River grass. What is this shit?

[Dickeymotto]

There seems to be a huge increase in aquatic plant life in a few Utah rivers this year. Not sure why, but this stuff is everywhere and I think it is hurting the fishing. I have a few favorite spots on the Ogden River where I know I can pretty much always catch fish. I went to them today and they were completely overgrown with this stuff and there were no fish anywhere. I seriously walked all around the stretch of river to see if I could spook out a few from hiding and there was nothing, it was like a ghost town. The lower Weber river is completely covered in it as well. What is it, why did it suddenly pop up everywhere, and how do we make it go away?

(sorry crappy phone pics)

[dfinn]

Low flows and warm temps

[skifishbum]

by hurting the fishing do you mean hurting the health of the fisheries
or hurting your ablility to catch them?
I xerascaped and cringe when the chemlawn truck shows up to pump fertilzer into our storm water system which drains into....
hows your grass? or are you part of the solution?

[sb]

I see the elephant snot algae in small streams this time of year.

We have tons of river grass most of the year and its some of the best habitat for small mouth bass in this area.

[Dickeymotto]

by hurting the fishing do you mean hurting the health of the fisheries
or hurting your ablility to catch them?
I xerascaped and cringe when the chemlawn truck shows up to pump fertilzer into our storm water system which drains into....
hows your grass? or are you part of the solution?

By hurting the fishing I mean that in my normal go to holes that usually have plenty of fish in them, I couldn't find a single one when this stuff is present. The only places I've been able to catch fish this year on the Ogden is places where there isn't any river grass present.

[skifishbum]

so it sounds like the fish have moved from your go to spots and you found where they went probably helped your fishin in the long run
the fact that utah lake is fucked right now and has a dog and potentially human killing toxic algae bloom is hurting my desire to fish there.
don't think it has resulted in any fish kill yet
takes a lot to kill a carp

[neckdeep]

Couldn't tell you what species you got there but it looks like the same stuff that's pretty common in our smaller, slower rivers. It grows anywhere the water is slow enough to deposit silt. Shoots up at the end of runoff and then it dies and washes out by thanksgiving, most years. The Teton is full of the stuff from top to bottom. The trout in the upper Teton slough depend on the weedbeds to raise the water level and provide cover. Without the weeds, the slough is nothing but shallow mudflats and no fish. Up here, weeds don't hurt fish but can slow down fishing action. For example, the lower Henry's below Ashton gets weedy by midsummer and that's when the fishing gets slow because the fish are content to hunker down in the weeds and eat nymphs. Good luck running a nymph through that mess. The guides crowd customers into the lower Henry's from May til mid-July and mostly avoid it like ebola in August. The fish are still around. Google "macrophytes" if you want to know more.

[steved]

Agree with neckdeep...but could be Didymo...not sure if it is exactly without close scrutiny hard to judge...but it's bad stuff, sucks oxygen out. Not sure if anyone's testing anykind of treatment/cleanup? Different levels of threat to trout obvious with plant/weed species....$.01. Fwiw I have seen a shallow pond or two ~40yrs ago with it full of whatever, yet where springhole existed...trout were living, but couldn't have been many...due to limited area of clear water/bottom.

[steved]

I xerascaped and cringe when the chemlawn truck shows up to pump fertilzer into our storm water system which drains into....
hows your grass? or are you part of the solution?

Well put....we need citizen's to think...along with local/Federal officials and agencies...
__________________________________
Giving your waders & boat/raft a chlorine bath when leaving these waters prevents any chance of spread from it/them. Waders with feltsoles have helped to spread it here in the EC. PITA but it works...gotta do it...and should be a tax writeoff!! - something to let governments know of, but $$$ should be put into eradication by governments...instead of the hot, new water park.

[sb]

Seen a report on local TV about increasing nitrogen in small streams and if not corrected eventually will make water undrinkable for fish and humans.

They indicated it was from runoff due to agricultural spraying/treatments.

[steved]

Yeah scottyb....the forever-ending pesticides/herbicides...and in the homeowner's choice of anti-grub warfare....plus the watered down EPA...will it never end.

Everybody that's not convinced of the water-quality problems should take the time to do some paddles on their local rivers... Might influence enough people to make themselves useful besides commuting from home to work and back.

[kennethgweston]

It's look like as green grass.