algae blooms

[Capt Cormorant]

One of the reservoirs I fish has a bad algea bloom all summer. Can someone tell me more algea blooms and fishing? Is the algea thru the entire water column? Is it only in the first 5ft or so? I believe the pics are close to what I'm fishing.
This reservoir has been closed in the past to blue-green algea.

Thanks!

[Ketchn]

not sure about there but in this part of the world pea soup water means there are huge shoals of threadfin shad close by .
from what I was taught when we pond raised fish ,we fertilized the water right before or at 65 degrees .
we used a secchi disc to obtain the pea soup clarity that micro organisms and fry depend on to thrive .
not just shad rely on algae and the chain of life starts with the tiny things .
when i go to lakes i dont know well , i google earth them in real view mode and look for soup green coves .
now is this to much information you might ask ? well if you are a professional crappie person i bet you might just say YES Ketchn and please Stop it ...

[Capt Cormorant]

The thing is the bloom covers the whole the entire 1600 acre reservoir. Half of the reservoir is 20ft or less the other half is 100ft. The bloom forms in May and stays thru October.

[Ketchn]

some algae blooms are deadly to fish . not sure about what you have going on there my friend .
i saw one small lake do something like that that was overpopulated with skinny small crappie one year .
killed the fire out of all kinds of fish it did ....
about a year later it was flat full of BIG crappie .

[BobC]

Ketchn has a good point about some algae blooms being deadly to fish, and not good for humans as well. This summer a couple of ponds around my neck of the woods were ruined for fishing because of it.
Bob

[FurFlyin]

That green slimy looking algae is not good. That looks to be cyanobacteria.

The good algae is plankton. It is a plant mixed through the water column. It makes the water appear brownish green and grows as deeply as sunlight can penetrate. An increase in phytoplankton causes an increase in zooplankton. Zooplankton is classified as animals. From microscopic on up in size. Shad eat both phyto and zooplankton.