Water murky with algae

[Knuguy]

We were on a small lake in Muskoka yesterday and the water was a greenish yellow with pollen, I don't know what sort of pollen it was. I am more familiar with pine pollen in the spring/early summer. Fishing was quite slow. maybe that was due to water temp and the bass moving into their 'fall pattern'( I am not sure what that means). Maybe the water murkiness also had a big effect. See the attached pic with my 'whopper,"

[Disco]

That greenish yellow looks more like an algae bloom and not pollen. IMO

[mykola]

Looks like an algae bloom. Looks like a nice day too! For me, bass are deeper 15-45fow roaming in schools, maybe deeper rock piles off points near drops. I hooked one jigging for whitefish in 50 fow and it skyrocketed up to jump but hit my boat square o the bottom with a thud and the hook came out.

[sabmgb]

definitely Algee bloom. must have some farming going on around there and getting run off. Unusual to see it this time of year, we get it in the summer when the temps are high, hard on the fish I believe.

[Knuguy]

I guess you are right about algae. It had the same granular 'texture' as pile pollen. I am surprised because the lake is mostly surrounded by crown land and has just 3 cottages. In addition, it on the shield with very limited farming and the water temps are a bit cooler. That does not sound like good conds for algae at all. I have been there numerous times during previous summers and the water has been quite clear.

[mykola]

It’s also happened in the middle of Algonquin Park too, on some very big and popular brookie lakes. I believe they’ve reopened those lakes recently though, it was so bad they had to close the lakes to camping.

[Knuguy]

Thx for your comments, Nicholas
I vaguely remember the Algon lakes being closed due to algae. You mentioned trout lakes---so were the lakes closed in the spring or during the summer. Supposedly algae mostly blooms during the summer. Did the park determine what caused such a bloom given the lack of agri runoff or cottages?
 "Looks like a nice day too!"  Yes  indeedie doo! It was a great day out yesterday---warm, sunny, fairly calm, lots of color. I really enjoy fishing with my step daughter and I am glad she caught the biggest 1, about 4 #. As they say, fish are a bonus.
There is very little structure in this lake so that wasn't much of an option. Do you think the algae would have had a strong negative effect on the fishing? 

[Chuck Enwinde]

Hers's an article from Dickson Lake in Algonquin that was closed a few years back for a particularly large algae bloom.

https://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/news/2015/2...loom_update.php

[Disco]

Blue Green Algae Blooms occur often in the early fall just as they do in summer. They can even occur in winter if the right conditions happen.

As far as pollen I don’t know of any large quantity of fall pollen except rag weed.


https://www.ontario.ca/page/blue-green-algae

[Knuguy]

Thx for the links, guys. They were quite informative.

Disco----By now I am quite convinced it was algae. I think you can see why I did not think of that as the cause. I also hadn't seen pollen in the fall before though.

Chuck----The cause in Algon still seems a bit of a mystery. Many 'possible' causes listed. I might try googling to see if there were follow up studies. Relieved to see that the fish were safe to eat. An earlier linked report advised against eating!

[Disco]

The small lake my family cottage is on had a Blue Green algae bloom a couple of years ago the end of October also. No industry at all there. A huge factor is people with cottages cutting down trees to have grass and fertalizing that grass. Also poor circulation of the lake water like when you have a fall drought with very little rain fall. The part of the lake we had our experience on has a beaver pond and creek leading to this part of the lake. We had pretty much no rain leading up to the algae bloom. The creek dried up and the bay had little to no circulation of water. Also the bay has several areas of lawns. This created the perfect of conditions I as understand it for a bloom.

[Knuguy]

The lake we were on has just 3-4 cotts but also might have poor circ. There is barely a trickle coming out.

[Longshank]

pile pollen is the worst


ya, we have the same event going on every now and then....usually see it start near a cottage or campsite and most likely from flaks not using biodegradable soaps for dishes and wasing......doesn't take much

we swithecd to a non phophorous soaps years ago for that reason

[Knuguy]

Here is what MNR said about the bloom in Algon:

"Possible causes that have been considered are;
Above average insect populations with resulting inflow of nutrients from frass (insect excrement)
Organic inflow from a broken beaver dam or swamp
Cooler than average summer temperatures
Above average spring run-off
Above average rainfall
Above average pollen production
Die-off of organisms – zooplankton
Nutrient inflow - bird guano

Could an algae bloom occur again?
Could an algae bloom occur again?
Since the cause of the bloom is unknown, it is impossible to predict whether this will occur again. Generally lakes that do not have anthropogenic nutrient sources (e.g. farming or intense shoreline development) do not see a bloom recurrence."

I am having trouble imagining the first cause listed!

No evidence of beavers at the lake at all. Did we have a cooler than avg summer or above avg rainfall??

I guess MNR is saying that was a freak, inexplicable, occurrence. I guess this one is too.

LS---I assume you meant pine pollen. I have seen severe cases of that elsewhere in the early summer.

[Jstubbs]

I think the lower water helps it along as well with warmer temps probably.

It happens every year at Fanshawe lake in London - not supposed to swim in the water or eat the fish there lol

Fun to catch still and release lol