Nasty Water

[goose70]

The water in the lower-Severn looked pretty off-color last weekend and I'm hearing reports this week that it's gotten worse. Has anyone found any clear water in the Severn over the past week?

[clancy19]

Jeff,

We checked out the river Monday evening and the water looked horrid. We started in a creek just north of the rte 50 bridge, not the one Epping Forrest is on (shame on me for not knowing) and the water there was un-fishable. Nasty and brown with almost visable solids on the surface. There was also the begginings of some sort of algae like substance that usually doesn't show until the stagnant days of summer. We moved up to Round Bay behind the island and it was slightly better (this is where I caught a small rock and a 20" pick, our only fish of the day). We finally hit Forked Creek where the water looked far better than it did down south, but still slightly stained. If I was gonna look for cleaner water I would head up past Round Bay, but it might not be clean up there either. Hopefully we can get a report from someone up that way.

Clancy

[goose70]

Wow. I wonder what's causing this massive bloom? I know that we sometimes get blooms during certain temp change points in the Spring and Fall. Maybe that's what we're seeing. The other possibility is that a lot of the nutrient-rich water from the Suskie several weeks ago came into the river and has yet to be flusged out.

P.S>- According to eyesonthebay.net, DO levels plummeted to record lows in the Severn in April -- down to summer levels.:(( The May readings just came out and look better, but once this bloom starts to die off, I'm expecting another plummet. Look for Perch, Rock etc. to hightail it back into the shallows when that happens.