It's so sad to see the rapid decline of the lakes the missus and I have fished for so many years. Today I'll talk about our favorite smallie lake. This lake was a real gem. About a thousand acres, clear water , full of life. The bottom was mostly rocky, from pebbles to bowling ball size rocks and they looked polished, the bottom was so clean. Water was so clean you could clearly see the bottom down to fifteen feet. Turtles, schools of fish were common. Schools of juvenile smallies thirty or more would swim past us. During the spawn there would be hundreds of smallie beds every where you looked. A couple of areas of the lake had good LM fishing as well. The missus picked up her PB LM there, just over seven pounds. Seasonal camps dotted the shoreline but much was undeveloped.

 Around Covid we started to see a change. More people, more building ( big mcmansions, as we call them) water quality took a nose dive. We just fished it this past week. This is what we saw.

 First thing we saw before we even hit the water was a sign at the launch for jet ski rentals. Not good. The water was very stained. We could just make out the bottom at seven feet. The bottom was covered in slime ( best way to describe it) The rocky bottom was no longer clean, it was all covered in the same black slime. We should be in the smallie spawn but we putted along about a mile of shore line and only saw a few fresh beds, maybe a dozen in all, and only two of them had fish on them. We never saw any turtles, only one loon and never saw a single fish swim by. The worst for me was how the shore line has been developed. Camps bought, torn down and replaced with big mcmansions, many with lawns right down to the water . Multiple  Boats, jet skies at a lot of the docks. And as you might guess the fishing was a shadow of what it used to be. I'm not a biologist, but having fished the same waters for most of my life it's easy to see the effect overuse of a water body has on it's health.

 Here's a pic of one of what we call a mcmansion. this one is at least set back from the water a bit. In front of it you can see one of the older summer camps still left. There are probably 40-50 big houses built on this lake in the last five years. I mean really, who needs a house that big.

Thanks for letting me vent.

I hear ya brother. This started long ago unfortunately.

40 years ago, when my Grandparents were alive, they owned a house in Boston and a summer place on Cape Cod. We would go down and fish lakes on the Cape. The fishing was amazing! We would seine up live bait when we arrived and 1 pass on the shoreline would give us far too much bait for the day. We would catch so many LMB, crappie, white bass etc...

One day we noticed the green, green lawns flowing to the water's edge.

Next we noticed tanker trucks literally labeled Chem Lawn spraying fertilizer on these lawns.

Then we started seeing these huge wads of algae and started finding dead fish with this algae stuck in their gills. The bait went away and so did the predator fish. It got so we were lucky to seine up 10 or so minnows in as many passes.

My Grandparents have long passed and I haven't been there since. I'm sure nothing has changed. The lawns are far more important than life in some communities.

 

Pertinent.

In my neck of the woods, Deep South, there are fierce battles in the courts with many fighting the developers. Just had an election when the incumbent mayor was voted out because of his real-estate developer background.

My main lake has recreational boaters and jet skiers. I feel your pain. 

GT

The sprawl of vacation homes has been happening for years, you’re just seeing it now in your area. The retirement of the boomer generation isn’t helping. All of us who grew up back when you could enjoy the freedom to hike or canoe anywhere you wanted find it depressing.

 

Back when I frequented the Adirondacks city folks started buying it up around the time of 9/11. The locals were ticked, they could no longer afford apartments as rental prices skyrocketed, they had to live elsewhere.

 

Covid made the Berkshires unaffordable, NY and NJ folks bought up everything to escape. My favorite ponds have seen the fishing quality nose dive since then. Too many retired folks, me included.

 

It's kind of infuriating isn't it. Also very, very sad. Makes me think about The Lorax (the book). 

I used to be able to walk down to the lake and catch white bass until I hit my limit which was 60 a day. Now the white bass are gone and the place I used to fish isn't even in the water anymore and if it was I still couldn't go there because it's owned with a big house on it. 

I'm so sad for you, jb, and for all who've seen their Heavens trampled by people who build huge homes to mostly make other people jealous. If I ever build on my Maine pond, it'll be 900 square feet deep in the woods. My pond is inherently protected by its wetlands on three sides. Only one side is solid and nine houses, all 250' back, have been built. None have grass. They're homes in the woods, as they should be. 

I call houses that are stupidly big "Behold my Glory Homes." In building them, they kill the true glory, i.e. lakes that once teemed with life.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much the typical lakeshore view on Minnetonka. This is just a small stretch of lakeshore within 3 blocks of my modest <1000 sq-ft place.

Now Tonka has 125 miles of shoreline - but parks, restaurants, golf courses etc probably take up 1/2 of that....so figure on 60-65 miles of this kind of image.

