Halsteds Bay Pollution

I have never fished this bay but heard it is heavily polluted. Do any of you ever fish it and if so do you eat the fish or just toss em back? TIA

I haven’t noticed a lot of pollution. It does have a history of being one of the least clear bays on the lake, but all of that has been changing in the last few years with all the zebra mussels.

If you’re referring to water clarity, it certainly isn’t as clear as the main water body. That said, water clarity is necessarily a sign of pollution. It more a sign of fertility. Nitrates from fertilizer can and do increase fertility, but it has recently been noted that many clear lakes still have very high nitrate levels.

Another thing to note is that Halsteds is at the head of the overall flow of the lake. It starts there and moves east. I’d think you’d find more nitrates farther down the lake due to runoff from lake homes.

What does all of that mean? It means that you might want to call the DNR to find out actual testing results if they have any. This is all circumstantial armchair biology. Or is it chemistry?

Halsteads bay is no more polluted than the rest of the lake. The 6 mile creek watershed has good overall water quality, which directly feeds into Halsteads bay. Biggill hit on it pretty well. A large portion of water quality impairment in Halsteads directly correlates to the carp biomasss. It was recently found to contain carp levels 12 times higher than the threshold to cause ecological damage. Their is a large scale project in the works to reduce this number through movement limitations and trapping.

Here’s a good link explaining the issues. Looks like carp and phosphorus loading from upstream shallow lakes are the primary causes.

MCWD

Thanks for all the input. Probably gonna try it out tomorrow for some crappies.