Although I have only fished it about a dozen times, I live about a mile from Lake Mission Viejo & have been closely following the story of the Golden Algae bloom they had there recently.  For those who don't know, it is estimated that over 90% of the fish were killed by the bloom, including dozens & dozens of DD Largemouth.  An attempted trout stocking on Monday resulted in the stocked trout dying almost immediately.  This world class fishery has been devastated.

 

My question involves something my wife asked me, how long does it take for a bloom to occur?  Was this something that happened with no warning or are there signs hours, days, weeks before hand that point to a coming bloom?  I believe this is relevant for Lake Mission Viejo since the homeowners pay quite a bit of money to manage that lake.  if I understand correctly, a biologist is part of the team that handles the day to day activities there.  Is this something a biologist should have caught or does it happen so fast there is no stopping it?

 

I don't ask in order to point fingers or blame, but to know more & possibly help the people who manage my home lake.  They aren't biologists, but are on the water every day and I believe the more they know, the better prepared they would be to combat a bloom before it occurs.

Same exact thing happened in lake alisal here in solvang.

Are you aware if they had any advance warning or did they just wake up one morning to dead fish on the shore?

Laguna Niguel lake was also fighting algae, it turned out to green, not yellow.

Yellow algae is rare out west, someone may have emptied their gold fish bowl into the lake...

Tom

Is yellow & golden algae the same thing?

 

From what I have read, Texas has been battling Golden Algae for years & had the most information on it.  Arizona had some issues with it in a few reservoirs & urban ponds over the past few years.  However, all of the information I find is about what it does, not if there are signs prior to a bloom.

I was actually planning on taking a trip to Alisal Ranch this Spring. Is the entire lake wiped out from Golden Algae? Thanks

No not wiped out its still fisable but you have to clear the alge off your line and lures all the time and it gets pretty bad after a few hours.

Welcome to the forum.