Water Clarity Any Better?

Has the lake cleared up from all that rain a month ago and the algae blooms?

It’s been windy the last couple times I’ve been out so its hard for me to say. It is somewhere in between I’d say. Not gin but not mud. Sorry I’m not much help.

grubson wrote:

It’s been windy the last couple times I’ve been out so its hard for me to say. It is somewhere in between I’d say. Not gin but not mud. Sorry I’m not much help.

That’s ok. It’s something to go on at least. When I was up there about a month and a half ago it was the brownest I’ve ever seen it.

Not really. We got a bunch of rain the last two weekends also. We got 4″ of rain on Aug 19th and again a few good downpours Aug 24-27. Still a good stain to it but no algae anyway.

Water temp?

The lake has been getting murkier as the amount of zebra mussels has decreased, and this is a good thing.

There are probably a decent amount of guys that never fished Mille Lacs prior to the zebe explosion in 2011 and the water becoming gin clear that are going to think the water is murky. In actuality the lake is moving back towards a water clarity more resembling what it was prior to 2011.

Note: I used the term “water clarity” instead of “water quality.” We’ve been conditioned to believe that the clearer the water, the higher the quality it is. This isn’t true in a lot of cases and it definitely isn’t true when it comes to Mille Lacs. Water that is filled with phytoplankton and lots of zooplankton as well as other nutrients and food sources for the bottom of the food chain is by it’s very nature going to be murkier. That type of water is exponentially higher in quality than the gin clear water of recent times.

When you see gin clear water…realize it’s lifeless, dead, and not a good thing for lakes like Mille Lacs.

It’s interesting to see what’s happening at Winnie right now. 2018 is for them what 2011-12 was to Mille Lacs—the explosion.

Jake Jacobs wrote:

Water temp?

A hair under 70 as of this morning on the North side.

Zander Nordby wrote:

The lake has been getting murkier as the amount of zebra mussels has decreased, and this is a good thing.

There are probably a decent amount of guys that never fished Mille Lacs prior to the zebe explosion in 2011 and the water becoming gin clear that are going to think the water is murky. In actuality the lake is moving back towards a water clarity more resembling what it was prior to 2011.

Note: I used the term “water clarity” instead of “water quality.” We’ve been conditioned to believe that the clearer the water, the higher the quality it is. This isn’t true in a lot of cases and it definitely isn’t true when it comes to Mille Lacs. Water that is filled with phytoplankton and lots of zooplankton as well as other nutrients and food sources for the bottom of the food chain is by it’s very nature going to be murkier. That type of water is exponentially higher in quality than the gin clear water of recent times.

When you see gin clear water…realize it’s lifeless, dead, and not a good thing for lakes like Mille Lacs.

It’s interesting to see what’s happening at Winnie right now. 2018 is for them what 2011-12 was to Mille Lacs—the explosion.

I’m probably not going out on a limb by assuming you are primarily thinking of walleye when you say this. I’m no expert on this but the smallmouth boom seemed to happen as the water got clearer and everytime the lake goes dark the bite shuts off. I agree with what you are saying that stained water holds more nutrients but I’m wondering if that will effect the smallmouth in the future as that is why I go to Mille Lacs primarily. Also, why are there less zebra mussels and how do you know that?

Sorry but I have a really hard time with this water clarity stuff. I have a couple of memories of Mille Lac prior to the Zebra Mussel invasion, one was in late June, probably 1988 or 89, I came up on Banana Reef, just south of Hennepin Island. It was glass calm, probably around 6:00 PM and I could easily see the bottom in 8 feet of water, it was a clear as ever. Another time, around 1993 or 94, it was the 4th of July and came up on 3 mile reef around noon. There were a few guys fishing the edge, I put down my trolling motor and went on top. Now the water was exceptionally clear and I’ll never forget there were hundreds of 19 – 22 inch walleyes schooled up on the top, we finally caught a few throwing shad raps into the school, but the water was crystal clear that year as well. Today I go on 3 mile and you can hardly see down. The rocks that were once a nice tan/brown are now covered with dark green algae, you can’t see the bottom until you are less than 4 feet, and often only on the northwest side. I can’t dispute that the overall clarity is getting better (or now worse) however there were times before the zebs that the water was quite clear as well. Heck I remember in the winter on the flats one could see his lure all the way to the bottom.

Zander Nordby wrote:

The lake has been getting murkier as the amount of zebra mussels has decreased, and this is a good thing.

Just curious, what caused the Zebra mussels to decrease?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Just curious, what caused the Zebra mussels to decrease?

This is typical for any new water. There is an initial explosion, then the population decreases and levels off.

I agree 100% with David Anderson. Seen plenty of water clarity changes over the last 30 years. Nothing to do with zeebs.

Water temp Sat AM was 68. Bite has been fantastic!

-J.

Jon Jordan wrote:

I agree 100% with David Anderson. Seen plenty of water clarity changes over the last 30 years. Nothing to do with zeebs.

Water temp Sat AM was 68. Bite has been fantastic!

-J.

I won’t pretend to be an expert on this but just my observation. I remember back in the late 90’s early 2000 out musky fishing and on calm days looking down 10′-15′ and seeing thousands of perch schooling through. They just carpeted the bottom but I remember how clearly you could see them.

I was just out there 3 weeks ago and again last weekend Labor Day, and the water seemed murkier than earlier in the year.

Water temp was 71.6 and the bite was almost non-existent for me.

Looking at the DNR’s info on ML water clarity it doesn’t seem that different until this year.

http://lakes.rs.umn.edu/#48000200

1995 was really clear, down to 13′. After that the readings were about 9′.
Last year was measured to 10.9 feet.
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/showreport.html?downum=48000200

This year seems really cloudy though. I’d be surprised if it was much past 6′.