Any major lakes froze over ?

[first2fish]

Was wondering if anybody knows if nolin,rough,green,or any other lake around that size are frozen over. Hoping they are to kill off some of the algae creating the blooms in the summer ! Later jc

[fishinfreak]

I would think so. They were last time we got a cold snap like this.

[NEWTON]

Nolin has ice up around the dam with very little open water went across the dam about a hour ago

[Moveon]

I hate the algae too but it's part of the lake's ecosystem.

If you want to stop the Algae from Blooming get rid of any Phosphate in the lake water. phosphate can be put into the lake by man or by nature from the soils rocks that leach phosphate into the water from the rocks and soils.

Ice over the water won't do much more than cold water unless it's covered with snow as the light can still penetrate thought clear ice to a certain degree.

Cold may not kill the algae but it might severely retard it's growth.

The strip pits I fish are full of Algae and it's takes off and covers the entire shoreline out to 10 ft in some of the bigger pits by the time it's 80 deg F air temp and the surface water's temperatures get up into the 70's.

Not much to do other than to put an algaecide into the water to try to kill that stuff. But that stuff kills other things as well so you have to be careful how you use it if you do use it.

Copper Sulfate will kill the Algae for a while. It's best to use it early in the year before the Algae really takes off. I Then reapply it every so often to keep the Algae down.

I use to use it in a 6 acre lake to keep the Algae at bay. I'd take a small john boat and two people. One guy would get into the front of the john boat and hold a burlap bag of Copper Sulfate over the front of the boat into the water while the other guy operated the gas motor on the back of the boat. We would drive around the lake crisscrossing the entire swimming area to spread the Copper Sulfate into the lake. A couple bags of that stuff would do the job for the rest of the summer.

Of course if you went swimming in the lake afterwards you might come out with GREEN Colored Hair. LOL

It didn't harm the frogs, snake and Largemouth Bass or Sunfish that were in the lake. They survived and flourished as I would see them all the time. I use to scuba dive in that lake and would swim along the bottom right above the muck and observe crawfish swimming off after they detected my presence above them. Of course even with the bottom undisturbed the visibility down there was very limted. I could only see a ft or two in front of my face. And if my fin's kicked up any of the mud it got worse. It might take a few hours or a few days for the sediment to settle back down onto the lake bottom. It was very very fine clay like silt that covered the lake bottom out in the middle of the lake. The lake was no more than 25 ft deep in the deepest spot where a hole was dug up by the diving boards and under the swing or trapeze area. We didn't want people to jump in and hit the bottom. I found a lot of money (small Change) that fell out of people's swim trunks when they dove off the diving boards or swung off the trapeze platform. I'd dive out there every month or so and find change on the bottom. Of course this area was harder clay where it was dug out and had some steep sides on the drop off area. The deeper area was not that big and only covered a small area about 40 ft square right out in front of the diving boards and right under the spot where most people let go of the trapeze and fell into the water below.

I see how Largemouth bass must see when they cruise the bottom hunting for crayfish and other small fish. Only I don't have a latter line to help me sense movement under the water. I can see how a bass might see a crank bait as a fleeing crayfish swimming backwards along the bottom stirring up the silt into a cloud of muddy sediment.

Remember that phosphate is one of the key Micro Nutrients at the very start of the food chain. Algae in a lake means that it's fertile and can produce bigger fish.

You should go onto www.facebook.com and check out the Friends of Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife Area Page. There are some huge bass caught in this lake by one of our own members here on fishin.com. I'm talking about the guy in the Red/White Triton bass Boat. LOL. He might be out there fishing that lake right now.

Was wondering if anybody knows if nolin,rough,green,or any other lake around that size are frozen over. Hoping they are to kill off some of the algae creating the blooms in the summer ! Later jc

[walleyemaniac]

I think Moveon is right about that. Algae feeds the critters that the big critters eat. That aside, I do hope for good ice on my home lake of Barren, and some of the other lakes I like to fish. It is my understanding that ice alone can help diminish large baitfish populations. Not sure if that is due to decreases in phytoplankton and algae, or just more cold than the little buggers can survive. I do know, that piles of dead shad on the bank mean hungrier fish that are more apt to eat my lure!!!!!!!!!