I hate hearing this but it seems this deal is repeating itself more & more recently.

While it's happened sporadically on a fairly small scale up here,

I'm hoping to avoid the wildly devastating and more wide spread stuff for just a few more years.

A-Jay

On 5/18/2025 at 9:54 AM, padlin said:

Back when I frequented the Adirondacks city folks started buying it up around the time of 9/11.

I believe it’s 38% of the Adirondack Park that belongs to the public and deemed “forever wild”.  About 2 million acres that (presumably) won’t be developed. 

Among northern natural lakes, classic smallmouth waters tend to have the most desirable features for developers and property owners: Clear water, sandy or gravelly shorelines, and minimal weedy, mucky areas.  But natural lakes age, and nearly all human development accelerates the aging rapidly by greatly increasing sedimentation and fertility, which destroys those same features over time.  While this often benefits largemouth, it can do great harm to smallmouth populations as the feeding and spawning conditions they are best adapted to deteriorate.  The smaller the lake, the worse it gets, and the faster it worsens.  My area of Michigan is dotted with many small natural inland lakes of a few dozen to a few hundred acres.  According to decades-old surveys, some of these once had smallmouth populations, but now are greatly reduced, and in some cases possibly gone.

 

I’ve got a lake house…….

 

sorry, not sorry 

I grew up on a public lake about 7 miles long with a small village town and the lake dotted by cabins, no fences just wide open forest for kids to roam. People with money didn’t want to drive up the mountain as the road back then was dangerous.

Today the road is a highway, the homes are 3 story the village has supermarkets and shopping centers, the lake has changed with more weed beds that get harvested so home owners can use their ski boats etc. The fishing is still good for planted trout and few bass fish so it’s still decent.

My memories of the lake how it was can’t be changed so we rarely go there anymore, it’s not the same.

Time marches on cherish what you have now!

Tom

 

On 5/20/2025 at 10:26 AM, MN Fisher said:

Unfortunately, that's pretty much the typical lakeshore view on Minnetonka. This is just a small stretch of lakeshore within 3 blocks of my modest <1000 sq-ft place.

Now Tonka has 125 miles of shoreline - but parks, restaurants, golf courses etc probably take up 1/2 of that....so figure on 60-65 miles of this kind of image.

 

But who would want this? Why do people want to be right on the water? I understand wanting lake front property. Heck, I would love lake front property. But I want the home back from the shoreline a good way, and then I can walk up to pristine, beautiful natural shoreline. I don't understand it. 

 

In my neck of the woods, nature took it's revenge a few years ago. During covid, the Sanford Dam gave way, which caused a levee to break, and it all lead to major flooding. It drained the lake (which is a tragedy) but flooding destroyed dozens upon dozens of lake front homes. And while, I understand that displaced families is maybe a greater tragedy, I couldn't help but feel a sense of justice upon seeing all of those homes gutted and condemned. 

15 minutes ago, IcatchDinks said:

But who would want this

People with more money than sense.

Some of the owners of lakeshore on Minnetonka

 

Cargill and MacMillan families (6-7 different families/houses) - Owners of Cargill Inc - one of the largest privately owned companies in the world.

Quite a few members of the Twins, Vikings, Timberwolves, Wild

A number of corporate Presidents/CEOs/CFOs of Minnesota based companies including General Mills, 3M, Target, Best Buy, Hormel, Land O'Lakes

And various other people who've 'made it big'.

 

Somewhat on the same topic. Worth a watch...

 

 

 

Here’s a few pics from our place, we haven’t caused any decline to my knowledge and I studied wildlife/fisheries and forestry in college . Dogs like it 

 

Deer and turkeys and groundhogs and squirrels and skunks like it 

Here are some views from the bottom looking up toward the house 

not my dogs in this picture, just ones that run around and want petted

one could probably make the argument that livestock pasture or frequently mowed lawns in neighborhoods are more damaging to wildlife habitat 

Sadness for sure @jbmaine! Hang in there. And keep fighting the good fight!

 

All of the lakes around me are man-made reservoirs built and controlled by the NE Game and Parks. Cannot build houses on them, so that helps a lot. And NEG&P has done a good job engineering and designing. They have even "renovated" a few local lakes that were full of Zebra muscles. They do stock a lot of fish, including LMB's, some SMB's in select lakes, along with walleye, pike and Musky.

 

In our neck of the woods, if you can see 2' in to the water, that is considered very clear(!). We get lots of moss and green scum throughout the year.

 

Biggest issue we deal with is fishing pressure and those who like to keep everything they can to eat.

Thanks for the replies and kind thoughts everyone. We appreciate it.