Someone stated here that my lake (Beaver Lake, AR) is experiencing an algae bloom.  So, I looked it up on the net and Wikipedia describes it as a rapid increase of algae in the water system which turns the water green or red and depletes oxygen supply from the water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_bloom

This explains why I have not seen very many shallow water bass this summer.  The only time I saw bass consistently in shallow water was early spring.  After that, it varied and now the bass are definately not in shallow water depending on which location of the lake you are on.

Some friends of mine have caught fish all in shallow water over the past few weeks but that water has been very oxygenated and had less algae.  I would call these "algae free pockets".  There are not a lot of bass concentrated in these pockets.  This makes fishing on a lake as big as mine that much harder.  You have to preselect places to target based on terrain and the chance of it not having algae enriched water.

There are a ton of trees along the shoreline on this lake.  They were left for fishing when the lake was formed and they can offer great structure fishing.  Now the trees are COVERED with large amounts of green algae.  By large amounts, I mean really large amounts.  An old trot line about 1/16" thick has about 1-2" of algae on it.  A tree limb 4" in diameter now looks double that with algae.

So, has anyone ever experienced this on their lake and how did the lake do the following spring?  Did the algae bloom return?  My guess is yes.  This makes bass fishing a lot harder because most of the bass stay very tight to deep water no matter what the shad population is doing.

Florida had a real bad drought this past summer.Some parts may have gotten about the usuall quota of rain, but western central was real bad.Our lakes were about 2 feet below normal and small ponds/lakes like the ones I fish were around 3 to 3.5 feet below level with water temps surging to 94 in some spots.A lot of these place experienced extreme weed growth with vegitation completely taken over and growing in areas where it never did before.Other places got these algae blooms.5 out of 7 of the small lakes or ponds that I frequently fish are completely trashed now.The fish simply will not bite.When I do catch some they are skinny with bulging eyes.This is in places where I was in fact impressed with how fat the bass were.Now I have to drive further and further to find new places to fish beacause all my local ones are done,at least until it clears up.

  I do not know how to fight it or still catch fish undere these conditions.The oxygen levels seem to be real low and I wonder If this is killing any of the baitfish also.

Very few of the thousands of types of algae are harmful to fish or the water. There are a few that are toxic such as the "Florida Red Tides", which is a salt water algae. Another potentially harmful one is the blue green algae, "Cyanabacterium". Most are harmless and do not affect the stability of disolved oxygen. The green color comes from chloroplasts, and photosynthesis takes place all day just as with the other plants. Although they will use oxygen at night, their production during the day offsets and exceeds their usage.

The largest problem algaie is the filamentous algae, but this is only because gums up our baits due to its stringy nature.

George....you know too much! ;D

Thanks for the input.  I don't recall seeing the lake this way last year.  There is so much algae build up on everything.  It should die off this winter.  Do you think it will return next year?

We have filamentous algae on Varner every year from April thru June in the shallows. I fish it at mid day when it is producing oxygen but don't fish it early and late. I can remember fishing a tournament a few years back with a guy I had never fished with. I told him fishing was slow but I knew a spot where we could catch around twenty fish in about a foot of water at mid day. When I showed him the spot he thought I was crazy because it was algae about a foot thick growing on weeds from the bottom all the way to the surface.  We caught over twenty fish all from the algae with wacky rigged senkos and trickworms that we fished on an open hook in the thickest algae we could find. We just put the bait in the algae and shook it until a bass a bass would strike at the movement in the algae. There was no way the fish could have even seen the bait the algae was so thick. We caught over twenty fish out of the algae and the second place team only had three fish and everybody else out of twenty to thirty boats had one or no fish. This type of algae will hold fish just like weeds and its best at mid day when it is producing the most oxygen. At night I have done better fishing just outside of the algae and think the fish get out of it at night and move back into it during the day.                                                            Now on the other hand I have seen algae blooms in the late summer early fall at Lake Lanier that stain the whole lake and turn most of the lake a greenish color. In this case its not clumps or strings of algae that you see growing on objects but just a water color change. The fishing gets tough and the fish are not very active in shallow or deep water. I have done well in this situation by treating the lake like it is turning over and fishing very shallow or in the back of creeks or up rivers. I am not sure of the exact type of algae that produces this problem but when I thought it was an algae bloom once before I had it confirmed by a biologist on the lake and was told that this type of algae bloom would have an effect on the fish. So , it just depends on the type of algae and in the case of filamentous algae time of day.

My lake was almost emerald green about a month ago.  It's still green now.  We have submerged trees all over the lake.  EVERY tree is covered in thick masses of this algae.  I've even seen it on the boat ramps.  Tire tracks from trailers were visible.  Boats left in the water have this stuff covered on the props, hull and anything in the water.  Old trot lines or dock lines are covered.  Even rocks and silt are covered in this stuff.  I've seen a shallow silt bed with turtles in it and the turtles had it on their backs.  When I say everywhere.....I mean everywhere.

Yep, this stuff makes a nice goo on your bait.  You have to burn a crankbait to get it off and sometimes you still have to pick it off with your hand.

I'd say fishing has been VERY tough this summer and fall.  There was a two week pattern where I was on fish.  We were catching limits and after that...nothing.  I've seen schools and schools of shad in the back of coves during mid-day with the sun blaring but no bass.  They were in deeper water at the mouth of the cove or about halfway back.

I'd say this has definately effected fishing.  The good news is, the bass do seem healthy.  Every one I've seen in the last month has had a decent belly on it.  They look like they have been actively feeding.