Friday, September 4, 2015

Beautiful lakes can turn ugly, fast!

Two years ago, I kayak fished Greenbrier Lake, a small lake near my home close to Nashville TN. As you can see from the photo's, the water was nice, clear with a few water lilies and milfoil. The water lilies seemed to add to the fishing fun because you could just imagine a big bass waiting to blast out of the water.

I made a return visit to this lake just a few weeks ago and was shocked to find that the lake was completely unfishable, if that's a word.
Check-it out! Who needs a kayak when you can almost walk across the lake. It's obvious that there's too much nutrient rich run off from the surrounding area. When I walked up to the lakes edge, I smelled a septic odor. No doubt, there's a lot of biological activity going on here and it's not fish.
I didn't even remove my kayak from my vehicle. Who would fish in these waters? It's amazing how fast a fairly large body of water can fill up with algae. Two years ago, there were a family of beavers, a great blue heron and many ducks.
Today, I didn't see very much wildlife, except for these ducks. It looked like one had to play Coast Guard Cutter to make a path through the muck! This is what happens when a lake goes bad.
Generally, this is what happens when too much fertilizer is used on lawns and animal waste run-off. The nutrient rich waters become chocked with algae. I hope this lake makes a comeback because it was such a beautiful lake! Anyway, check-out some of my most beautiful lake, river and bay maps. 









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