Cloudy Water?

[chuckinduck]

For the past two days the water in the spearing shack has been really cloudy. This lake is usually crystal clear. I've sat there and hypothesized as to why it'd be cloudy, but quite frankly none of them make sense.
Hypothesis 1: Run off is dumping silt into the lake and clouding it up.
Dispelled because it was 10 degrees all weekend, and monday it never broke the freezing mark. Secondly, two creeks of the three creeks flow out of the lake not in, and the one that flows in is at the far end of the lake.
Hypothesis 2: Our 12" decoy is stirring up the bottom.
Dispelled because the fish doesn't ever move.:lol: :lol: I might spear him tomorrow if he doesn't switch gears.
Hypothesis 3: I accidentally spilled gods nectar (beer) into the hole on sunday morning, yes morning.
Dispelled because I drank it back out. Kidding, it all disipated fast, and the I've checked holes in a 100 yard radius, all of them are cloudy too.
Hypothesis 4: Its been sunny for three days, and algae has builded to ungodly proportions
Not completely dispelled, but I was a B student in Bio II also.
Hypothesis 5: The lake is turning over
Dispelled because I think that only happens in the fall.
So can anyone answer this, or do I have to call mythbusters?

[Mtnman198]

I have had the same problem the past few days (actually over the weekend), I am going with the cloudy water run off theory. I have seen where the lake rises with rain or snow caused by run off (when ground is froze, which it was prior to thursday's rains) then the lake receeds and leaves air between ice and water ( around shore) Then cloudy water while spearing. Sunday was worse than Saturday for me.

Also, I thought I read that the lakes turn over twice a year, or maybe I thought that after looking into a cloudy hole. I think the turn over is in the fall. Other than that, how is the fishing?

Oh yeah, I also spilled something in the hole Sunday, but it was Coffee. Sounds like you have more fun!!!!

[William H Bonney]

The lake I've been fishing has been stained also,, but this is because of run-off, for sure. Not exactly sure why its "still" stained though. Water was clear on the first trip of the season, after some rain and run off, its been stained ever since. Funny thing is, it hasn't really hampered the fishing at all. I'm also pretty sure lakes will turn over twice a year.

[chuckinduck]

I wouldn't mind it if I were just fishing, but when my whole sport depends on the ability to see the fish, thats where the problems start. I guess it could be runoff from the water that rushed in last week. But the ice was clear as a bell on sunday. Monday was bad, as was yesterday. Here is hoping tonight will be better.

[MAttt]

One of the lakes i was fishing in Oakland county had the same problem
a couple weeks ago, I think it was the rain and the relentless wind
blowing the 50 ft open water edge,and no frost in the ground at the time had somthing to do with it.
It just cleared up in the last few days and the fish are on a better
bite now.

In the fall I seen a certain lake turn over and clear up, then it warmed
up and rained and turned back.
It really screwed up the fishing in the fall there this season.

[Mtnman198]

The past few years I have had a couple days where the lake was cloudy, but we have also had rain and wind during those times as well. I did notice my holes for tip-ups (when placed on the back side of a point or structure were much cleare then my spearing hole. Obviously I am sheltered from any flow in this area. Maybe I should move the shack, funny thing is, it is boring looking into greenish brown water but the action has been better then in the clear water.

[CaptainNorthwood]

I think lakes turn over twice, once in the spring and once in the fall. Whatever it is I hate it. Me and Chuckin were sitting there last night and he had a pike slam the jigging spoon we use for an attractant and we never saw the fish......we released it and packed it up for the day. Hopefully things have changed!!

[Mtnman198]

Wow that sounds cloudy, how deep of water are you in and how deep is your decoy? I could see the decoy okay at about 4 to 5 feet but it was still pretty rough. Hows the action been for you guys since the water color changed.

[CaptainNorthwood]

Decoy is at about 3 1/2 feet, water is about 6 or 7 foot. I got out there at 5:30 last night and could just barely see the bottom, had about a 26" pike slide in at about 4 feet and it was very hard to see and it was about 1 hour before dark. I tried to get some video of him but it was too cloudy. He hung out for a few minutes just watching the decoy and another smaller pike came in 3 feet down. Anything deeper than 4 feet was almost impossible to see. This lake is usually gin clear too. We've been seeing lots of fish along with a big catfish thats been cruising thru the hole the last couple nights. Hoping things change for tonight!

Wow that sounds cloudy, how deep of water are you in and how deep is your decoy? I could see the decoy okay at about 4 to 5 feet but it was still pretty rough. Hows the action been for you guys since the water color changed.

[Cooley]

If you have an under water camera,you can see how thick the
cloud is from the run off. I was fishing in 25 ft of water & the cloud
was from the surface to 8 feet down,past that it was Clear!
And this was in the middle of the lake.

[scottyhoover]

thats interesting cooley, another reason i need a camera. Cloudy water seems to happen every year we have a freeze/melt cycle like we've had this year.

[chuckinduck]

Whatever it is doesn't seem to affect the sightings, it just makes it much more difficult to see them.

[fire-tiger]

I wondered about these stained water spells along time ago and posed the question to a DNR biologist who told me that run-off combined with fast temp changes will cause weed kills. The weeds in turn decompose quickly turning the water into that green tea stain.

Went out to spear yesterday and found the water with about 5' of visibilty.
An 18" sucker and a 6" fire-tiger spoon brought in two 30" fish that I passed on. I'm going out in a few miutes with a can of butter beans in hand so if it is still stained today I"ll at least be able to silouette the bottom.

[fire-tiger]

A follow up to the cloudy water theory.

One of my older boys came out to spear tonight and reminded me of the other factor for the stained water. As well as temp changes, the thickenig ice during a cold snap reduces UV and causes more vegetation to rot. We noticed it tonight when ever the decoy tried to hide in the few standing weeds that there were. I would give him a pull out of them along with ALOT of slime off the weeds.

Other than that the fishing was slow until about 5:45 when there was a 15 minute flurry of tip-ups and a few on the decoy. Did not spear any but my son kept one 30"+ off the tip-ups. It was one of those bites that is boring for three hours and alot of fun for a few minutes.

Visibility increased from 5' last night to 7' tonight.

[William H Bonney]

I wondered about these stained water spells along time ago and posed the question to a DNR biologist who told me that run-off combined with fast temp changes will cause weed kills. The weeds in turn decompose quickly turning the water into that green tea stain.


That makes alot of sense. Are you sure it was the DNR you asked?;)

[fire-tiger]

Yes it was the DNR, but it was a long time ago.

[CaptainNorthwood]

Tonight sucked for us......did not even see a pike. Visibility improved slightly. Lots of activity on the ice tonight, kids running everywhere, people drilling all kinds of holes with power augers........had one guy set up his shanty 10 feet from the spearing shack, he proceeded to drill 3 holes about 30 minutes before dark. Needless to say tonight was a waste, well let me take that back.......its always good when your in the shack, fish help though:evil:

[fire-tiger]

Cleared up a little more the last 24. Visibility to 8' but still stained.

Thought it would be good tonight with the front that blew in,but it was the slowest night of the week. Two little ones showed at the decoy, one very large bass (6#+) caught and released from a tip up. Tomorrow is another day.