I need to find a pattern to imitate them because if they are keying in on those beetles again and I'm out there, I'd like to be prepared.

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Thanks, Aaron, I will keep the information in mind. On the one occasion I sampled the bugs at Dolberg, I did not get beetles, but of course that does not mean much. Backswimmers can be crunchy, and they have a big cousin (huge) with a nasty bite. Avoid getting your hands near one of these monsters! The water beetles, including the ones you mention, are more abundant and harmless to us. I have a few beetles I tied simply as oversized versions of boatmen/backswimmer patterns. Lately, the Prince nymph has become my favourite boatman/backswimmer pattern; they also work in larger sizes (#8-6) sometimes.

Florin

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