Shigellosis Or Toxic Microcystis Cyanobacteria Algae?
Well, the plan today was to take the family up to Sandy Beach (also called Shannon Beach) in Winchester to have lunch and swim and I would get some time out in the kayak to find some lunkers. But Sandy Beach was fenced off and closed due to some kind of Shigella bacteria outbreak that's been causing dysentery. The ranger strongly urged me not to put the kayak in.
Ok, change of plan, we took the kid to the Arlington Reservoir (filtered and lightly chlorinated in the isolated swimming area), had lunch, and afterward I headed toward Spy Pond to see what I could find. I found signs warning against a toxic microcystis cyanobateria algae outbreak that has resulted in a warning not to come into direct contact with the water... WTF is going on with our lakes?!?
I said f#$k it, I'll try not to touch the water much and launched anyway.
Not the Spy Pond of old. Water was cloudy and had a strange blue-green hue to it. It smelled funny. I found a dead catfish floating in the water. No more weeds.
That all said, the bass were biting. I first tossed a 5" Senko with a 4/0 hook (watermelon, green flake) and was getting bites, but couldn't set the hook. I switched to a 4" Senko with a 2/0 hook and started catching some fish, though still getting many more bites than I could set hooks. Not sure if they were small bass, timid bass, or some other species like yellow perch tugging on them. The Senko would come up partially pulled off the hook or missing entirely. I caught 6 fish in total over about two hours, nothing huge, all in the 8-12" range.
Then around 6 pm I heard a long tire screeching coming from route 2, followed by a blood curdling crash I could hear clear across the lake that made my own life flash before my eyes. Then the sirens came. I paddled over to see what happened. Apparently only one car in trouble, and the driver taken away in an ambulance. I saw them pulling the car away from the guardrail (that was the big crash sound), and it looked like seatbelts and airbags would have been sufficient for the driver (I hope so). At that point I called it a day.
What is going on with our lakes is that too many people do not care. When is the last time you went fishing and didn't find any garbage.
Now multiply that times a couple of million, add the various chemicals that are constantly dumped from passerby's to companies etc and it really is no wonder that most places are not swimable, have fish you can't eat etc etc.
Some areas I fish along the Merrimack look like a trash dump..not just litter but you can't stand on ground that isn't litter some days...and it isn't just the Merrimack. Too many cities and too much disrespect or ignorance about the waterhseds.
wow i better look when i type. a lot of spelling errors on my review. anyways what is going on with the lakes and ponds this year?whats the cause?