Ferdinand State Forest (weird looking water)

The last time I was out, about two weeks ago, I took my four year old and wife down to Ferdinand St. Forest. I could clearly see something out on the water as we were driving up next to the lake. As we got out onto the lake across from the beach area, there was a HUGE area of scummish looking water that was topped off with thousands of fairly big airbubbles on top of it. It was a weird look and I wish I had a camera to get pics. The water was a very green color too. My wife even questioned whether or not we should be fishing in it, maybe it was an algae bloom? I was reading about the bizarre story below concerning the guy who died from swimming in West Boggs and it got me thinking what in the hell I saw that day. Funny thing was, about an hour later it had all disappeared because of a slight breeze.

We let my son swim on the beach down there that day too but he's fine. All these years I've been fishing these Southern Indiana lakes and I've never seen anything like it. I personally blame it on the lack of rain and drought we've had. That water in these lakes just stagnates and doesn't get much movement from the rains. Thoughts? Has anyone ever seen what I'm describing?

Oh, one more question, are the redear biting in the Forestry yet?

that is very weird. i enjoyed fishing there the couple times ive been as there is a lot of different structure to throw around. actually caught a bass that was 21" long too.

I think you are right on. Drought, little rain, and high nutrients spells an algal bloom. Only certain algae species in very high numbers can cause humans any danger. It's a toxin that those algae release into the water that does the harm. Not all algae is dangerous and it's a naturally occurring organism. It's only when things get out of balance that we see harmful results. Normally things are balance in nature and the ecological system maintains it self normally.

One of the main contributors to algae blooms is phosphate. It's what's called a "Limiting Nutrient". By that I mean there is very little free phosphate in the environment. Normally it's tied up in the biomass. But when man puts excessive phosphates into the water there can be problems with eutrophication. Algae blooms that get out of control and then die and are eaten by bacteria when they sink to the bottom of the lake can speed up the eutrophication process. This is the reason why they banned the use of Phosphate in Laundry Detergent in the last 30 years.

The Ameoba at West Boggs is another story though.

[QUOTE=redearhoosier;497760]The last time I was out, about two weeks ago, I took my four year old and wife down to Ferdinand St. Forest. I could clearly see something out on the water as we were driving up next to the lake. As we got out onto the lake across from the beach area, there was a HUGE area of scummish looking water that was topped off with thousands of fairly big air bubbles on top of it. It was a weird look and I wish I had a camera to get pics. The water was a very green color too. My wife even questioned whether or not we should be fishing in it, maybe it was an algae bloom? I was reading about the bizarre story below concerning the guy who died from swimming in West Boggs and it got me thinking what in the hell I saw that day. Funny thing was, about an hour later it had all disappeared because of a slight breeze.

We let my son swim on the beach down there that day too but he's fine. All these years I've been fishing these Southern Indiana lakes and I've never seen anything like it. I personally blame it on the lack of rain and drought we've had. That water in these lakes just stagnates and doesn't get much movement from the rains. Thoughts? Has anyone ever seen what I'm describing?

Oh, one more question, are the redear biting in the Forestry yet?[/QUOTE]